The Day I Broke Up with R.E.M.
I just dumped R.E.M. and this time it’s for good!
The first time I tried to dump R.E.M. was in October of 1994. The air was crisp, the sounds of the alt-rock that R.E.M. had helped influence had grown to the stale melodies of radio-easy music, and R.E.M. released their “rocker” Monster. Some critics talked about how R.E.M. finally delivered their great rock and roll album after years of toiling with the sad songs of the past. The quartet from Athens, GA finally came through with an album that was all parts Document and Life’s Rich Pageant. I placed that damn CD in my Walkman for a whole month trying to like the thing and one day in October of 1994, I told R.E.M. “I need a break from our relationship.”
Two years later and R.E.M. released a new album New Adventures in High-Fi and I bought it, kinda liked the last track “Eloctrolite”, but it salvaged little from an album of blandness and broke up with them again late in 1996. I was furious. I refused to make up again. I did this back and forth for the next three albums. Each album represented music that did not push boundaries or re-invent (or invigorate) modern music. I would break up with the band, get back together the moment their new album came out, break up after listening to each successive album until one day; maybe a week ago, a good friend came to me with a copy of the latest album Accelerate, an album I purposely ignored and refused to acknowledge, and a small endorsement of the album’s content; “It’s not too bad.” I went home, hooked up my headphones to my stereo, plugged in this latest venture into my musical heart, and two listens later, I frustratingly put my headphones down and announced; “Michael, Peter, and Mike (and Bill), I am officially breaking up with you. It’s over. I cannot handle it anymore. I know you are trying real hard and feel each album is a new venture into your maturing sound-scapes of a career, but really. Stop it. You’re no good to me and you’re hurting yourself.”
Don’t get me wrong: R.E.M. is the most important American band since 1980. No band has the influence on American music like R.E.M. Even Saint Cobain admitted that he loved what R.E.M. stood for in his life and, like Kurt Cobain, I believed in the ideals that this band adhered to in their career. But a simple check through the back catalogue of R.E.M. albums before 1994’s Monster displays a greatness that has been left behind. The question I propose is whether to believe that the last 15 years of R.E.M. is cancelling out the loads of influences that the previous 13 years created (pre-Monster? I am a big R.E.M. fan and I refuse to answer the question in the affirmative as I believe the back catalogue of R.E.M. stands up to the strands of whatever music they attempt to generate, but eventually this big band from a sleepy college town must realize that it is slowly becoming just a sleepy band. This, honestly, makes me sad.
What makes me sadder? Take a listen to R.E.M.’s 1st EP Chronic Town and pay really close attention to a song like “Wolves, Lower”. It’s classic Peter Buck arpeggio work, the mumbled lyrics of Stipe, the solid baseline of Mills, and the constant undertone drive from Berry. Then, consider how “Wolves, Lower” becomes a new language for what to expect from a rock song. There is a band recreating the verse, chorus, bridge, chorus pop-rock song on a small label EP. By the time the band puts out its critical staple Murmur, R.E.M. has crushed what to expect from a rock and roll song and it didn’t do it by recreating the patterns of the rock song, but by disagreeing with what we expect a rock song to sound like. They stood above the song and divided the elements and democratized the rock song. At the core, rock and roll is about Democracy. It’s the shared elements of the music that equals brilliance.
Truly, there is no difference to the frame of most R.E.M. songs than there is to a song by Boston, but it’s in the completion or execution of the song; the way the band hovers over each other, no part greater than the other; this gave rock and roll another lease on life. Ultimately, this is what good music does: it engages us not to try too hard and be weird for the sake of being weird, but rather to take what we already know, shake it up, and present it to us in the same form, but the result of hearing it gives another way of seeing that original unit of measurement.
For R.E.M. they gave us a different unit to measure the pop song. It is an ironic placement of what the ‘80s Alternative Music scene did for rock and roll. No one can call any member of R.E.M. a musical trend setter, but you can say that they made us think about what a pop song is supposed to sound like.
Fast forward today and I cannot help but notice that R.E.M.’s songs no longer carry the same unity. Two-thirds of Accelerate is filled with songs this band could do in its sleep. There is not one bit of innovation. They are a skeleton of loose parts; Stipe the “Cult of Personality”, Buck the accomplished rock guitarist, and Mills dressed like a bombastic rock star.
I get it. You’re no longer R.E.M. of the ‘80s. I don’t really want you to recreate Document, but I would really love you again if you realized that at your best, R.E.M. is a band that recreated the standard of how we hear rock and roll and that each time this band releases sub standard music, it reminds us that they are inching ever closer to becoming the new Boston. It’s only a short ride to “More than a Feeling”. Ironically, I would love for them to stop by my house and play me “More Than a Feeling”. I would love for them to rise above the song, sell it to me as something more than what I expect it to be. Maybe this could regenerate my love for R.E.M. again.
I mean, come on. I broke up with the band, but I’m not going that far away. I’m only a phone call, a short letter, or a new album away.
Comments
With all due respect, this isn’t a very insightful post. And I think that’s what I like about it. Why belabor the decline of R.E.M.? Let me put it this way: When I was in college, I once ate canned beans for a week so I could afford to order one of their singles on eBay. Then something about their appeal really died when Michael became enamoured with the camera and lost his perverse innocence. Obviously, with Bill’s departure there was no voice of reason anymore, and the concept of legacy and self-importance seemed to permeate their work like a fart in an elevator. I do think Monster is one of those sloppy-as-sex, brilliant albums that will never be properly appreciated for the grotesque animal that it is, but in light of the last 12 years I find myself never craving them anymore. Shame.
Comment by James Wood from Nova Scotia — February 6, 2009 @ 8:23 pm
I first discovered REM in 1984 with Reckoning and I thought they were a perfect contrast to the overproduced bands of the time. I loved them and hung out for each album. Lifes Rich Pageant for me was their highpoint but each following album released was excellent in their own way.
Over the last 10 years my interest has somewhat waned. New bands have arrived with more inspired & interesting sounds & I find I’m not playing them much anymore.
I saw them live only once at Byron Bay Bluesfest. Thoroughly enjoyed them but I felt they were only going through the motions. This was after “Around the Sun” (which I can’t seem to be able to play all the way through). Accelerate, I havn’t bothered with.
So I read Michael Edlers post and found myself relating to it somewhat. To me they’ve gone the same way as Springsteen. Nothing sounds fresh anymore. Maybe they should have called it a day after Bill left.
Comment by Gaz from Australia — February 6, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
Yes REm was a great and influential band. But i must say bands such as Green day, the Pixies, The White Stripes, Alice in Chains(all whom i love) Metallica, Pearl Jam, Eminem(all whom i detest) have had as much if not greater influence then REM. But was really blows my mind is how can you bring up Kurt Cobain in you article and not even present an argument on how in any way REM was either greater or more influential then Nirvana. Nirvana was influenced by REM but the Beatles were influenced by diffrent bands none of which were as significant or great. Dont get me wrong REM were great and Im sorry you no longer can find it in your heart to love them anymore. But I cant let you ignore the the greatest and most influential band since LedZep, and its Nirvana!
Comment by chaka12 — February 6, 2009 @ 11:42 pm
I agree with your post, although I also loved Monster and New Adventures in addition to all their earlier stuff.
R.E.M.‘s decline has been sad (seemed to start after Bill Berry left) and I too keep buying their albums hoping for more, only to be disappointed.
But I have noticed this to be the case with many of my other favorite bands of the era such as The Cure and Morrissey.
Much like a great athelete after his or her prime, I feel that these bands just might not know when to quit.
Comment by kendrick jesionowski from Kenton, Ohio — February 7, 2009 @ 1:59 pm
“Yes REm was a great and influential band. But i must say bands such as Green day, the Pixies, The White Stripes, Alice in Chains(all whom i love) Metallica, Pearl Jam, Eminem (all whom i detest) have had as much if not greater influence then REM. But was really blows my mind is how can you bring up Kurt Cobain in you article and not even present an argument on how in any way REM was either greater or more influential then Nirvana.”
If you need an explanation for this than you have no business liking music. And, really, the White Stripes haven’t been around enough to influence music as much as R.E.M. has.
Comment by JPH from Missouri — February 9, 2009 @ 3:12 am
I have never understood this whole “REM is in decline” viewpoint. In my opinion, Monster was a great album. Reveal was mostly great and Accelerate is the best thing they’ve done in many years and is one of their best. I can’t get enough of the album. But anyhow, I don’t really think they ever lost anything.
Comment by Jay from CT — February 9, 2009 @ 6:53 am
REM are still amazing, it is your loss.
Comment by Adrian Garvey — February 10, 2009 @ 11:01 am
I disagree with the article and yes, it is your loss. As I write this I just so happen to be listening to “You are everything” by R.E.M. from an album called Green. People said then that THIS is what we get when we sign them up to a big time record deal with a big time company (WB)? Green is one of my favorite albums it has equal parts rock and roll and singular, soft, sweet songs like “Hairshirt” and “The Wrong Child”. R.E.M. is just so good they have to be questioned don’t they?
I do believe that “Be Mine” from NAIHF is one of the best songs to ever fly through my head and almost everyone has forgotten about that album. “Why not smile” and “Suspicion” are my two favorite songs from UP and they stand with anything they’ve ever done. Nobody liked UP because Bill was gone. Well, he’s gone and he’s not coming back! He’s that kind of guy and he doesn’t want to talk to you! I think Around The Sun is actually better than Accelerate when it comes to classic R.E.M. pop songs, there are about five of them that are really great! Accelerate is as loud as anything they’ve ever done but I want “Find The River”, I want “Flowers of Guatemalla” type songs so Accelerate is good every now and again when you really want to rock and you know that feeling! I’m saying that R.E.M. has given us all so much for so long and if you don’t like their new albums as much as the old ones, that’s ok. Make a burned cd of all the great songs that have made you smile. All the songs that made you feel like you never felt. Maybe start one off with “Untitled” from Green, the album people were questioning just like they’re questioning these past few. Just don’t forget that this band that you once loved has put out so many great songs on so many great albums that you would really be missing a great ride if you just give up on them now because you believe in the last several years they’ve put out lesser material than you think they should. Perhaps you folks need to listen closer?? There’s some really nice songs there. Remember “it’s a beautiful life” and R.E.M. being around is, for all of us at one time or another, part of the reason why!
Oh yeah MONSTER ROCKS!!! AND I’M GETTING TIRED OF YOUR DODGE BALL CIRCUS ACT!!!
Comment by Ryan from Columbus, Ohio — February 11, 2009 @ 10:24 am
Longevity breeds familiarity. A lack of vitality has just as much to do with the audience as it does with the band. What do you expect? There are only so many places to go as a pop act.
I love R.E.M., they turned me on to the glorious, seedy underbelly of rock n’ roll. They haven’t made a record as cohesive as Automatic for the People since Bill quit, but those records still have fine, fine moments (as some people above have mentioned). What’s more, they remain an incredible live band. Go see ‘em, you’ll fall in love all over again.
I can’t get the gnawing suspicion out of my gut, however, that their part in this “decline” is in direct relation to Stipe’s embrace of celebrity. A lot of his lyrics are clumsy proselytizing. It seems the words dictate the melody, whereas before it was the other way around. That’s a big part of it.
Comment by Justin from Charlotte, NC — February 13, 2009 @ 5:04 pm