GrantNicholas

Well, for the B52's I could consider it. :) Anyway, I like your idea of it being a "piece" between the two albums. Maybe by listening to it from that perspective I might even reevaluate it. Well, I’ll give it another listen. And it’s true, for instance, "I Took Your Name" placed at the beginning of the latest REM live is a blast.

Reveal, not revela. pardon.

@ Donjunio: hi there. It's true, I feel comfortable with radio-friendly sounds, but I assure you I also listen to things that are much more "rough." I listen to, I don't know, Soluwax, but I wouldn't write a review because it would end up being a total mess. Let's talk about REM. When it comes to Monster, for me it's not about the sound, but about the tracks. You rightly mention Let Me In; correct, it's a masterpiece. I agree on that. But what else? Strange Currencies is good, but coincidentally it’s perhaps the only one in the album that evokes the previous records. Crush With Eyeliner is, in my opinion, overrated; the guitar sound is nice but lacks substance. I would add I Took Your Name to your list. In conclusion, I expect more from REM than just a grunge alignment; at least Accelerate sounds like REM to the core. And let me be clear, I'm not dismissing grunge, quite the opposite. But any REM album compared to Monster, except for Reveal, I find superior. I think in the end it's about opinions/tastes. Anyway, thanks for your clarifications.

rikiii, we get along perfectly, I see. :)

@ 47: ok. By the way, my curiosity: I would like to know if there is anyone among you who considers Accelerate superior to Monster.

@ 47: ok. By the way, my curiosity: I would like to know if there is anyone among you who considers Accelerate superior to Monster.

@ 47: thank you for the appreciation. Let me clarify something: I certainly didn't mention historical value (or if I implied it, I didn't mean to), but it's now clear to me that the REM are a classic. For me, they have equally succeeded in enriching two fundamental genres like rock and pop.

@ pistolpete: I’ve written over a hundred reviews, but I’ve never claimed to be a superfan of R.E.M. On the contrary. I stirred up quite a controversy for giving Monster two stars, so you see what I mean. When I feel the need to tear something apart, I have no qualms about doing the same to Stipe and his mates, who have only made two albums that I find unconvincing (the same Monster and Reveal). The drop in sales is a falsehood: Around The Sun sold two and a half million copies, and considering the defamatory campaign it faced (as well as illegal downloads), that’s a great result, in line with the previous Reveal (which sold just a few more copies in America, that’s true). I clarified the reason for the five stars in the review, I won’t repeat it. I compared it to Song 2 because it reminds me a lot of it; it’s a very energetic two-minute track, unique in the R.E.M. discography (just like it was for Blur), hence comparable to their Song 2. The discussion about bands from NME was deliberate precisely because the comparison is absurd: almost all the bands lauded by that magazine are overrated, and I wanted to emphasize how a group of fifty-year-olds is better than 70% of those bands. And besides, judging by the comments in the other reviews, it doesn’t seem to have nauseated many. Even people who are usually hypercritical have admitted that it’s a valid album. Cheers.

Vasco compared to almost any artist is nothing...

@ beppe83: It should be the one who plays live, Bill Rieflin, 48 years old, former Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. He's very talented, in my opinion.