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Rating: Despite the title, the most down album by REM.
The hauntingly melancholic melody of REM here has turned into pathetic resignation - a whine capable of challenging the worst songs of the Smiths and Radiohead. REM have never been winners, but neither have they been hopelessly pathetic losers.
To describe the album, on which alternative critics have written pages of accolades, just read the interview Stipe gave to MTV Italy at the end of 1998: "After Berry's departure, we wanted to close up shop. Then we decided to carry on".
The result is exactly this: a listless album, made out of inertia, because REM didn't have the strength to give up the 80 million dollar contract they signed in 1996. With the "REM" brand, there was too much to gain.
Obviously, their melodic genius hasn't disappeared completely. Five tracks are excellent: "At My Most Beautiful" (a splendid piano ballad with a very delicate Stipe without falling into saccharine); "Daysleeper" (a good acoustic piece, though far from their classic past); "Lotus" and "Walk Unafraid" (REM-like tracks with explosive choruses, marred by the synth guitar); "Falls to Climb" (a splendid slow organ piece that concludes the soporific album well). The rest is terrible, despite some good choruses, like in "Diminished" and "Parakeet".
Without Stipe's heavenly melodies, REM are what they are: a deadly bore musically mediocre. The truth is all too plain: in "Up", Stipe had no desire to find melodies. What makes one smile across all the tracks is the atrocious intro: "Airportman". The perfect way to ruin an album from the start.
The duration - incredible but true - is 65 minutes. One of two things: either REM have lost their minds, or they wanted to be hated by those who loved them.
A remarkable album in its own way. REM have invented a new tool to torture political prisoners. Worse than water dripping on the head.
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By giov
For the first time in the discography of R.E.M., the words that forge Michael Stipe’s songs appear in black and white, squeezed inside a booklet.
What begins as a transitional record, meant to 'ferry the band'… becomes itself a blazing beacon.
By ste84
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