In 1994, some people started to wonder if R.E.M. had lost its
\nfire.<\/p>\n
Oh, sure, they had put out two decent albums in the guise of
\nOut Of Time<\/i> and
\nAutomatic For The People<\/i>, but Michael Stipe and company had
\nmoved back almost to an AOR format, with their soft, introspective
\nballads and string sections. R.E.M. needed something to kick them
\nin the ass and kick their sound back into overdrive.<\/p>\n
\nMonster<\/i> is the result of two such kicks – the suicide of
\nNirvana’s Kurt Cobain (whom Stipe was supposed to collaborate with
\non a project) and the drug overdose death of River Phoenix. What
\ncame out of Stipe was some of R.E.M.’s best rock work in a while,
\nas well as some material which is quite forgettable.<\/p>\n
The leadoff track “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” shows that
\nthe lads from Athens, Georgia are back, and they have some musical
\nbones to pick. Peter Buck’s heavily distorted guitars are a welcome
\nchange from the light acoustic clang of their previous album (not
\nthat the acoustic vein was bad – but there’s such a thing as too
\nmuch of a good thing), while Mike Mills’s bass thunders through the
\nsonic clouds of sound. Bill Berry’s drums haven’t sounded this good
\nin a long time; they have a definite snap to them, especially the
\nsnare work.<\/p>\n
And while Peter Holsapple is nowhere to be found on this disc,
\nthe band does turn to Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore for assistance
\non “Crush With Eyeliner,” a great song with a guitar effect that
\nmust be heard to be believed. It almost sounds like Buck had his
\nguitar running into a rotating speaker – it’s quite cool.<\/p>\n
Some of the other radio hits off
\nMonster<\/i> are just as good – “Bang And Blame” is a number that
\ngrows on you quickly, while “Star 69” is a bundle of energy that
\njust waits to explode out of your speakers. However, I’ll never
\nunderstand why tracks like “King Of Comedy” and “I Took Your Name”
\ndidn’t make it to the airwaves; they were just as good. Even
\n“Circus Envy,” a track which could have been called a throwaway, is
\ncute and funny enough to win you over.<\/p>\n
If all the songs on
\nMonster<\/i> were of this caliber, then this would unquestionably
\nrank as R.E.M.’s best work. However, there are a couple of boat
\nanchors on this disc. “Strange Currencies” is an attempt to run
\nback to the ballad days while keeping the electric feel to the
\ninstruments. Three words: ain’t happenin’, gang. The song is
\noverblown and pompous – but that didn’t stop it from becoming a hit
\non the radio.<\/p>\n
A few other songs are too slow and, Lord help us, too moody to
\nfit in with the general alternative feel of
\nMonster<\/i>. “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” is an experiment that just
\nnever gets off the ground, while “Let Me In” and “You” collapse
\nunder their own weight.<\/p>\n
Oh, it’s not that R.E.M. stumbled when they made
\nMonster<\/i> – if anything, their return to a four-piece with the
\nvolume turned to “10” was a return to form that long-time fans were
\nhoping for. And to R.E.M.’s credit, the few duds are evenly spaced
\nout though the disc’s 12 tracks; had they been all together, I
\nthink I would have been running for the exits.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen whether R.E.M. will reach this apex again,
\nespecially with the departure of Berry. Even if they never achieve
\nthis kind of greatness,
\nMonster<\/i> is a powerful, but flawed, portrait of a band who
\nhad tasted the blood of creativity again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5748],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38849","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-r-e-m","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38849"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38849"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}