R.E.M.: I think I can understand what he's saying?

3 comments

July 9, 2:45 PM

by Andy Belt, Baltimore Music Examiner

 

 

        R.E.M has a new CD out.   Its 2008 and R.E.M. is still turning out quality music.  It was 1983 and I was in the 8^th grade when I first heard the musings of Michael Stipe and R.E.M.  That was when they were still on I.R.S. Records and you had absolutely no idea what Stipe was singing.  My friends and I made it a sport of deciphering what in the world he was singing about.  I seemed to remember even making a language of our own based on “Stipisms”, something about “ramble scram, big city ham, two headed cow. . . . “ , or something like that.  It is also interesting to note that my high school friends often had debates about who was “cooler,” U2 or R.E.M. and which band would be around longer.  Strangely, they are both still going and putting out quality music. 

         R.E.M.’s latest, Accelerate is one of their best releases since Life’s Rich Pageant, the first album on which you could actually discern a chorus and sing along.  Like Life’s Rich Pageant, Peter Buck abandons the Old Richenbacher sound in exchange for some hard driving distortion.  Stipe’s vocals are great as well, clear, but not too far out in front of the mix either.  Bassist, Mike Mill’s back-up vocals are on as well.  The close listener to R.E.M.’s sound has always been Mills making Stipe sound good in the first place. It’s a shame that drummer Bill Berry is no longer part of the ensemble, but a brain aneurysm is good excuse to hang up the sticks.

      Accerlate is full of radio friendly tunes that still possess artistic merit and will survive the being over-played on commercial radio.  “Living Well Is the Best Revenge” and “Hollow Man” are solid tunes in addition to “Supernatural Superserious” that has been getting repetitive airplay.  As was evident at R.E.M.’s recent performance at Merriweather,  R.E.M. is still appealing to today’s young listeners, but still provides nostalgic enjoyment to those of us who dug them when we had no idea what they were saying.

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