29 replies to this topic

[simonfox]

Kimo, on 25 October 2011 - 04:25 AM, said:

Same here. This song is marvelous and the production is amazing. I'm not saying I find it difficult to listen to ('cause I love it so much!) but it makes me all lachrymose.

The song I skip on CIN is Walk it Back. I just can't listen to it right now. Same story with Perfect Circle, Wendell Gee, So Central Rain, Sweetness Follows, World Leader Pretend and Let me In.



Tell me about it... so tragic and unexpected.

I never liked Walk it Back, until the last few weeks. Listening to it since the break-up has given me a new appreciation of it. It seems to have so much more meaning in the light of what has happened.

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

TBH, the breakup hasn't made any real difference to my listening. I still love the songs I've always loved, remain indifferent to the ones I never cared much about and I'm not hearing the ones I never liked  sounding better. What I'm sad about is never seeing them play as a live band again because on stage they were fucking MAGIC.

[Driver Nate]

Sweet Fanny Addams, on 26 October 2011 - 07:05 AM, said:

TBH, the breakup hasn't made any real difference to my listening. I still love the songs I've always loved, remain indifferent to the ones I never cared much about and I'm not hearing the ones I never liked  sounding better. What I'm sad about is never seeing them play as a live band again because on stage they were fucking MAGIC.

Have you watched the clip of them performing "Country Feedback" with Neil Young from the new 25th Anniversary Bridge School Benefit DVD? I don't know how anyone that's a fan of R.E.M. could make it through that without at least getting a lump in their throat. Otherwise, my experience has been much the same as yours. I've been more moved emotionally by some of the thoughts of the band and fellow fans on the subject of the break up than I have been listening to any of the old material. The thought of never seeing them live again after being a fan since I was 20 years old has been harder to take than I ever imagined. While they might not have always been on their game in the studio, they almost always brought it live.

[GreeneGrowTheRushes]

I don't know about which ones I find it difficult to listen to, but I know I appreciate Up a lot more. I was too young to remember when Bill left, and I only got properly into R.E.M. once I went to University. I bought all 13 albums within one year (and Accelerate when it came out) and I have to say I never really liked Up.
But now that R.E.M. have broken Up, I'm able to understand the period both they and fans were going through when Bill left, and from this album I think what speaks out most at present is Why not Smile.

[cédric]

As someone said before, it happened today is a very special song for me, and it's my favourite. Can't stop listening and watching videos of R.E.M. for 1 month, listening songs I haven't for years and years, but very easily I have to say, no tears, only good memories! the only album I still can't listen is UP minus why not smile, a gorgeous song that means so much (american oxford version).

my daughter, 4,5 years old, doesn't understand why it's still possible to listen and watch R.E.M. songs while they broken up...
R.E.M. songs will make R.E.M. live forever!

[TOOMPEA]

Here i Am Again
don't ask me why

[7 chineSe robs.]

Pretty much all of "Collapse Into Now," particularly "It Happened Today" -- the soaring vocals at the end made me emotional even before the breakup announcement.

[Mohrmann]

Find the river...

[MurmursAdministrator]

I was having a hard time listening to CiN for a while before the breakup, especially after I left WBR. I knew what was coming I think, and it just made me too sad to know that it was so many "lasts" for me.

Since then I've listened to it a lot and come to realize its a celebration rather than a wake or mourning, and there is so much to celebrate.

Between REM calling it a day then Steve Jobs dying though, quite a shitty fall.

[remalba]

Agreed.

Why not smile is THE Rem song for me.   Some on the you versions are epic and haunting.