4 replies to this topic

[bugalu]

Hi guys,

Last week I was the guest writer at One Week // One Band, covering R.E.M. post-Bill Berry. I tried to make the case that the group's five records as a trio are vital and worthy additions to their catalogue, and worthy listening on their own terms. It's a hefty series, 52 posts counting the bonus tracks I posted on my blog (all of which are collected in my goodbye post here), and even then I didn't get to write about every last song I wanted to, with "Daysleeper," "Beat a Drum," and "Uberlin" being the saddest casualties. But if you enjoy late R.E.M. you might find something worth reading there. If it's a bit overwhelming, this post is a good overview of some of the week's themes and takes a longer view of the group's legacy.

I'm in the middle of copy-editing all the posts (both my editor and I were extraordinarily busy that week, and my writing suffered), but it should be very readable. If you spot any especially egregious errors (or any at all), please feel free to let me know!

Also note that there's another set of posts on the I.R.S. era, by Lisa Cassidy.

Hope this is of interest to some of you! Enjoy.

Cheers,

R

[ebowtheloser]

I thought this was fantastic. Definitely the best appraisal of AtS that I've ever read. Great job all around.

[elkokolores]

I liked it a lot, too. Thank you for this.

Although I hatehatehatehate "I Wanted to be Wrong", and consider this as the worst song ever written by Stipe, Mills and Buck. I would've liked to see "The Ascent of Man" get the appreciation. Underrated song.

And one other thing: I can't hear the apologetic notion that "Airportman" is a great song as an "opener", as a mood piece, anymore. Even as a stand-alone effort I think this lo-fi ambient-"pop" masterpiece is abe to stand on his own and should've be a setlist regular.

[bugalu]

@ebow: Thanks! I spent a lot of time thinking about the reasons that AtS failed with the fan base, and tried to use AtS as a lens to look at R.E.M.'s commercial/credibility problem post-Berry more generally. I really enjoyed writing so much about its songs, good or bad, even though I feared coming across as mean or snarky when discussing some of the lesser tracks.

@elkokolores: Thanks. I really like "The Ascent of Man" and had planned to post about it, but at that point I'd already written up ten songs and still had another album to go, so it was cut. I like what Perpetua says about it, for what it's worth.

I agree about "Airportman" being a great song on its own merits. I strongly disagree about "I Wanted to be Wrong," of course, but 1) R.E.M. have such diverse songs that it's natural that people disagree strongly about which are best or worst, 2) strong disagreements are part of the reason I love talking about music.

[elkokolores]

bugalu, on 01 January 2012 - 05:34 PM, said:

@ebow: Thanks! I spent a lot of time thinking about the reasons that AtS failed with the fan base, and tried to use AtS as a lens to look at R.E.M.'s commercial/credibility problem post-Berry more generally. I really enjoyed writing so much about its songs, good or bad, even though I feared coming across as mean or snarky when discussing some of the lesser tracks.

@elkokolores: Thanks. I really like "The Ascent of Man" and had planned to post about it, but at that point I'd already written up ten songs and still had another album to go, so it was cut. I like what Perpetua says about it, for what it's worth.

I agree about "Airportman" being a great song on its own merits. I strongly disagree about "I Wanted to be Wrong," of course, but 1) R.E.M. have such diverse songs that it's natural that people disagree strongly about which are best or worst, 2) strong disagreements are part of the reason I love talking about music.

Right on with everything you said ('xcept the "Wanted to be Wrong" Thing of course)