Although, in saying that, I'd like to do some OST/soundtrack reviews at some point, and talk about my favourite overall OSTs, and individual tracks - might look at putting something like this together next week - this will include such soundtracks as:
Batman
Spy Game
Indiana Jones
Romeo and Juliet
....and many more!
Well, in a week where they have released another live album (and, according to some of the reviews I have read, a great live album at that), I thought I would look at an REM album as a classic one this week - I have chosen the under-stated New Adventures in Hi-Fi:
As I've mentioned before, I love bands that experiment. To keep your music the same, and not try to branch out and grow, is playing it safe and boring. For me, this is why I never liked bands like Oasis, yet appreciated bands like REM, Radiohead and Dodgy - they weren't afraid of taking risks with their music, however often it might get them into a few creative scrapes!
REM's Monster album is an acquired taste - for me, it grew-and-grew into a better album the more I listened to it. I grew with it, as it was the first REM album that I bought all of the CD singles religiously as they were released (each had a number of live tracks that grew into their own live album). New Adventures was recorded on the road, during the Monster tour.
This album stands out, as REM took a few chances - it sounds distinct enough from Monster, as though this was the album and moves they'd been trying to show-off all the time. It has some absolute classics on it, including one of the finest REM tracks of all-time - Leave. According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide:
"Clocking in at seven minutes, "Leave" is the longest track R.E.M. has yet recorded and it's one of their strangest and best -- an affecting minor-key dirge with a howling, siren-like feedback loop that runs throughout the entire song."
The song just picks you up, and chucks you around - it starts off so deliberatly slow, and then drags you into a tornado of sound! When I heard this for the first time, I remembered thinking that I had heard nothing like this from REM before - what, from 1:00 minute in, was acoustic about this?! It was electric (as Monster had been, but this felt like it had structure), and had so much depth. It sounded like Stipe was pained, but was pulling through. I knew from the beginning that I had touched upon a song I would love forever!
If you download three tracks, hit:
Leave (features in my TOP 100)
Bittersweet Me
Be Mine (for me, my second fave on the album - also features in my TOP 100; I love the secondhalf of this song, as the guitar sweeps along - a song I wish to this day that I'd heard live)
I've added the album to the spotify menace2music collab playlist - see the link for this below.
They'll be more to come on REM, as they're in my top bands of all time list, which I feature on a Thursday (a Thursday, dammit - remember Menace!?!).
Have a great Friday - may the weekend, which it looks like is going to be awet-and-nasty one, bring you everything you need, demand, and require! Hopefully, some of it will include music!
All the very best - Menace2Music
menace2music@googlemail.com
http://twitter.com/menace2music
http://open.spotify.com/user/menoir16/playlist/1j3HXNYIHuGDfW7aLh5OlL
No comments:
Post a Comment