Posted by Nick Karn on 1/24/2012, 10:33 am, in reply to "My response to your response on my comments about REM"
24.0.161.62
Yeah, I think it also helps most to have 90's alternative rock form the basis of one's musical taste early on as it did for me. Seeing them on the Monster tour in October 1995 as my first major concert where they played 3 songs from New Adventures ("Undertow", "Departure" and "Binky The Doormat" I think) probably helped too. It's a solid C album in my book, and yeah, I'm one of those who loves Stipe's voice enough that it would have to have really been in bad shape for me to think of an R.E.M. album as less than a 6 or 7 on the John scale.
--Previous Message--
: With the Monster reviews - I will just add
: that whether you like the song or not. It's
: a bit jarring to not mention the song Let Me
: In because it is a historically important
: REM song from that album due to it's
: relation to Kurt Cobain's death. It's like
: doing a review of Tug of war by Paul
: McCartney and not mentioning Here today as a
: tribute to Lennon or George Harrison's
: Somewhere In England without mentioning
: "All those Years ago".
:
: sure you can love the song, hate the song or
: be indifferent about it but it shouldn't be
: ignored due to historical elements.
:
: With the New Adventures Hi Fi comments
:
: I guess you are not a true fan of REM.
:
: Just kidding
:
: I think whether an individuals find a melody
: catchy or not to be something very
: subjective. In my mind, the choruses in
: NAIHF are the peaks in REM career in terms
: of catchy and melodic chorus that a person
: can sing along to. Really considering the
: formula of an REM song to be mumble mumble
: mumble and then an audible chorus. When REM
: achieves a great chorus, half the job is
: done already. However I can't objectively
: prove that one way or another (similarly I
: can't objectively prove that collapse in now
: is devoid of melodies).
:
: I think that album in particular really
: relies on the audience to really dig the
: sound and tone of Stipe voice even more so
: than normal. You're reaction to his
: semi-speaking voice throughout the album has
: to be "man that sounds groovy or
: cool". If you don't get a positive
: reaction than it's hard to like this album
: because there isn't substantial melodies to
: fall back on during the verses of the song.
:
: This maybe explains why the hard-core fans
: really dig this album because they probably
: like the sound of his voice more than most
: people and therefore buy his
: "half-singing" nature whilst the
: casual fans simply finds the verses of the
: song to be relatively non-melodic. The
: verses generally relies on the sound and
: tone of the voice instead of the notes that
: Stipe is singing.
:
: This is the best explanation I can think of
: to explains our major difference of opinion
: on this album.
:
