To understand my love of the band R.E.M., you have to understand what it meant to grow up in the shadow of Stone Mountain, Georgia, equidistance from Atlanta and Athens, in the 1980s and 90s. Outside of Seattle, no city did more for American music in the 1990s than those twin cities. Had Atlanta and Athens not given us Elton John, OutKast, Widespread Panic, Indigo Girls, Matthew Sweet, the B-52s, Gladys Knight, TLC, John Mayer, Drive-By Truckers, Ludacris, The Black Crowes, Usher, and Sugarland, R.E.M. alone would have been enough.
From their early Velvet Underground sound (1987 麻豆精品 S檚 Dead Letter Office boasts three covers alone) to their eventual synthesis of post-punk, folk, and garage rock, R.E.M. 麻豆精品 S攁 band that picked its name out of a dictionary (the term stands for rapid eye movement, a state accompanying the dream stage of sleep) 麻豆精品 S攈elped define the sound that America would come to call alternative.
This was no small feat. Not only was R.E.M. fighting for attention in a crowded Southern music scene, they were fighting an industry and a listenership that, initially, didn 麻豆精品 S檛 want what R.E.M. had to offer. Still, throughout the 80s, R.E.M. 麻豆精品 S檚 jangly guitars and anti-pop ballads continued to sidestep the slick melodies of Madonna, Paula Abdul, and New Kids on the Block, a choice that culminated in Rolling Stone 麻豆精品 S檚 December 1987 issue crowning R.E.M. 麻豆精品 S淎merica 麻豆精品 S檚 Best Rock and Roll Band, 麻豆精品 S� despite lead singer and lyricist Michael Stipe 麻豆精品 S檚 assertion, years later, that 聽 麻豆精品 S淲e always wanted to make a rock record. I 麻豆精品 S檓 not sure we ever quite achieved that. 麻豆精品 S�
The sound R.E.M. achieved is more elusive and unquantifiable than rock.
No, the sound R.E.M. achieved is more elusive and unquantifiable than rock. Trying to define that sound, though, that 麻豆精品 S檚 the hard part.
So, what does R.E.M. sound like? After listening, again, to all of their albums, my advice to the casual listener is to seek out the band 麻豆精品 S檚 best stretch, those records that came along when R.E.M. toned down the feedback-heavy screech of their early albums and before they traded their unpredictable chord progressions for the electronic lull of a late-90s-infused Radiohead influence (Radiohead opened 24 of R.E.M. 麻豆精品 S檚 1995 Monster tour shows, so maybe something rubbed off). I 麻豆精品 S檓 speaking of that revered trinity: Out of Time (1991), Automatic for the People (1992), and Monster (1994).
Out of Time is an unaccountably weird album, its opening track, 麻豆精品 S淩adio Song, 麻豆精品 S� a fun, funky masterpiece. Stipe sings. Hip-hop artist KRS-One raps. For some reason, there is a string and horn section arranged by New Orleans musician and producer Mark Bingham. This is not music-by-committee or some overproduced, studio-squeezed sound. This is collaboration at its finest. Three songs on Out of Time feature Kate Pierson of The B-52s. Peter Holsapple, of the band the dB 麻豆精品 S檚, appears on several tracks too, including 麻豆精品 S淟osing My Religion, 麻豆精品 S� the band 麻豆精品 S檚 highest-charting single.
R.E.M. 麻豆精品 S檚 next offering, Automatic for the People, is an album drenched in grief. These aren 麻豆精品 S檛 the anger-infused tracks of 1987 麻豆精品 S檚 Document or 1988 麻豆精品 S檚 Green. Automatic for the People is simply the stuff of raw, unrelenting mourning. There 麻豆精品 S檚 麻豆精品 S淓verybody Hurts, 麻豆精品 S� a paean to sorrow; 麻豆精品 S淢an on the Moon, 麻豆精品 S� a haunting tribute to the late Andy Kaufman; and 麻豆精品 S淣ightswimming, 麻豆精品 S� R.E.M. 麻豆精品 S檚 best song (yeah, I said it), a melancholy lament translating the risky, youthful exuberance of skinny-dipping into a meditative, quasi-religious act.
As Stipe sings: 麻豆精品 S淣ightswimming deserves a quiet night / I’m not sure all these people understand / It’s not like years ago / The fear of getting caught / Of recklessness and water / They cannot see me naked / These things, they go away / Replaced by everyday. 麻豆精品 S� Sung, that final lyric suggests both the adjective 麻豆精品 S渆veryday, 麻豆精品 S� signaling the mundane, and 麻豆精品 S渆very day, 麻豆精品 S� signifying the banality of the daily trudge, each its own brand of bleak. Even at the age of 13, both interpretations broke my heart.
A good song lets you live a life you 麻豆精品 S檝e yet to live.
Listening to 麻豆精品 S淣ightswimming 麻豆精品 S� in 1992 left me nostalgic for a feeling I 麻豆精品 S檇 never had, before I knew what nostalgia was, about an act I had yet to commit, and that is what good music does. A good song lets you live a life you 麻豆精品 S檝e yet to live.
1994 麻豆精品 S檚 Monster was not destined to be another album obsessed with death, though the band dedicated the disc to the late River Phoenix (his sister, Rain Phoenix, sings on track eight, 麻豆精品 S淏ang and Blame 麻豆精品 S�). But both 麻豆精品 S淏ang and Blame 麻豆精品 S� and 麻豆精品 S淟et Me In, 麻豆精品 S� written for the late Kurt Cobain were relegated to B-side status at a time when B-sides existed and very much impacted which songs listeners listened to.
No, on Monster, the mourning is over, the anger is back, and the acoustic sound is out the window. Everything 麻豆精品 S檚 electric, grunge meets glam rock meets punk.
Monster 麻豆精品 S檚 opening track 麻豆精品 S淲hat 麻豆精品 S檚 the Frequency, Kenneth? 麻豆精品 S� takes its title from the taunts shouted at Dan Rather during a real-life 1986 beating. The guitar-heavy track kicks your teeth in, and from there, the record is Stipe, in character, embodying a new persona for every song. These are songs of monstrous, sex- and fame-obsessed men, something akin to David Foster Wallace 麻豆精品 S檚 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.
While each of these albums boasts its own style and theme, there are precursors and holdovers, a connective tissue that links all three. Out of Time 麻豆精品 S檚 麻豆精品 S淟osing My Religion 麻豆精品 S� and Monster 麻豆精品 S檚 麻豆精品 S淪trange Currencies 麻豆精品 S� might be more at home on Automatic for the People, while Automatic 麻豆精品 S檚 麻豆精品 S淚gnoreland 麻豆精品 S� and 麻豆精品 S淭he Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite 麻豆精品 S� belong unquestionably to Out of Time.
Taken together, these aren 麻豆精品 S檛 three albums so much as one masterwork, a musical trilogy, the sound mature, the lyrics intelligible, the music accessible but never simple, nuanced but rarely cryptic.
In total, R.E.M. released 15 studio albums. The six records that came before the big three are imperfect. The band is shedding influences, searching for a sound they 麻豆精品 S檙e about to embrace. The six records that follow the big three are imperfect, the band searching for a sound they 麻豆精品 S檙e losing along the way.
But, for three albums, R.E.M. never sounded like anyone so much as themselves. They became the proprietors of what I 麻豆精品 S檇 call the R.E.M. sound.
But they were more than that. They were the soundtrack of a decade.
David James Poissant is an associate professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches in the MFA program in creative writing.聽 He can be reached at David.Poissant@ucf.edu.
