Published on Jan 4, 1999
Many fans and critics jumped the gun when they first heard
Monster, the first album in a long time on which R.E.M. went
back to rocking out. I was one of those people. While
Automatic For The People and
Out Of Time were classics in their own right, many people
yearned to hear the towering guitars heard on
Document and, to a lesser extent,
Green.
Monster didn’t leave my CD player for two months. It
answered the prayers to many die-hard R.E.M. fans. And to top it
off, the band actually decided to tour to support the album. I got
a chance to see the band play in Sandstone, a short time after
drummer Bill Berry recovered from an aneurysm. And even though most
of the audience sucked, the band played great.
But something quite peculiar happened in 1996. R.E.M. released a
follow-up album titled
New Adventures In Hi-Fi. After the huge response to
Monster, and its generally positive response,
New Adventures In Hi-Fi was sure to break triple-platinum
sales. The lesson was clear: never try to predict consumer
behavior.
As the surprise of
Monster wore off, many fans began to see the album was one
of the weaker albums in R.E.M.’s catalog. And the way that “Hi-Fi”
was recorded, mostly live during stops on their last tour, led some
fans to believe the album was just a contract obligation to their
huge-ass $80 million contract. Could it be that
Automatic marked the high point of R.E.M.’s career and
everything else would be downhill?
Don’t be so quick to judge. After two years,
Hi-Fi still holds up quite well. The album opens up with a
couple of quirky computer blips and goes into a country tale of a
“story told many times.” Michael Stipe sounds more weary than usual
as Berry provides a trotting drum beat.
The album then propells into “The Wake-Up Bomb,” which could
have very well been a response to Bill Berry’s health problems the
previous year. While it does have a decent beat, it seems more like
a b-sided track to any of the
Monster songs.
The weirdness of the album escalates in the song, “E-Bow The
Letter,” where Patti Smith does a beautiful, spooky cameo. Cohesive
would not be a good word to describe the album, as the band has
jumped around folk and straight-out-rock styles.
But a theme does generate in the last half of the album. It
starts with the uneasy confidence of “Leave,” when Stipe makes a
couple of declarations of independence. Indedendence of religion,
independence of relying on others and a longing to be elsewhere.
That theme is carried especially in the second to last track, “Low
Desert,” when Stipe utters, “Back to the place where you never
belonged.” It’s impossible to shake off that line well after the
closing track, “Electrolite” is played.
Other songs don’t hold up as well. “Bittersweet Me,” is a song
that feels out of touch with the rest of the album. It was as if
the band had to record a song that was guaranteed to get some air
play on radio stations. And that was the only reason they put the
song in. Plus, they put the song smack in the middle of the album,
so that fans had to listen to the first half of the album. A good
move by the band, but it sidetracks the limited flow of the
album.
Fans speculating that R.E.M. may have taken a turn for the worse
had their fears confirmed when Berry left the band shortly after
Hi-Fi was recorded. Blaming this album would be a stupid
presumption as to why Berry quit. In many ways,
Hi-Fi rings superior to
Monster.
The electronic flirtations of some of the tracks on
Hi-Fi were taken to a new level with their new album,
Up, an album that I have yet to buy. As many fans gawked at
the possibility of R.E.M. without Berry, they turned their backs on
Up. But from most circles,
Up is an extremely beautiful album. I’ll listen to that
album before I write off the band. Those who have already may have
made a cruel mistake.
As for
New Adventures In Hi-Fi, I’ll let history decide where
exactly it fits in R.E.M.’s archives. For me, I see it as a ’90s
version of their B-sided project
Dead Letter Office. Only this time, it’s from
Monster,
Automatic For The People and
Out Of Time. It’s a good album to admire, but it takes a lot
of effort to love. Maybe too much effort for most fans.