Underrated Classic: R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi

New Adventures In Hi Fi
Accelerate
Collapse Into Now

For me, 3 of the best albums the band did. 5 stars each.

In a career like theirs (Murmur, Fables..., Lifes..., Document, Green, Automatic...etc), that's really saying something!

 

The other day, "Bittersweet Me" came up on shuffle play. Great song. Supports my contention that this (long) album was back-loaded. It seems the most ear-worm songs come closer to the tail end then the front.

 

This album doesn't really work for me, and I'm a big fan of this band. As an example, I think that the two follow up albums, Up and Reveal are much better.

 

Good memories of this one...I purchased mine at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris in December 1996!
Fantastic songs included, lovely cover.

 

What do you mean as "repetitive"?

 

I think this album is really good and always liked "E-Bow the Letter" even if it wasn't that accepted as a single. The surround mix on the DVD-A is a real treat!

 

http://www.avclub.com/article/part-1-talk-about-the-passion-ilifesii-rich-pagean-71413
I haven't seen this posted elsewhere, so enjoy. It's a three-part feature.

 

I had that come up recently on shuffle as well - great tune!

 

I recently, finally got this cd. this came out my last year of college and a wasn't into Monster, but loved Automatic... had I realized at the time, it was more like Automatic, I would have picked it up long ago. I don't even know why it came to mind to finally get it, but wow, really enjoying it.

 

I like every song in the album, highlights in my opinion are: "Bittersweet me", "Be mine", "New test leper", "So fast, so numb" and of course "E-bow the letter". As a side note, I have this poster which was given to me by Warner at the time of the album's release, it's been hanging on my bedroom wall ever since.

 

I really, really like this album. Much more than Monster, which I also like. It was the last R.E.M. album I bought the day it came out. On September 19, 1996, Rolling Stone gave it 4.5 stars out of 5. They called it R.E.M.'s "most ambitious album to date" because the band "attempts to stitch together all the disparate mood swings that have characterized its fight to maintain its integrity in the face of both disaster and superstardom."

Prophetically, RS stated that "[t]his could be R.E.M.'s swan song - or the first day of the rest of their lives." As it turns out, and as many viewing this thread will know, this was Bill Berry's last album with the band. And, boy, did his departure ever have a Titanic effect on the band, and I mean literally so. They never recovered, in my opinion, until Accelerate, and by then they were practically on the eve of dissolution.

What can I say, though? Any band that can write a great song about a character in Bobcat Goldthwait's very obscure film, Shakes The Clown, is very cool with me ("Binky The Doormat", that is).

As I recall, New Adventures... got pretty great critical reception, but I've never really got the sense of what too many other R.E.M. fans think of it.

This is the second time I've dove into the RS archives today, so forgive me, but I love reading the old reviews.

 

Because no self-respecting R.E.M. fan could have ever predicted the triple play Armeggedon of Up, Reveal and Around The Sun. LOL. Now you have the benefit of hindsight. I liked this album right away myself. (I realize I'm responding to a post from like nine months ago).

 

Maybe that, maybe it was fatigue after Monster. At that point, I don't think I needed a new REM album in 1996 and felt they had to go away for awhile...

 

Your post reminds me that I had R.E.M. fatigue after Monster, which I found disappointing, but still refreshing after Automatic, which I jokingly refer to as the R.E.M. album your parents could fall in love with--great R.E.M. for non-R.E.M. fans.

New Adventures caught me by surprise and helped me shake my R.E.M. ennui. I felt like they were "back."

 

Probably my favorite REM record

 

It's probably my favourite REM album. Yes, there are a few tracks on it that - as standalone songs - may not be among their best, but as a cohesive hole and as a (pretentiousness alert) artistic statement, I think it's their best. Moreover, to have created it while on the road, Running On Empty-style, is even more impressive.
I know it tends to split critics. I seem to recall that Q magazine (when it was still semi-credible) gave it five stars on its initial release, but subsequently, in a career retrospective special issue, gave it only two.
For those of you who remember the minimalist design of the actual CD disc, I remember when I worked in a record store in the 1990s, and people used to bring the CD back all the time, 'cos they thought all the print was missing.

 

I was really disappointed with NAIHF when it came out. I had loved Monster, had seen them on that tour and I loved E-bow The Letter but the album just didn't resonate with me. Many of the songs are too long, the lyrics didn't connect with me and it felt bloated with so many tracks.

I still love E-bow and I enjoy Electrolite and HTWWWAWIGU but other than that I wouldn't include anything else on a 'Best-of'. It's all very average for me.

Up was their last classic album where it felt like they were pushing themselves for me - again slightly too many tracks but the best stuff on there is sublime and beautifully produced.

 

I think it was there last classic release. They lost their compass when they lost Bill Berry.

 

The funny thing is, that it seems to have been the opposite of empty... they were in a groove and inspired. Maybe they knew that would be the end of an era?
While the more I listen, the more I enjoy it, but it could have been trimmed a little.

 

I just bought it without having heard anything from it on a lark because it's on sale for something like $4 on Amazon and I was highly impressed! I wish I'd bought it when it came out.

 

I don't know what it says about me but if might be my favorite REM album (right up there with 'Lifes Rich Pageant') just as 'Zooropa' is one of my favorite U2 discs.
Wake Up Bomb, New Test Leper, Undertow, E-bow,Bittersweet Me, Binky the Doormat,So Fast,So Numb and Low Desert are all killer tunes.
Some of Michael's most raw and emotional singing and lyrics.
And great Mike Mills backing vocals. You know what I mean.The kind you sing along to even though you can't carry a tune in a bucket and people stare at you funny when your wearing headphones.Screw em'.Love this album.

 

Great album but by this album they already sound like a lot of other bands, unlike the IRS years when they sounded like no one else.

 

my big question about REM is Warner Years on vinyl (the info is scarce on this forum, Im thinking open a thread about it), basically US vs Europe releases, I denote the Europe's are made in Germany and some have the "Alsdorf" and/or DMM the deadwax beside... the US have DMM on deadawax.

any REM vinyl expert on Warner Years?

I still don't have any REM Warner on vinyl so I want start buy them, any advice help my wallet! because the price of some titles start to raise!

 

Underrated? Not by me. Bought "New adventures" on release day and loved it since

 

I can't really speak to any sort of differences, but I have all first pressings from Chronic Town to New Adventures (with the exception of Monster). I can tell you that New Adventures does not have DMM in the dead wax, but instead "Gateway LC" on side 1 and 3.