R.E.M. Around The Sun - I was completely wrong.

Around the Sun - Wikipedia

After the release of their following album, Accelerate, guitarist Peter Buck said that for him Around the Sun "... just wasn't really listenable, because it sounds like what it is, a bunch of people that are so bored with the material that they can't stand it anymore." [14] The album's songs were largely excluded from the band's live setlists after the release of Accelerate.

 

I think it's a good REM album. For me Reveal is the clunker but certainly not Around the sun

 

not as good as Monster

 

Rubbish

 

Then I respectfully disagree with Mr Buck and co....

 

Unfortunately I don't have this album in my collection (yet) but I'm aware of it (I was borrowing it from the library couple times).
It has some flaws but it's not bad either. 'Leaving New York' is a great song.

 

I think it's quite the dud. And I'm otherwise hella inclined to love late-era REM's output.

I listen to Monster and everything *AFTER* about 5x more than anything pre-Monster, and have for 10-15 years.

New Adventures is my #1, followed by Reveal, and then Monster. I think Up is slightly a bit of a mixed bag, but I'm still quite fond of it over all. And their last two albums are top drawer, far as I'm concerned -- and still quite interesting!! (Meaning they really hold my interest, even if I'm not spinning them all the time.)

But Around The Sun does little to nothing for me, I'm afraid.

 

I've said this elsewhere, but who would have guessed Bill Berry was the man needed to make sure REM records were full of good/great songs? A classic example of a 4th member needed to be a "tie-vote" to toss weak material.

 

If they had dropped a couple of the really weak numbers on it and replaced them with "Bad Day" and "Animal", it would have been a stronger album overall.
Instead, those two tracks were put on a 2003 "best of" (but they were recorded when the rest of the album's songs were)
Also, there was a great track they left off it that ended up on a 'live' disc set called "On The Fly"

As it turned out, there was too little guitar and too little Mike Mills (which made it sound like it was a Michael Stipe solo album, like a Richard Ashcroft album without the rest of The Verve)

As an aside, I saw the tour that followed the album's release in the fall of 2004. They played a theatre here and it was a great show! The "Around The Sun" songs sounded much better in a "live" context.

 

I don't know how this became "let's bash R.E.M. and especially Around The Sun" thread. I simply opened a thread saying that I originally despised, hated, etc.. ATS but after listening to it the last few days a few times I now think the album has merit and it has its charms. Ok, with me so far? Ok, this wasn't a call to arms to those of you who listened a couple times 15 years ago, pronounced it the worst thing R.E.M. ever did and never gave it a second chance. I actually ended my Opening Post with a question: Have you ever not liked an album on its release but years later rediscovered it and really like it? That's what this thread's about. Not bashing an album that some of you apparently never even gave a second chance to. Now: The thread's question and point AGAIN for those in the back: Have you ever disliked an album upon release but then rediscovered it years later and really liked it? Good day to you, sirs.

 

A bit rash on the first listen for a supposed favourite band?

 

I remember hearing “Leaving New York” on the radio and having two thoughts—missed opportunity because there’s a good song in there somewhere, and if Stipe is now doing his own backing vocals, may as well cut a solo album.

 

Here's something for fans to try:

This is my "programmed" Around The Sun, which makes it a 10 song album and removes the albums 3 weakest tracks.

Leaving New York
Electron Blue
The Outsiders
Final Straw
Wanderlust
The Boy In The Well
Aftermath
High Speed Train
The Worst Joke Ever
Around The Sun

This track listing makes the album less boring and flows together nicely.

Try it!

 

It wouldn't be the first time an artist disliked an album that I really liked. I try not to let their opinion of their own work influence mine. Otherwise I might not like some albums that I love (All Things Must Pass, RAM for many years, Moody Blues Seventh Sojourn, just to name a few where the artist has said negative things about them).

 

Although there are many albums I disliked upon release and then years later grew to love, this one came to mind immediately.

 

See, I would have left off Electron Blue and High Speed Train and Aftermath. I enjoy the songs that you cut (I Wanted To Be Wrong <everyone's humming our song>, Make It All Okay and The Ascent of Man).

 

I hated it at the time (and wrote a pretty nasty review on my Livejournal ... remember that?), but I can listen to it nowadays. I love "The Outsiders" (and the line about "drawing patterns with a cork on the tablecloth"... don't know why, but I find it a powerful image), and several others like "Final Straw" and "Aftermath". Overall I prefer it to the hypercorrecting Accelerate, which is my least favourite R.E.M. record...

 

Context definitely counts. At the time, I thought the band was on a downward trend. Because of this Forum I have re-listened to Up, Reveal and ATS, and I’m still not much of a fan, esp. of the latter two.

But I’m a big fan of Accelerate, brick-walling notwithstanding, and more than a few here don’t like that one either.

The diversity of opinion in R.E.M. threads borders on baffling for me.

 

Leaving New York is great, even if tbh it’s a bit REM by numbers. The rest of it is dire, over produced retreads, easily their worst album. Peak blue face paint “we are REM and this is what we do” era. Ugh. And I say that as a fan.

 

Make It All Okay and I Wanted To Be Wrong suffer to me from sounding 'too samey'. They're in the same key (I think) and share the same kind of tempo, so I could do without them. Plus, you've got a similar vibe going with The Boy In The Well (but that is a great track!), so for me it was just 3 tunes that sounded too similar, so I cut 2 of them.
I grew to like The Worst Joke Ever because the version on the 'live' disc is quite good, so it made me warm up to it.

 

Up, "The Great Beyond" single, Reveal, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now are top shelf R.E.M. to me.
I really like them all.

 

They did an excellent version of "Final Straw" on the "Accelerate" tour in 2008; it was a highlight!

 

The version on R.E.M. Live is not bad.

 

I feel the same way.
Dreamlike, and a perfect Sunday morning album indeed.

 

There are a lot of albums I didn't like at first but way down the road came to appreciate and even love. Off the top of my head:

Springsteen - Darkness...I know that probably sounds crazy, but I got into him when I was about 18 so loved the first three albums, which I could relate to so well at that age, the romance, the characters, the escape, the losing of innocence, the drama...here was this dark, heavy, depressing album, I just didn't get it. I did like "Adam Raised A Cain" and "Candy's Room," but that was about it. Now, of course, I dig almost all of it. Not so much "Factory" and "Streets Of Fire," but everything else. More so than the singles/concert staples, I'd say my faves are (in addition to my two early ones) "Something In The Night," "Racing In The Street" and the title track.

Oh, and, for the record, didn't really like ATS when it came out, and don't really like it much now. "Boy In The Well," "Wanted To Be Wrong" and "Final Straw" are top-notch, but the rest is just okay and in some cases ("Wanderlust") just awful. Some songs could have been great but were ruined, "Leaving New York" by the "I love you, forever, blah blah, forever..." which just goes on forever; "The Outsiders" is great until the pointless and discordant rap (unlike the one in "Radio Song," which totally worked).

Just one man's opinions...