BBC just got a full 1995 show on official CD. I'm more interested in a pro-shot video of a SINGLE show. I'm sure they have a dozen of them from 1995 in their vault, even if they were originally only used for real time jumbotron at the show.
Video hasn't been a part of any of these reissues, so I'm not holding my breath. (I'd like any vintage REM concerts on video that aren't unwatchable via "artsy" directing or terrible camerawork/hyperediting like Tourfilm and Road Movie) It'll be interesting to see what they do, since yes, between BBC and the DVD, there's plenty of Monster tour already out there, and that's before you realize all three Atlanta shows are out there as soundboard boots (I think). Monster has to be one of the few (only?) REM albums with no studio b-sides, which is interesting since Buck claimed they wrote "45 songs" for it. I'm sure a few unused ideas ended up on Hi-Fi, but there might be more. Also, more than some other albums, I'd be really interested in hearing alternate/early versions of Monster, several of the songs just instinctively feel like they took a lot of tinkering to get to those final arrangements and sounds.
OOT/AFTP deluxe each have 7-8 music videos plus the EPKs. I"m still not sure HD options for the REM shot on 16/35mm film. Even if there is 45 backing tracks, that doesn't mean there are more than 15 songs with lyrics. Some may sound like the 30 seconds of "hidden" audio tacked on the end of the official album Bang & Blame. 4:00-5:30 is a sample of a 1995 Jumbotron video with "normal" camera angles and editing.
I think Peter has a tendency to exaggerate. Plus when they talk about “we wrote 45 songs” what they mean by “songs” is “ideas for songs,” most of which either never got past being instrumentals, or at most had a half worked out melody line with Stipe singing gibberish. You hear some of this kind of stuff on the demos discs that accompanied the last two albums — the release of which Stipe was apparently unhappy about, feeling that his exploratory fumblings were private (within the context of the band) and not meant to be heard by the public.
OUT OF TIME, AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE and MONSTER were exquisitely recorded/mixed/mastered/whatever . . . I haven't been tempted by these new boxes, for fear the once immaculate sonics have been thoroughly disfigured.
I forgot those came with surround blu-rays, but the video content seemed more like an afterthought. (Most of the music videos have been available on DVD before). I don't think anyone's expecting vintage footage to be in HD. Upscaled SD is fine. Just they haven't done any live footage as part of this series before (even though good, full shows were available for Fables and Green, if not the others)
The original CD booklet for Monster lists 40 or 50 working song titles. I’m guessing that “Led Zep 4 I-85 North” is probably an instrumental, but some songs, such as “Lucky Piece,” were reportedly finished tracks with a vocal from Stipe. “Yes I Am ****ing With You” became “King of Comedy” on the final album, “Swamp Jam” became “Low Desert” on New Adventures (and E-Bow The Letter was reportedly first demoed during the Monster era as well). “Pattern Shirt” may or may not have been an early version of “Bittersweet Me,” and so on. I’m still curious to hear titles such as “Tonka Truck,” “You Smallpox Blanket,” and “Journal of a Magnate.” Maybe they’re all just instrumentals, but, despite Buck’s tendency to exaggerate, I do think they wrote a ton of a material for this album, and discarded or held back a lot of songs that didn’t fit with the loud, uptempo vibe they were going for on the final album. I think one of the reasons they didn’t use these outtakes as b-sides is that quite a bit of the material was saved and reworked for New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
As with almost every deluxe box by every artist, I’m buying these R.E.M. reissues for the bonus material, not for the original album. Of the R.E.M. reissues, Out Of Time has been the worst victim of the remastering wars, but I’m glad to have the demos and live material from that era, and I still have the original album on the shelf.
But then, there were hardly any completed songs used as b-sides during the entire Warner Brothers run. In fact were there any? It seems to me they were all instrumentals or covers or live recordings. If there were extra songs they seemed more likely to show up on soundtracks (Free World Baby, Revolution, Fretless) or other compilation albums (Photograph). I don’t think they even released the finished Reveal outtake, “Fascinating,” it just got out somehow. I thought that more outtakes would have appeared over the years.
I think that’s basically correct. Again, I think much of the supposedly “written on tour” material from New Adventures was actually demoed for Monster, then worked up or finished at soundchecks on the tour. Likewise, Daysleeper was demoed during the Hi-Fi sessions, and finished for Up. Later in their career I think they got into the habit of saving their ideas for possible use on future albums instead of “throwing them away” on b-sides.
Not a single good song on the entire project. An absolute turkey that ultimately was the main thing that torpedoed their career. Some (but fewer) people still gave them a shot with New Adventures, but that was pretty dull, too. After that, even when they had a few good songs here and there (no more great albums, though), they were still in ignoreland.
Says who? YOU? Disagree completely. New Adventures is a masterpiece, and I bet many will agree with me.
It was common in that era for some advances to vary from finished versions. Especially hip-hop where guests/samples/mixes were sometimes cleared/denied last minute.
Well, it was different and better than Monster. But I'm curious how many people here would rate it a "masterpiece" as opposed to "decent and listenable album." I still can't believe they let "Monster" out the door at at time when they were poised for having one of the biggest records of their career. A clear candidate for "most disappointing" relative to "most anticipated" albums of all time. I feel like Mike Mills still had some music in him at that point, but it's really shocking to me how much Peter Buck and Michael Stipe seemed to lose the plot. Maybe they just ran out of ideas or maybe the really big money that came with Out of Time and Automatic For the People sapped their "want to."
People tend to rate it around Green/Out of Time and I get the feeling for many it's the last essential REM record. With that said, REM was progressing very slowly ever since Life's Rich Pageant with development and it probably falls into the same place as their 1991 record with even less of what makes REM sound like REM. Don't blame them for trying to change things a bit after Automatic being more of a reflection more than a progression of anything they've done already.
Cobain/River Phoenix both died during the recording process and cast a large shadow over the entire record. Plus Berry a wanted a drum record for the first tour in 5 years.
I'd say Life's Rich Pageant was the high point (with maybe Automatic a close 2nd). I don't blame them for changing or trying to change, especially since Out of Time and Automatic were similar enough to have been one double album. But they tried things on Monster that simply didn't work musically. Maybe they had gotten so big that no one could tell them no.
Masterpiece. It’s expanded to that level over time for me. Might be my favorite record by the band — and for a time I couldn’t imagine putting anything above the IRS albums.
Out of Time is a good album, but incredibly disjointed. It has tonal whiplash like no other record they did so far, and I feel the same with Monster. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite is at least consistent in terms of arrangement despite it being there for a lighter tone. Even with an album like Fables musically their was about one deviation (Feeling Gravity's Pull) but that worked quite well IMO.
Say what?I was a REM fan since the release of Murmur.Love Monster.New Adventures and Up are my 2 favourite REM albums. Sure you just haven't got it confused with Around The Sun?
No. I'm familiar with all their albums. I will admit that Up was a brief flirtation with something a little better, and at the time, I thought they might have found a vein of inspiration again. But it didn't really stand up all that well to repeat listens. I do think it to be the best of the later albums. On New Adventures, I admired what they tried to do, but I just don't think the songs were very good. I wanted to like it really badly, but it just didn't happen for me.
Did someone upthread really say there's NOTHING good about Monster? Strange Currencies? What's The Frequency Kenneth? I mean, these two at the very least are - by the standards of pretty much the average R.E.M. fan - classics in their career. That's at least two more than "Not a single good song on the entire project", and I'm not even thinking very hard about it. I say this even though for my personal tastes, Monster ranks rather low for me in my list of fave R.E.M. records (though Up is my favorite album of theirs, ever, period, so I don't suppose I'm "typical"). To say the album has nothing redeeming whatsoever is purely, purely, purely opinion rather than fact and could have been stated differently by the above poster. I throw it on and enjoy it as the trashy glammy album it is, but it's not my favorite "R.E.M." record, if that makes sense. I like it, but it's almost like the four guys started a side project and forgot to change the groups name, it's just soooo removed, but that's kind of its beauty, too. As far as what we'll get on the box? I think it's pretty likely to be a disc of demos and one live show - probably the ones they captured for Road Movie, at that. If the Milton Keynes '95 show hadn't just been included in the BBC box, that would have been my first guess for inclusion, actually! I hope that the live disc is well mixed, though. Things from the Monster tour often have this sort of "open" sound, like the band was trying to completely avoid direct feeds, preferring to capture "the vibe" of the show instead. That's all well and good, but I really want something tight as a contrast, you know? Wishful thinking, mayhaps.
Yeah, not my favorite but still a way better album than it's always being given credit for. I also rate Up as one of their best albums. I really enjoy the 90s R.E.M. albums. And to say that there's no good songs on Monster is just laughable.
