I really don't understand why Monster doesn't get more love than it does. Being a diehard early REM fan since 1982, it took a long while for me to get into any of their output past Out of Time. That being said, when I discovered Monster about 4 years ago, it really resonated with me. It possesses a compelling energy, and I really like the variety of styles on the album. Since then it has become one of my all-time favourite REM albums.
So a lot of people obviously didn't care for it after they bought it. Which means it must be a reprehensible piece of garbage whose booklets should be used to line our birdcages in order to save the old newspapers that we were using before
Monster isn’t bad, and the best moments on it are as good as anything R.E.M. did. The big problem with it, for me anyway, is the fact that the songs all sound so same-y. Mid-tempo glam/grunge with the same sounds, similar melodies/voicing. It’s like hearing the same song 10 times. Only a few really great tracks break through the morass. I understand wanting to move away from the more pastoral/acoustic sound the band had been cultivating since Green, but they needed to do something to break up the monotony of this record. That being said I’m excited to find out what the extras are on the anniversary set.
Pfft. I love the righteous indignation. We are talking about an album you didn’t like, not the girl who dumped you.
I seem to remember that the CD singles from the 'Monster' album all had live b-sides. The final single released was 'Tongue', the cassette version of which had a reversible cover, to reveal (pun intended) R.E.M. Live '95. The fan would record the live b-sides onto the extended tape, thus providing a cassette live album! I wonder if one of the bonus discs will contain this 'album'. P.S. I'm in the UK and I'm not sure if this was done anywhere else.
I didn't say that I don't like it. I simply stated a fact. You could've tiled your kitchen with copies of Monster in 1995 for pennies. You're the one who seems to have taken it as a personal affront.
Those live b-sides were from the Nov 1992 Greenpeace show that was released on the deluxe edition of Automatic.
There are more copies of Out Of Time and Automatic in UK charity shops than there are of Monster. Though I certainly saw the phenomenon in Sweden, and some copies had sat there so long the orange tray had gone pink. I like some of Monster, though more as background music, I just think the excessive amount of tremelo is grating. There are earlier songs that prove they had it in them to do harder music e.g. "These Days", "Finest Worksong", "Turn You Inside Out", etc, though the ones on Monster kind of seem less memorable due to the production choices. With that said, I love "Circus Envy", it revels in its lofi-ness yet still has a classic R.E.M. chorus. As always I'm eager to hear outtakes.
No, not at all. I was simply wondering why your decades-old anecdote should matter vis-a-vis the forthcoming set. It was you who chose to interpret that anecdote in the manner you did, with the colourful analogies (birdcage, kitchen floor) and so on. The imagery seems excessive, unnecessary, perhaps even gratuitous. You can understand why I might’ve taken that to mean you aren’t a fan of the album. Even if your interpretation is correct, are people locked into opinions? Do you object to fans being given an opportunity to reassess the album?
Just as 30 Trips did for my appreciation of 90s' Dead, the REM Beeb box has exploded my heretofore unawakened passion for the band's later catalogue. I want every substantive note and live show played that the band and label see fit to release with regard to Monster, HiFi, Up, Reveal, Sun, Accelerate, and Collapse! This is partially correct: I tiled the kitchen with Up and Reveal, but papered the study walls with Monster. Now when I walk in it's, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...
I hope this gets more people to give this highly under-rated album a listen if they passed on it when it was first released.
Every single post-Berry album was better represented live. (Accelerate, if only to hear the songs without the horrible mastering of the studio LP) Honestly, if I was going to introduce someone to that period of the band, my compilation would probably be about 60-70% live versions.
Great news. I still remember going to the music store for the midnight release in September 1994. It's still one of my favorite REM albums - I only think the only it failed was due to the lack of a big ballad like "Everybody Hurts" and the expectations of casual fans for another Automatic.
Partially because of the many IRS fans that still can't get over the mainstream move and it's been 30 years now - partially because some thought they jumped on the grunge bandwagon, and some because it was a change in sound from IRS and the recent major label stuff. I think the more serious REM fan likes it and the casual fan either likes/dislikes it. But there's no doubting it was all over the place when it was released and the songs and videos were all getting the promo push and people went for it. There's only one or two posters here who are downplaying its success. Personally, I still like it.
I don't think it failed at all. It's singles were all over MTV and radio in '94-'95 and the tour was very successful (commercially, albeit not personally for the band). It just didn't sound like either version of REM people knew at that point, whether the recent acoustic-y version or the IRS version, so I suppose there was just some underlying confusion. I think the album sounds better now than it did on release, honestly, free of context and expectations.
Used CD stores were filled with copies of Monster for years afterwards. I think fans that had been with the band since the IRS days were more accepting of the more aggressive sound than casual fans that expected another big radio ballad were. Casual fans dumping their CDs in the used market made it seem to be a much bigger failure than it was.
It's far from the only successful record that ended up in used CD stores en masse, I think it's just the most commented on because you couldn't not see that bright orange case anytime a store had one (or a few).
Don't forget the 3 "encore" tracks from the Tongue CD single which were tracks from the band's '94 Saturday Night Live appearance. That version of I Don't Sleep, I Dream is excellent!
The version of Lotus on disc 1 of the recent BBC release is a good example. Upon hearing that version my opinion of that song went from meh to wow.
The full 40 Watt live show that supplied the Monster b-sides was included as a bonus disc on the Automatic For The People 25th anniversary edition. So, no, that won’t be a bonus on Monster. The best bets for bonus material are the original live soundstage demo/rehearsal recordings, and also perhaps a full Monster-era live show, although they just released one of those on the recent BBC box set. The Rough Cut MTV documentary and the Road Movie concert film would make great video bonus material if they want to go there.
The tremolo effect is grating. To my mind, they rocked out far more successsfully on tracks such as Undertow from the next album.
