Tag Archives: r.e.m.

#1027: R.E.M. – Perfect Circle

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Ah, R.E.M.’s Murmur. I’ve commented on this album before. How I came about it initially, and how I came to ultimately love it. For those not in the know, it’s not a long story. Heard it once in 2013. Went on to completely forget about it. Heard it again in 2017 and thought it was one of the greatest albums I’d heard up to that point. It’s a tie between it and Automatic for the People as my favourite record of theirs. The preference can change day-by-day. What I observed right away with Murmur was that the choruses on every song were downright incredible, even on the sole slower number ‘Perfect Circle’.

The record prides itself on a whole singer-not-making-sense-but-it-still-sounds-great theme, which I think endears a lot of people to it. The lyrics are more for the listener’s interpretation rather than setting a straight-up narrative or trying to signify a message. Placed right in the middle of it all, or as the closer to the first half if you’re a vinyl person, ‘Perfect Circle’ is something of the emotional centerpiece – even though it might be difficult to find something to latch onto with all the vague lyricism. For me, there’s a hint of something clear in the second verse, in which the song’s title is said for the one and only time in the song, where there’s a scene of friends getting together, drinking and enjoying each other’s company. But that’s all I can say at this time. Otherwise, I’m mostly getting lost in the comforting instrumental backdrop of pianos and lightly strummed guitars.

Whether this was well-known before 1998, I’m not sure, but it was that year when R.E.M. were on tour that they began to bring this track back to their live sets, announcing before they’d proceed to play it that the song was actually written by drummer Bill Berry. He had amicably left the band the year prior, and so every performance of the song was in dedication to him. By “written”, I think it would mean musically. Am sure Stipe was always behind the lyrics. But that the drummer was behind the music should be no surprise. It’s just another example of an R.E.M. song where Berry’s musicianship resulted in one of the band’s (in my opinion) best songs.

#914: R.E.M. – New Test Leper

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Got a memory of listening to New Adventures in Hi-Fi for the first time. It’s a bit vague, but I remember where I was and when, all the essential things. Was in January 2018, and I was on a bit of an R.E.M. trip after revisiting Murmur after a few years and falling head over heels for it. The first two weeks of that month, I went into the office at my then new job, went onto Spotify and went through the band’s discography an album per day. I was the only one in there pretty much all the time, so I could play them all out of the loudspeakers while I was doing my duties or whatever. As a result, the lyrics usually went over my head, but the music always stuck out at some parts. ‘New Test Leper’ was one of the tracks from the album where these little moments piqued my ears quite a few times.

Always appreciated the overall tone of this track. It’s a swaying 6/8 time number with these layered acoustic guitars and a great melodic bassline from Mike Mills. Those times when the bass ascends during the chorus followed by Michael Stipe’s descending “hey, hey, hey” feel so satisfying. Stipe’s hushed and restrained vocal performance suits the track perfectly, can’t think of another R.E.M. track where he takes that sort of a approach. It’s quite a unique track. And you’d never think it was five and a half minutes long, despite what it might say on the CD or Wikipedia.

The track’s first line caused a bit of controversy among some Christians back in the day, where it seems that Michael Stipe is just disowning Jesus Christ. But listening on, the track reveals itself as a first-person account of a not-so-very religious person who finds themselves as the subject in front of a studio audience on a talk show. The narrator’s trying to get the audience and host to understand their point of view, but to no avail. The network cut to commercial, the host has no personality, the audience won’t listen, and overall the whole experience is a bit of a farce. I can’t think of another track that tried to merge religion with a cultural situation such as a talk show, and for that reason I think ‘New Test’ deserves some props. But on the whole, good music, great lyrics, brilliant performance all round. It’s a stellar track.

#858: R.E.M. – Moral Kiosk

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If I was properly updating my blog back in 2018, I would have fit in a post solely dedicated to R.E.M.’s Murmur. That year, I went through the band’s discography front to back, and found that the album was one that I had really been missing out on in all my years of living. I think I listened to it once in 2013, but didn’t care for it. But that revisit truly turned me over. I seemed to remember that ‘Aha!’ moment coming in on the first chorus of ‘Pilgrimage’. Then every song that followed just never let up with great choruses. It’s a chorus fest throughout this album. Another thing was that Michael Stipe isn’t really singing about anything that makes sense in a direct way on here. There isn’t that extra hang-up of thinking, “Oh, but what’s he trying to say?” It’s some kinda abstract/poetic lyricism set to jubilant melodies. You can’t beat that.

‘Moral Kiosk’ is the fifth song on there. I thought this song was okay initially, but nothing special. Not like, I dunno, ‘Shaking Through’ or ‘Sitting Still’. But further listens changed that opinion. I give it a lot more credit now. Once the beat kicks in, I can’t help but bop my head or air-drum to it. Everything’s delivered with this forward-driving moment, and that sort of call and response thing with Stipe’s vocal and those guitar fills by Peter Buck add a good dynamic. The track goes on, and then in comes that chorus. Here, Stipe yelps “Inside, cold, dark, fire, twilight” amidst these tom-tom rolls and humming melodies courtesy of bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. Those harmonies are a constant in every chorus on the album, always coming in as a sort of cathartic release from the kind of sneaky verses. They always arrive with a sudden burst of energy. I’d also like to shout-out the final chorus where the rhythm’s changed to give the track a disco feeling before coming to an end. Such a good switch up when you hear it the first time.

You can try and get something out of Stipe’s lyrics for this if you Google ’em, but it’s probably not worth the effort. Not saying that the lyrics are bad. Not at all. But if you’re honestly looking to gain some intellectual substance, I think even the band members would say there’s nothing to them. As I said, that aspect of the album made me like it that much more. Obviously as the years went on Stipe found his voice and wrote some earnest, heartwarming/breaking, ironic narratives. All the works. But the lack of those on Murmur makes it so unique from the rest. Well, and Reckoning too. I’ll also take this short sentence to shout-out the song ‘Catapult’ which didn’t get a post, but would have done had I heard it sooner.

#802: R.E.M. – Man on the Moon

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I downloaded the Automatic for the People album years ago. A website said that it was a very good record. I didn’t really pay much attention to it though. 2018 was the year I really got into R.E.M., and I went through the band’s whole discography in about two weeks. Automatic was an obvious standout. ‘Man on the Moon’ is the tenth track on there.

Drummer Bill Berry came up with the main chord progression of the verses (a slide from C to D) while strumming a guitar alongside the band’s usual guitarist, Peter Buck. The story goes that Berry reached for something and inadvertently changed the chord he was playing. Buck went ahead and developed upon the idea. Singer and lyricist Michael Stipe heard the music they had come up with, and for a long time had some trouble coming up with words to accompany it. In the end, he chose to write about comedian Andy Kaufman, his career highlights and compares those conspiracies about his death with those about the moon landing. The word ‘yeah’ also appears a lot in there because Stipe was inspired by Kurt Cobain’s use of it in Nirvana songs.

Notable highlights in this song for me are the three way harmonies of Stipe, bassist Mike Mills, and Berry. Those vocals were a staple in the R.E.M. catalogue from the band’s first album. After Automatic they weren’t utilised as much. Whenever that ‘Andy did you hear about this one’ pre-chorus starts with Berry on the lower harmony and Mills on the high with Stipe in the middle, it always feels like this huge change in motion from the preceding verses. Peter Buck’s slide guitar during these parts are quite nice too. Released as the second single from the album in 1992, it was part of a run that cemented the hold that R.E.M. had on the alternative world on the time. I’ll never really know how big the band were then. I hadn’t been born. But from what I’ve read, they were a huge deal.

#721: R.E.M. – Leave

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An absolute mammoth of a track, ‘Leave’ can be found on R.E.M.’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi album released back in 1996. The song is the longest composition the band ever committed to tape and is placed bang in the middle of their longest album. I see it as the record’s centrepiece, delivered with a ferocity and sense of urgency that makes me just a bit anxious when listening to it. That siren synthesizer that blares throughout doesn’t help alleviate that tension much either. There’s something very cinematic about it that I really like though. Sounds like the end credits track to a bleak action film. At least that’s how I feel.

The track is recognised as being of the last noteworthy songwriting contributions by original drummer Bill Berry before he left the group in 1997 to become a farmer. He came up with the five note riff that the whole track depends on and plays the acoustic guitar in the introduction. It’s after that intro that the song proper begins with a booming thwack of the snare and the aforementioned siren. I feel it’s worth mentioning that the track is essentially a live performance recorded at a soundcheck during their Monster tour so you can properly hear the reverberations of each instrument and Michael Stipe’s vocals around the room. Peter Buck messes up the lick for a brief moment near the end, the band comes in a bit late when coming close to the finish, and for a split second you can hear someone yell ‘wow’ at the performance right in the last second – and it’s all these little rough moments that show just how much effort and energy each member was putting in.

Michael Stipe reportedly didn’t like the way his voice sounded on the final release so this alternate/remix version (below) was made at some point and made available on the bonus disc for the band’s In Time compilation. I’ll stick with the version from Hi-Fi.

Just speaking on Hi-Fi for a brief moment, I would say it’s my third(?) favourite of R.E.M.’s. I’ve come to really like songs from that album well after I started this blog; unfortunately I can’t write about ‘Electrolite’, ‘Be Mine’, ‘E-Bow the Letter’, or ‘How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us’. There’s a lot of content that could’ve been. The post on ‘New Test Leper’ should be good though.