Evidence points to yes.....

http://rapidshare.com/files/64462199/rem-live-cd1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/64461485/rem-live-cd2.rar

Even the sludgey, middle of the road tracks sound vital.

Live is one thing. The records are another.

I'm about ready to write them off if the next one is a stinker.

That new live album is pretty shitty.

The DVD is pretty unwatchable. The fast paced editing, shaky camera, grainy/distorted video...so hip...so nauseating

i still surprise myself that i keep managing to buy REM records.

i listen to New Adventures in Hi-Fi more than their last few combined
There have been some sweet singles in the past "imitation of life"
but as a whole, they havent been consistent on the album front

i'll probably buy it anyways

Yeah, the last couple haven't been up to snuff. But the Dublin shows from this summer sound really good--better than they have in a long time. If I hadn't heard those tracks, I'd be a lot more skeptical about new songs. Having heard them, I expect a good album.

To answer the question, no. Pretty sure Bill Berry's got all of their mojo stashed in his barn.

Remember when Michael Stipe told everyone he was gay to try and sell more albums? Major LOLZ

Remember everyone's reaction to that?

"....and?"

I clicked on a couple of the half-finished songs from the Dublin shows and they sounded cool. I was sure glad they are more guitar-led than anything they've done in more than a decade. Are they getting their mojo back? Hard to say. Maybe. The next album will answer that question. When is it coming out?

they really need to call it quits...

Spring '08. I read an interview somewhere that compared the new album to Document. Looking forward to this one. I'm giving them one more chance.

All they have to do is lay these new tracks down and not overproduce them in the studio and the next album will be very good.

jeez. they make one shitty album after a great career and it's write-off time?

Only one?

Up
Reveal
Around the Sun


i might like Reveal the most out of the 3....
but those are not on the level as Automatic, Monster, New Adventures

Up is fairly underrated, actually.

I actually like Up a great deal -- at least there they seemed to be taking Berry's departure as a reason to experiment and some of what they came up with was pretty cool ("Sad Professor", "Suspicion", "At My Most Beautiful") and the failures were at least interesting ones, but Reveal was mediocre and Around the Sun was awful. Another bad record would be precedent enough to stop caring about new R.E.M. output. I'll always love their earlier stuff, easily one of my all time favorite bands and a very important part of my middle school/high school years.

I look good in a glass pack
I look good and mean
I look good in metallic sick wraparound blackout tease
I scud along the horizon, I drink some sweet tree tea
I get high in my low-ass boot-cut jean
I like being seen
I look good with my drink-eat-no-sleep, take-a-leap longevity
I get high on my attitude, latitude, 1973
I'm in deep


sorry, this song just got stuck in my head
esp the first line

i was listening to new adventures in hi fi last week, as my discovery of early 80s REM earlier this year has taken up the majority of the music i listened to in 2007. fine album, about 3-4 tracks too long. making it through that entire thing is a challenge.

funny, i just opened up an article in av club called "21 albums that could have made great EPs."

check out the first entry.

That Amnesiac one is awful.

Roughly about 85% of that article was awful.

Hardcore love for this song...though the opening lyrics I mistook at first would have made it even better..."I look good in a gas mask"

From what I've read I'm convinced that Peter Buck knows exactly what the problem was with the last two albums. Basically that they were over produced and that they didn't rock at all. If he continued to call the shots, and I think Mike Mills was with him too because apparently it was his idea to do the Dublin shows, then we could have a really good record. 9 weeks is all they spent recording it. If the producer knows what he's doing and can keep them from endlessly polishing everything, and Stipe can sing like he does live, we could have the best record they've done in ages.

The new material they tested out in Dublin was really great. Anyone who doubts it should go to youtube and search for "R.E.M. Living Well Is The Best Revenge."

Which tracks...I can't think of a single thing I'd change about this record (except the gas mask thing).

i dunno if i'd go that far, but there were some really questionable selections. 13? Urban Hymns (which i heard for the first time in years this week, and it's really quite good)? graduation?

some others, like at war w/ the mystics and new adventures in hi fi, i can really agree with.

and hoenstly, amnesiac would have been a great EP, and i think that article is somewhat right on. but i also love it as an LP and am glad that it ended up as one.

There is some filler* on Hi-Fi, but it a very good CD. Making a fake ep of Hi-Fi and not including "Leave," "Wake Up Bomb," or "E-Bow" is a head scratcher.

*the instrumental track--though I like it

I'd say 90%.

it's true. as per my original post, all hi fi really needs is about 3 tracks trimmed off.


fuck, AV club didn't even put "how the west was won..." on their EP, which is probably my favorite track on the album.

Or the majestic Low Desert.

That article could do with being a pamphlet.

"Leave" is a great song that unlike later R.E.M. could have actually benefitted from more studio polish. Overall I like the soundcheck approach of the album, but that killer riff kind of gets lost amid all the din.

the EP article mentions leaving off "Leave"
i can't have none of that

the whole album is damn good


edit: just saw 54cermak's post.... quit spying in my mind!

right on. i think we're all on the same page then. the av club's track list isn't fitting.

the record still needs editing though

these days, i believe REM are just a touch past their prime, so i don't drive myself crazy second guessing whether their career is sitting still or if it's going to get up and stand again.

Yet you still hold out on explaining where the edit should be...

i'd need to devote serious time to that question. and i don't really want to do it right now.

I'm green with circus envy over this post. Very clever.


Yes, I am expecting good things from the new studio album.

REM Name New Album

The record will be out in April

REM have named their new album 'Accelerate'.

The band's 14th studio LP, the follow-up to 2004's 'Around The Sun', will be released in April.

The band worked on the album in Vancouver and Dublin with Bloc Party and Snow Patrol producer Jacknife Lee.

During their stay in Dublin last summer, the band played five sold-out ‘working rehearsal’ dates at the Olympia Theatre, previewing tracks from the record.

Confirmed tracks for the album include 'Until The Day Is Done', 'Living Well Is The Best Revenge', 'Mr Richards', 'Staring Down The Barrel Of Middle Distance', and 'I'm Gonna DJ', a regular in the band's set on their 2004/2005 world tour.

Frontman Michael Stipe said the guitar-driven LP is "the fastest we've made in 20 years".

He told Q: "I think the songs on 'Around The Sun' are great, but in the process of recording we lost our focus as a band. Now, that focus is back. And it's razor sharp."

I love the song "accelerate" but as an album title, it seems a bit generic.
But I guess it could also be seen as a lean statement of purpose.

Ugh, terrible title. Sounds like an "electronica" album from 1998.

They do enjoy one-word album titles though: Murmer, Reckoning, Document, Green, Monster, Up, Reveal. None really all that good, but that probably applies to most one-word album titles though. On the other hand, REM's multi-word titles have been fantastic. Is there a better title ever than Automatic For The People?

fyi, really good chance The National will be opening for R.E.M. here in the US in April

Wow! Good news.

The last four times I've seen them, these have been their opening bands:

Now It's Overhead (2004)
Sparklehorse (2003)
Wilco (1999)
Radiohead (1995)

I'd say they've made some good choices.

omg omg omg omg omg! seriously these were my two "most listened to" bands of 2007 (i mentioned earlier in this thread that while i've had and loved AFTP and LRP for a while now, 2007 marked the year i got into chronic town and murmur). i realize that the sets will be considerably lacking chronic town and murmur tracks, but REM is one of those arena bands i need to see before i die (file along w/ bob dylan, the rolling stones, springsteen, u2). considering that they're probably the most affordable of the bunch, and that they always choose killer opening acts, they're probably the first of those 5 that i'll actually see.

wow, this is the best news i've heard in a while. wonder if the langderado date is the first "stop," of sorts.

who else has REM had open for them? I know radiohead did for the monster tour, and they wanted neutral milk hotel sometime in the 90s, but they declined. who else? band's got killer taste, they almost rival pearl jam in that department (sonic youth, my morning jacket, sleater-kinney, bob pollard, the buzzcocks and frank black on their most recent tours...). actually i think u2 picks pretty killer openers too.

Dont be too sure.
On the Dublin sets they play alot of Chronic Town stuff.

oh my god i'd shit my pants if they played at least 1 chronic town song.

*pops in murmur to get even more excited*

You being a Seattlite, you should have had a Buck sighting by now.

not yet, although i just officially moved here 4 months ago after only frequently visiting over the last 4 years. i was acutally under the impression that he didn't really live here full time anymore, in part because his ex-wife still does.

on that note, the club that they purchased together in the early 90s, the crocodile cafe, recently closed its doors. buck apparently hasn't had anything to do w/ the venue for years i guess, but his ex-wife, stephanie dorgan, was still the general manager. apparently she was doing a shitty job and and didn't give two shits about the venue, and ultimately was the one who decided to pull the plug entirely, despite the wishes of the employees or her relinquishing her GM duties. anyhow, it was a great place, good atmosphere and excellent sound, and an important player in the early grunge scene (benchmark shows from mudhoney, nirvana and the like..)

i must be a fucking idiot. wilco and sparklehorse are definitely nice additions to their rosters, i don't know of now it's overhead.