R.E.M.

Certain Songs #1744: R.E.M. – “New Test Leper”

February 5, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Year: 1996

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File Under Jesus

New Adventures in Hi-Fi, R.E.M.’s final album with Bill Berry, in a lot of ways, was their loosest. It’s also one of my favorites.

When they were a touring band in the 1980s, R.E.M. had always written and debuted songs on the road. That was just their way, and while Out of Time, Automatic For The People and Monster were — with a couple of exceptions like “Belong” — totally and utterly studio creations, they decided to record an entire new album while on the road.

Certain Songs #1743: R.E.M. – “Circus Envy (2019 Remix)”

February 4, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Monster (25th Anniversary)
Year: 1994

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File Under Jealousy

Like “Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)” from Chronic Town, “Circus Envy” was inspired by David Lynch’s Elephant Man, a fact that Michael Stipe only revealed last year during an interview with the RU Talkin’ R.E.M. Re: Me? guys.

Certain Songs #1742: R.E.M. – “Tongue (2019 Remix)”

February 3, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Monster (25th Anniversary)
Year: 1994

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File Under Cunnilingus

So a little bit of housekeeping here: while “Tongue” was always on the borderline of being a Certain Song, it was the 2019 remix that put it over the the line. That said, since the performance and recording were both in 1994, I’m counting the year as 1994, not 2019, even as I specify that the version I’m writing about was the 2019 version.

Confused? You won’t be! Oh wait, you probably will be.

Certain Songs #1741: R.E.M – “Let Me In”

February 1, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Monster
Year: 1994

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File Under Kurt

So, as you might have remembered, in early April of 1994, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain blew his brains out with a shotgun, the biggest shock not being that he died — he’d already overdosed a few weeks previously — but how he died. Of course, I’ve already been over this territory before, so let’s focus on how that death affected R.E.M. Spoiler Alert: a lot!

Certain Songs #1740: R.E.M. – “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”

January 31, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Monster
Year: 1994

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File Under Irony

Of course, by the time Monster — AKA “The Scary One” — came out two years later, everything was different. And I do mean everything.

I had moved out of Fresno and was living in Oakland, and had just discovered the World Wide Web, soon to be the source of the career path I’m still on. Also, the Wild Blue in Fresno had closed, cutting off a major venue for local bands, including one called “Kenneth, What’s The Frequency?” that had formed around the time Automatic For The People came out, but I think had broken up by then.

In the wider world, there wasn’t a World Series that year — sorry, Montreal Expos — and Kurt Cobain had killed himself, sending shockwaves throughout the music world about which I still cared deeply. The deaths of the Blue and Cobain, I think, were a major spur for me getting the hell out, as was leaving my job at the Video Zone, where I’d been since 1985. All of that stuff happened within a month or so of each other, a clear message that it was really now or never, I had to decide.

Certain Songs #1739: R.E.M. – “Find The River”

January 30, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992

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File Under Ocean

“Find The River” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.

At the very least, it’s on the shortlist of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, R.E.M. Division.

That said, unlike the two titans that immediately precede it on the album, I don’t have all of the words memorized, instead, I just really love “Find The River” as an incredibly beautiful piece of music.

Certain Songs #1738: R.E.M. – “Nightswimming”

January 29, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992

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File Under Recklessness

The final three songs on Automatic For The People — “Man on the Moon,” “Nightswimming,” and “Find The River” — represent if not the the peak of R.E.M.’s music, then for sure a peak of their music: a trio of pretty and poignant songs that would have never occurred to the band at any previous point in their existence.

Or any other band, for that matter. That was one of the joys of Automatic For The People: just how out of step, how out of time it felt in the autumn of 1992. After this, every R.E.M. album felt like a reaction to something: their stardom, their drummer, their sophistication, their break-up.

Certain Songs #1736: R.E.M. – “Sweetness Follows”

January 27, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Automatic For the People
Year: 1992

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File Under Sweetness

I guess the most surprising thing about “Sweetness Follows” is how long it took R.E.M. to write a song that sounded like “Sweetness Follows,” which sounds a lot like Big Star’s Third as filtered through Murmur.

Certain Songs #1735: R.E.M. – “Everybody Hurts”

January 24, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992

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File Under Sometimes

R.E.M. may have written a more straightforward and sincere song in the R.E.M. but outside of possibly “World Leader Pretend,” I can’t think of one that has fewer levels of irony or metaphor than “Everybody Hurts.” It’s all right there on the page: everybody hurts, sometimes. So hold on.

Which, of course, in the irony-drenched early 1990s, might have a bit of a hard sell, but with its slow-burn to big build Stax arrangement and utter sincerity, “Everybody Hurts” kinda cut through, which is probably why there wasn’t as much of a backlash to it as what Space Ghost called “that shiny shiny people song.”

Certain Songs #1734: R.E.M. – “Drive”

January 23, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992

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File Under Bushwhacked

It happens to just about everybody, with the exception of Neil Young, Robert Pollard and Prince: there comes a time when you just can’t crank out an album per year, especially if you’re successful. For one thing, success often means long tours, which are anathema to both writing and recording.

So after cranking out six albums in six consecutive years, R.E.M. took some time off between Green and Out of Time, and I figured that it was pretty much the end of yearly R.E.M. albums. And, in fact, that was kinda how the culture started trending in the late 80s / early 1990s: nobody was doing yearly albums anymore. Thanks a lot, Boston!