Shuffled No.6 | R.E.M.

So, my all-time favorite band, R.E.M., put out a new record this week. I’m sure I’ll post more on the fantastic Accelerate in the future, but I thought I’d take this chance to do something different with my little Shuffled experiment.

One of my favorite things about getting new music from the artists I love is that it becomes an occasion to go back and listen again to the rest of their catalog. Often times I will go a long while without listening to a particular artist (as is the case when you have a 14,000+ song library), but R.E.M. is an exception to that rule. Even so, there are some things in this edition of Shuffled that surprised me. I guess it shouldn’t be that shocking though, considering that I’ve got 421 tracks to choose from.

“#9 Dream” from Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur

Actually, I think I’ve listened to this all of two times. I wasn’t enamored by it when I got it. It sounds a little off, like it’s country R.E.M. mixed with fuzzy R.E.M. I guess it doesn’t help that I’m not terribly familiar with the Lennon original. I do kind of enjoy this, listening to it again, but it’s the kind of R.E.M. recording that makes people put them—unjustly or not—into a the Adult Contemporary/AAA box.

“Low” from Out of Time

Even though Out of Time is one of—or is it the tops?—the best-selling albums in the R.E.M. catalog, I think it’s underrated. Everyone goes straight for “Losing My Religion,” which is undoubtedly a great song, but there are so many other highlights on this record that I now tend to forget about that massive hit. This is a perfect example of why the album’s so strong. You’ve got the dirge-y vocals of Stipe, the bongo beats… and then the song just moves into this other place, with a shimmering guitar, strings, and a haunting chorus.

“Horse to Water (Live from Athens)” from Accelerate: B-Sides

Yay for rocking, 2008 R.E.M. This song is crunchy, jarring, and somehow still incredibly catchy. Mike Mills, who hasn’t made much of a vocal impact since the early ’90s, shines here and throughout the album. A welcome return, I must say. I always loved how his high notes juxtaposed with Stipe’s increasingly low-registered delivery.

“Dragging the Line” from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

This song sounded like nothing R.E.M. was recording at the time, and, for that matter, like not much since. It almost fits with the Brian Wilson-inspired, summery Reveal, but nothing on that album, with the possible exception of the standout single “Imitation of Life” is this buoyant.

“Supernatural Superserious” from Accelerate

This reminds me a lot of the aforementioned “Imitation of Life” in that it’s a song that sounds distinctly R.E.M., coming off both as new and familiar in the same instance. Both tracks have this timeless quality and share a total effortlessness, as if infinitely catchy pop songs just roll off the R.E.M. presses every day. What makes this my favorite band though is the fact they could write songs like these all day, but really, nothing much else sounds like this in their catalog.

“Undertow (Live 11.18.95)” from Bittersweet Me

Fitting that a song from 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi would come on after a track from Accelerate. The two albums to me share a lot of similarities, chief among them a looseness and natural experimentation. Much of Hi-Fi was recorded on the road during the Monster Tour, with most of the songs road-tested throughout that year. The new songs, having been written on the fly, and then tested in Dublin last summer, carry that same “let’s try this” vibe that leads to some great places. I almost think that Accelerate is some kind of alternate universe follow-up to Hi-Fi, though in reality it couldn’t exist in its current form without the three albums that preceded it.

“Begin the Begin (Live 9.19.92)” from Bang and Blame

From the famed Alternative NRG show in Atlanta comes this Life’s Rich Pageant classic. In reading a lot of the reviews for Accelerate, people have been comparing the album to LRP, and I didn’t really see/hear it. After listening to this live version though, I kind of get it. What I love most about Accelerate (and there are a lot of things to love about it) is that it truly reflects the band’s history, from beginning until now. I can hear bits of Life’s Rich Pageant in there, sure, but I also hear Monster and Hi-Fi and Up and Document and everything in between. It’s like somebody took all the best parts of R.E.M. and reconstructed them into something new.

“Walters Theme” from Dead Letter Office

A fun little near-instrumental that exemplifies the looseness R.E.M. used to have in the studio. It’s that same looseness that they fought so hard to get back for the new album, and the results are there on record. Sometimes it’s better to just play and go rather than over-think every little decision. Sometimes perfection is your own worst enemy.

“Imitation of Life (Live Trafalgar Square)” from All the Way To Reno

It’s amazing to me how things I mention show up sooner or later in the shuffle. This is a very strong live version from 2001, I believe. It’s funny, I’ve seen R.E.M. live 5 times now, all since 1999, and every time they just kill it. As bad as the critics would have you believe the records have been in the past ten years, R.E.M. as a live act has only gotten better with age.

“Gentle On My Mind” from Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project

In case you hadn’t noticed, my R.E.M. catalog goes deep. This is a Glen Campbell cover. Personally, I’m partial to “Wichita Lineman,” but this has its own merits. I do love the countrified R.E.M. though. They’re at least as good as the rocking R.E.M. or the pop R.E.M. or even the college rock/indie R.E.M.

“Monty Got a Raw Deal” from Automatic for the People

This is one of the lesser tracks on Automatic, for my money, but that’s like saying it’s not your favorite hundred dollar bill—everything’s that good. There’s a reason this was both the commercial and artistic peak for the band, and it’s proof that sometimes those two generally clashing sides can agree on something. Automatic was not the first R.E.M. album I bought upon its release (that was Monster), but it was then and remains now the reason I went from liking the band to loving them. It remains to this day my favorite album of all-time, R.E.M. or otherwise.

“Me In Honey” from Out of Time

R.E.M. has had some great guest vocalists over the years, and Kate Pierson is near the top of that list. Haters will tell you that “Shiny Happy People” is terrible—I’ll quietly disagree—but they can’t argue that this song isn’t instantly memorable. Featuring a great harmony on the chorus and even better counter melody on the verses, this is a perfect send-off to a wonderful album.

“Turn You Inside-Out” from Green

Good to end this edition of Shuffled on a rock song. I was hoping for something from the early years, but this will have to do. I once heard/read an interview with Michael Stipe where he talked about the path of an artist. He mentioned some other guy who said this first, so I’m paraphrasing twice-removed, but basically the idea was that, as an artist, you start out at this state of innocence. In that state, you have a fresh look on things, but lack the craft. As you progress as an artist, you move further and further away from those early years, but ever closer to mastering your craft. Then, since this path is not a straight line, but instead a circle, at some point the craft becomes so second nature that you can now return to that innocence. I feel like R.E.M. has, with this new album, finally reached that state, and Accelerate isn’t so much a return to form, but a new beginning.