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| "early photo" |
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| "later" |
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R.E.M. is an American quartet formed in Athens, Georgia 1980 consisting of Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitarist), Mike Mills (bass), and Bill Berry (drums). After 31 years the band, which was turned into a trio in 1997, as drummer Berry decided to lead a life out of the spotlight (while he made the remaining band members promise they would continue the band instead of dissolving), R.E.M. officially declared the disbandment on Sep. 21, 2011 after having released 15 studio albums.
I first discovered the band at some point in 1984 as I came across the new album Reckoning (1984) at the local library. The band was (almost) totally unknown in my local community but I fell for their original style, although, I didn't fully enjoy their music until the release of their third studio album Lifes Rich Pageant (1986). From here on I bought every new album without listening to it first, and the band soon became one of my absolute favourite bands. Out of Time (1991) signalled a new era for the band. Since the debut, critics had noticed the band and many described them as the next big thing. It took them another six studio albums to reach the huge crowds of fans but when they finally did, it was world-wide and with enormous numbers of albums sold. Out of Time was the band's first and also most mainstream pop / rock album of all their 15 studio releases, which is why some older fans, myself included, for the first time welcomed one of their new albums with little enthusiasm.
However, R.E.M. understood to use the power of mainstream music to build on their style combining and loaning from different styles to produce several fine and all the time very well selling albums. For me, at least up until the release of New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), which was the last album to feature all 4 founding members. After Bill Berry had left the band in 1997, the band never really made another truly great album, imho. Up (1998) and Reveal (2001), I only copied to a cassette since a friend bought the albums, and I had lost the interest for the band's new music, and simply found these two albums dull and uninspiring, and upon listening to a few songs from Around the Sun (2004), I felt the band was as good as dead. That is simply the band's low point, and I never listened to any of their new albums until around 2012 / 13, when I decided to purchase Up and Reveal (although, I had them digitally) and also listen to their last albums - just to reconsider my 'verdict'.
The first two albums without Berry were exactly like I remembered them, and the 2004 album still remains their worst effort ever, but the band actually seemed to put things back together after that horrendous release, 'cause Accelerate (2008) and the final album Collapse Into Now (2011) are equally as good as New Adventures..., and I think betters Reveal. Not that they are stylistically the same, but it seems the band had more to offer. And looking at the 15 studio releases, it is a truly unique and fine career with a strong contribution to the history of modern popular music, which is hard to par.
[ official site: remhq.com ]
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