Continuous Transitions...

It’s a pretty safe statement that REM has always been a band in transition. While they certainly do have a “classic REM sound,” that sound can be stretched and pulled into so many different directions that albums like Murmur, Fables of the Reconstruction and Document can be immediately REM and yet absolutely and only of themselves. If there were a “formula” it would simply be their “basic” guitar-bass-drums-vocals approach to music, and their ability to write fantastic pop songs from a unique and intriguing vantage point. This was certainly the case with their IRS years, albums one through five. Yet I find it interesting that when they went directly to a major label, their current home of Warner Bros, for Green, that they decided to start mixing things up a bit, swapping instruments, adding instruments (mandolin, accordion), trying their hand at a more sparse and minimalist sound on a certain tracks, as well as focusing more on possible radio airplay (everybody stand in the place where you...ugh). And yet there were enough jangle anthems and low E guitar licks to still keep Green within the same mindset if not completely the same feel as say a Reckoning or a Life’s Rich Pageant. It wasn’t until their second Warner Bros outing, Out of Time, that REM really began to stretch out, searching for a connection in every direction possible, from western twang (Country Feedback), to bubblegum pop (Near Wild Heaven), to lo-fi balladry (Low), to rap collaborations (Radio Song), to top 40 (Shiny Happy People) and even out of nowhere, borderline experimentation (Belong). The result is a very mixed bag that misses as often as it hits, though you have to give the boys full points for bravery. And it’s not that any of these songs are really bad (ok, Belong totally stinks), some of them are brilliant (Country Feedback), but this scattershot approach makes Out of Time an album that is wholly inconsistent not only in style, but in mood and atmosphere – something they’d been able to create with every album previous, developing a personality so apparent that after three or four listens you can literally pick up the album, look at the cover and feel the music. I’m not being cheesy, I’m dead serious. But when I pick up Out of Time I feel like a schizophrenic, I feel no connection, I feel nervous, and so I put it back down, reaching for any other album (besides Monster). This record is at its best when the band is doing what, to me, seems natural – plugging in their instruments and playing. This is most evident in the “classic REM” sounding Texarkana and Me in Honey, not to mention Losing My Religion, which, though radio slick and slightly over the top, is at heart a true and fantastic REM song. What Out of Time did for REM was completely open them up to a wider audience, catapulting (yes, I get it) them from college playlist darlings to near household names, and from there they were capable of going just about anywhere they wanted…and they did – and pretty much lost that “classic REM sound” in the bargain.


Shiny happy it up, Stipe...