here here

Although the band doesn't do a great deal for me in an all round sense, they've had some magnificant tracks. Drive being one of them.

electrolite!!

so. central. rain!

The memories I get from listening to New Adventures In HiFi are my favourites!

Perfect Circle

Always one of my very fave bands, pretty much everything they did up until the "Happy People" debacle and plenty after that was fantastic, though I think it may be time to pull up stumps now . . .

Just for you sum1
R.E.M. perform Furry Happy Monsters on Sesame Street...

OK, that's pretty funny . . . and I guess the original is OK if you're a kid, but still . . . the sugar rots my teeth.

HEB that stank;(

why can't you link a song like drive!?!

Drive - for Cheezel

For TagoMago
So. Central Rain - recorded with Bill Berry at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia on 12 September 2006...

So many great songs. The new compilation is great. I'm a huge fan of Up. The last one was crap

the last one was the death rattle.

am listening to Reckoning now. those first few chords of 'Harborcoat' are true air-punching stuff. glorious.

the last one was the death rattle.

Yup.

Well, where to now then? I think they need to rethink.

Michael Stipe is kind of dry. Up was great cos it was full of depression and anxiety. But the last two, lyrically, very bland. Reveal was somewhat saved by Peter and Mike's Beach Boys fixation, it's such a gorgeous warm summer record...but the sound of Around the Sun was just dire.

They should call it a day, but it would be sad to end it on such a bum note.

yay. They are entering the Hall Of Fame. Awesome

classic songs with a long his-tory.. southern boys just like you and me!

time after time was my least favourite song.

time after time was my least favourite song!

Ask the girl of the hour by the water tower's watch
If your friends took a fall, are you obligated to follow

Time after, time after time

When the bull's on his hooves, when you gather friends by the tower
If you try to refuse, will they judge your worth by the hour?

Time after, time after time
Time after, time after

If you're tired and you're tried you can find me in my room
You can stay if you want and the third time you can't lose

Time after, time after time
Time after, time after time

Ask the girl of the hour, by the water tower's watch
We can fight if you want but who will turn out the light

Time after, time after time
Time after, time after time
Time after, time after time

Time after, Time after

Tracklisting for new album due out in March -

Discoverer
All the best
Uberlin
Oh my heart
It happened today (first single)
Every day is yours to win
Mine smell like honey
Walk it back
Aligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter
That someone is you
Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I
Blue

Hear the album at the Daily Telegraph website: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/music/exclusive-rem-album-stream/story-e6frexl9-1226014252803

Sounds like The Decemberists!

Only kidding... It's not bad but man, some of the songs are so close to being parodies of old REM songs it gets a little too much. The last song in particular should just be renamed Country Feedback the Letter.

I think I miss the experimentation of Up and Reveal...

Heard this album a month or so ago at a Warner listening...thought it was pretty hit and miss. Some really fantastic moments, but I heard Cuyahoga Mark II in there somewhere. Should be in my letter box when I get home this afternoon! Weeee!

Yeah, you'll also hear Drive (blatant), disturbance at the heron house and a couple of others.

They may be out of ideas. Last album of their contract too. This could be it...

No tour :( But they are making a video for each song on the album:

http://www.spin.com/articles/watch-rem-perform-blazing-new-song

Jesus yes.

I've tried really hard to get into this album but I just can't do it. I like Discoverer and Oh My Heart and that's it. How fucking disapointing.

i listened to is once, went ''yeah that's pretty good, sounds like a journey through their best albums'' and then forgot about it.

@RoastOxCrisps. Yep. It's utterly forgettable.

In case you all don't know, Life's Rich Pageant is getting the reissue treatment. Comes out in mid July with a second disc of demos (I am fairly sure most of these demos are readily available via bootlegs though).

Disc 2
01 Fall on Me
02 Hyena
03 March Song (King of Birds)
04 These Days
05 Bad Day
06 Salsa (Underneath the Bunker)
07 Swan Swan H
08 Flowers of Guatemala
09 Begin the Begin
10 Cuyahoga
11 I Believe
12 Out of Tune
13 Rotary Ten
14 Two Steps Onward
15 Just a Touch
16 Mystery to Me
17 Wait
18 All the Right Friends
19 Get on Their Way (What If We Give It Away)

I am in such an REM headspace at the moment. What does anyone think of the new songs from the best of?

I haven't heard them yet, will give that new best of a spin tomorrow me thinks.

i have been absolutely flogging disc one of that 'best of' ... so much so that i''ve barely given disc two a crack.

We All Go Back To Where We Belong is vintage, top shelf R.E.M. A Month of Saturdays would rank as one of their worst songs ever. Hallelujah is somewhere in between.

Cant wait for the next R.E.M. best of, that if keeping to their 'best of' release schedule, should be out in about March...

josejones said 2 hours ago:
i have been absolutely flogging disc one of that 'best of' ... so much so that i''ve barely given disc two a crack.

Same here. My CD alarm clock wakes me up with it each morning. It's like Groundhog Day... with 'Gardening at NIght'.

I can't tell which is a better song: Finest Worksong, or I could Turn You Inside Out. What a dilemma!

RoastOxCrisps said 19 minutes ago:

I can't tell which is a better song: Finest Worksong, or I could Turn You Inside Out. What a dilemma!

That's interesting... I'm a Document/Green-era disciple, and these would be two of my least favourite REM songs. Weird, huh?

In semi-related-but-ultimately-dull news: I had a dream the other night that I was watching a doco on REM, and Stipe (with long hair) was explaining how each album had a working title that was derived from a type of timber. Green was known as ''Tiffany Cherry''.

That IS odd. I think I like them so much because they're quite aggressive.

In other random thoughts, how much is You Am I's ''Get Up'' a rip of REM's ''Get Up''?

the three new tracks on the latest best of are quite interesting

a month of saturdays - a nod to pylon and their early days - preREM

we all go back... - quintessential REM

hallelujah - a sign that they still had the goods to write an amazing song in an amazingly different way - efinately went out on a high

so many hidden gems in the REM catelouge... i was their biggest fan for around 15 years, before i finally got my head around the church