New REM album previewed here:

[Kris]

http://www.myspace.com/rem/

Sounds like Reveal, but better.

Jinxster
xxx
_________________
"fashioned by the blade of a world that doesn't care,
feeling so removed, drifting thru stealing air then...
pause and think about it, try to move and shift the pain, but it's there you feel it kicking and you scream and feel alive."

[Kris]

Actually it's just as sodding boring


_________________
"fashioned by the blade of a world that doesn't care,
feeling so removed, drifting thru stealing air then...
pause and think about it, try to move and shift the pain, but it's there you feel it kicking and you scream and feel alive."

[sparky]

this morning i was on the pot reading the nme and it gave the embrace album 1/10. ten minutes later i was discussing with my workmate how dull the single was. at dinner time i went to the sandwich shop and it was on the radio, and one of the girls in the shop said 'i hate this song, it's just so dreary'.

so if you imagine a panel of judges which is me, my workmate, the guy from the nme, and the two girls in the sandwich shop, the panel's verdict is unanimous: the embrace record is dull.

sounds like this rem record is along the same lines which is sad, because i was listening to 'radio free europe' loud the other day and i thought it was great.

so in conclusion...a lot of things are crap, so i guess i would recommend buying the sfa single for the 22 minute live version of man don't give a fuck with all the techno bits in it. or alternatively this compilation cd which i bought three weeks ago and is now one of my favourite compilations ever...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AUHMU/qid%3D1095880489/

[Dave w.]

i used to really love r.e.m. - i think pretty much everything before reveal is great. but reveal is really dull and i've never got into it.

hopefully the new album will be better, but based on leaving new york and the little i've just heard of others it doesn't seem like it is.

oh well, there'll be a new bc album along soon.

[Dave w.]

i've listened to the whole thing. not one song that sounds different to what they've done before. not one.

[John Mc]

I thought Reveal was good, much better than Up. But maybe REM have reached a stage where they've got nothing more to say. I usually think bands should split in that situation but I don't mind REM carrying on, I went to see them last year and they were great live.

I liked Embrace's first couple of albums. I can see why people would think they're dull but I'm a sucker for Northern boys singing sensitive songs. I've not heard the new single but I'm surprised they've had to get someone else in to write songs for them.

[Dave w.]

i think up's much better than reveal. i'm really bad at describing why i like music, so it's hard to say why. i think it just sounds different to stuff they've done before, with loads of weird keyboard sounds and stuff. reveal sounds too "safe", like they were trying to sound more like their most successful albums. plus up just seemed to have more good songs, like walk unafraid and sad professor.

there's a slight feeling of betrayal (although obviously they don't owe me anything), as they said they would never get to the stage where they're churning out the same album again and again.

i saw them live twice last year, and they were great. having said that, it was effectively a greatest hits tour, with a load of old songs. i got a ticket last week to see them in london on their tour next year, and i'm a bit worried that a normal tour where the set is heavily reveal and around the sun-based could be much less good. we'll see.

[mixedcasesspaces]

'Up' is one of the most beautiful albums I know - Stipe's lyrics and the way he chooses to sing them are incredible... it's a good album to play accousticaly on the guitar too.

I like Reveal too, especially the first track, but I haven't got into it as much.

I think REM still have a lot to say, so I hope they don't give up just yet... but I think they suit the slower less pop-py, more accoustic style really. 'Bad Day' was ok, but was too blatantly trying to be another 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It (and I feel fine)'

...in my opinion!
_________________
http://www.facebook.com/thelostcavalry
www.thelostcavalry.com
www.mixedcasesspaces.co.uk

[Dave w.]

[Kris]

[Dave w.]

i love e-bow the letter. it was, along with everything is sorrow, the anthem of the summer of 1996 when i was last unemployed. i had it embedded in my head for months at a time.

"i wore it like a badge of teenage film stars, hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras". no idea what it means, but it sounds great.

there's a good live version, with thom yorke on backing vocals here:

http://www.greenplastic.com/multimedia/audio/ebow.rm

[bravecaptain]

i like 'life's rich pageant' me.

'what noisy cats are we'

beautiful.

mx

[Dave w.]

[sparky]

that's a good call actually, "life's rich pageant". i saw them at the mcalpine stadium in huddersfield in the mid 90s, with the beautiful south and belly supporting. the beautiful south were last minute stand-ins for oasis who pulled out due to noel being punched in newcastle i think. it was one of those great days in the sun. i remember they played "fall on me" that day.

they had another good track called "finest worksong", i can't remember what album that was on, but i'm starting to think they had a bunch of good records back then.

i also saw them at the bbc in about 1997. it was for the filming of an rem special of the jools holland show. we were just a few yards (still haven't worked out how metric works) from them and they seemed like the nicest guys.

still don't understand why there is a big rem thread on the bravecaptain board though!

[sparky]

ps i am with dave w on that track, "e-bow the letter" - always liked that one. fact i think i'll put it on now!