Rolling Stone mag reviews R.E.M.'s Accelerate

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  • Posts: 3,412
    facepollution wrote:
    They only gave their last album 3 stars, so clearly they do listen before they review.

    Its just an exaggeration but they really are notorious for giving albums good reviews because of who they are, because its political, or because its trendy. Besides for a few songs, I find REM quite boring but they are critically acclaimed so it doesnt surprise me that it got a good review from them.
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

    "Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
  • Posts: 8,684
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    Besides for a few songs, I find REM quite boring

    and yet, you seem to really like oasis.
    ;)
    If I was to smile and I held out my hand
    If I opened it now would you not understand?
  • Posts: 3,412
    DriftingByTheStorm wrote:
    and yet, you seem to really like oasis.
    ;)

    Your gonna need a better insult than that
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

    "Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
  • Posts: 8,684
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    Your gonna need a better insult than that

    i think i was just pointing out the obvious that its all a matter of taste.
    you were trying to imply that Rolling Stone Mag giving REM good reviews was indicative of their bias, because you find REM boring, yet the "critics" just love them ...

    ... while i completely agree that Rolling Stones reviews are utter bullshit on the whole, just because you don't groove on REM doesn't mean that htey are just cow-towing to a big name band.

    The obvious comment to draw from your post to make this reference was that lots of people find Oasis to be quite boring and overrated.

    How did Rolling Stones review their albums?
    ;)
    If I was to smile and I held out my hand
    If I opened it now would you not understand?
  • Posts: 11,175
    DriftingByTheStorm wrote:
    I didn't get that at all ... but maybe i'll try again with that in mind. Not seeing it though. I think it actualy sounded a bit like "Hope" off of Up, at least some of the vocal bits. ;)



    i agree with this, by and large.
    the song structures sure do have a similar quality.
    only major difference that dates it way far from LRP is the ultra-modern distortion tones ... i don't think there was one truly distorted guitar on all of LRP.

    its actually just the opening guitar part that reminds me of them, but thats just me. i could be crazy, idk.
  • Posts: 3,412
    DriftingByTheStorm wrote:
    i think i was just pointing out the obvious that its all a matter of taste.
    you were trying to imply that Rolling Stone Mag giving REM good reviews was indicative of their bias, because you find REM boring, yet the "critics" just love them ...

    ... while i completely agree that Rolling Stones reviews are utter bullshit on the whole, just because you don't groove on REM doesn't mean that htey are just cow-towing to a big name band.

    The obvious comment to draw from your post to make this reference was that lots of people find Oasis to be quite boring and overrated.

    How did Rolling Stones review their albums?
    ;)


    They jumped on the bandwagon of loving them at first and then hating them when there was a backlash. Typical Rolling Stone fashion.
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

    "Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
  • Posts: 8,684
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    They jumped on the bandwagon of loving them at first and then hating them when there was a backlash. Typical Rolling Stone fashion.

    typical.
    just remember REM is an innovator.
    They nearly invented "alt-rock" or "college rock" ... at a time when big arena rock was all the rage ... then you had this little mouse-y band from Athens with a shy lead singer mumbling lyrics and cupping the mic stand, with hair in his face (sound familiar? ;) ) ...

    ... and for REM this record is, as previously mentioned on another thread, a "return to form" album ... so its only fitting that RS would give them 4stars for this ... they deserve it.

    Don't slag 'em for it, yikes!
    If I was to smile and I held out my hand
    If I opened it now would you not understand?
  • Posts: 344
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    They jumped on the bandwagon of loving them at first and then hating them when there was a backlash. Typical Rolling Stone fashion.

    For the record my friend Rolling Stone gave your beloved Oasis's "Be Here Now" 4 stars which most around this forum would agree is a cocaine induced, we are bigger-than-Jesus inspired, piece of sh*t.

    Just because R.E.M. is putting out something that is genuinely inspired while the Gallagher bros. put on nothing more than "greatest hits" concerts here in Canada and don't even have the ballz to perform their new material live find another thread to flame

    p.s. i do love Definitely Maybe
  • Posts: 6,834
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    They jumped on the bandwagon of loving them at first and then hating them when there was a backlash. Typical Rolling Stone fashion.

    What and you don't think it's a coincidence that Oasis have been heading downhill ever since their debut?
  • Posts: 6,425
    any R.E.M. that sounds like LRP or Document or NAIFH is good... From what I have heard on this album it's a killer for sure. I didn't mind some tracks on Around The Sun to be honest but overall it lacks imagination. Boy in the well and ascent of man are killer though. Looking forward to the 1st of April!
    I'm just flying around the other side of the world to say I love you

    Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl

    I love you forever and forever :)

    Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
  • Posts: 1,283
    I've yet to hear the album.....


    too much of a traditionalist, gonna wait unti it's released lol :D

    But man, you guys are getting me excited :D
    'The more I studied religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.' - Sir Richard Francis Burton
  • Posts: 5,213
    finally a record to pick up.
    d'oh!!!!!!

    http://www.myspace.com/brain_of_c
  • Posts: 980
    DriftingByTheStorm wrote:
    Lol.
    Well i almost agree about NAIHF, it is definately one of their strongest albums. Honest truth it actually loses a few notches in my book for just being TOO accessible. That album had, what, 6 or 7 singles on it? Yikes! You go back and listen to it, and I end up skipping half of the album because i've heard those songs overplayed so many dang times. Its as bad as Ten. lol.

    About "Until The Day Is Done" i just can't agree. I actually thought it was one of the strongest songs on the album.

    My biggest criticism of it is, like Monster and NAIHF, it is just a bit too "flashy" for me. It almost lends it a "cheap" feeling, a disposable music type quality. I can't really describe it, but it is in the quality of some of those riffs, and it lessens the experience for me just a slight bit.

    I would almost argue that Up is in fact the stronger effort, but i do like that some of the songs on Accelerate are clearly more IRS-era REM in their appregiated, un-fuzzed-guitar-tone song structure.

    I think where the common ground among everyone in this thread is, is that this album is -- hands down -- MUCH better than the last two efforts, and THAT is something we can all smile about.

    :D


    Like i said in the other thread, for a band in to the end of its 3rd decade, with members in their 50s, you can't freaking complain.

    REM has maintained its youthful exuberance and feel more so than any other band i could ever think of, and i'm glad to have a bit of that "old" feeling back. I was starting to think the boys had lost themselves to the soul-less drum-machine era post-alt-rock synth-pop sound that radiohead had infected them with, and its nice to know they can still record music with substance and organic personality!

    yay!

    I think you've just summed up what I've been trying to explain to myself for years :p. "Flashy" is a good word to describe some of R.E.M's work and I think it's apparent on this album. It seems, I dunno, like rock-lite?

    I've love to hear Stipe's voice in something other than typical alternative rock songs. Any reccomendations?
  • Posts: 344
    muppet wrote:
    I think you've just summed up what I've been trying to explain to myself for years :p. "Flashy" is a good word to describe some of R.E.M's work and I think it's apparent on this album. It seems, I dunno, like rock-lite?

    I've love to hear Stipe's voice in something other than typical alternative rock songs. Any reccomendations?

    pick up their covers album from 1987 called "Dead Letter Office"
  • Posts: 1,469
    GlorifiedAnimal wrote:
    "until the day is done" sounds almost identical to "Swan Swan H" off of Life's Rich Pageant (my favorite R.E.M. album), .

    I thought the exact same thing when I heard the opening guitar chords

    .....sounds alot like "Swan Swan H" mixed with a bit of "Sweetness Follows" (in fact I found myself singing Sweetness Follows in my head the first few times I listened to the song)......not that i'm complaining (really enjoying the album as a whole)
    In my world everyone is a pony,
    and they all eat rainbows and pooh butterflies!
  • Posts: 8,684
    Todd76 wrote:
    I thought the exact same thing when I heard the opening guitar chords

    .....sounds alot like "Swan Swan H" mixed with a bit of "Sweetness Follows" (in fact I found myself singing Sweetness Follows in my head the first few times I listened to the song)......not that i'm complaining (really enjoying the album as a whole)

    you know.
    now i agree with ya'll.

    I was so confused.
    Having just listened to the album again,
    it does sound like Swan Swan, in the banjo-y guitar parts, and the strings do reminisce of Sweetness Follows.

    When i said, "sounds like 'Hope' from Up to me", i was confused, and thinking of "Mr. Richards" which does very much remind me of "Hope".

    As to Bladworth's comment about Dead Letter Office, that is a fine album for some non-flashy REM, but it is NOT a "covers" album ... it was just an collection of unreleased works ... which happened to contain a good few covers: Aerosmith, Roger Miller, Velvet Underground.

    But the song on that album, "Ages of You" is one of my all time favorite REM songs ... and to be honest, one of my all time favorite songs, period.

    "Pristine Indigo Without!"

    :D:D:D
    If I was to smile and I held out my hand
    If I opened it now would you not understand?
  • Posts: 176
    But how do I open a compressed file?
  • Posts: 6,834
    whulmef wrote:
    But how do I open a compressed file?

    What type of file is it? Zip? RAR?
  • Posts: 3,412
    facepollution wrote:
    What and you don't think it's a coincidence that Oasis have been heading downhill ever since their debut?

    With the exception of DBTT, I think their albums are all pretty solid. Sure they arent flawless but they continue to make great songs.
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

    "Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
  • Posts: 6,834
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    With the exception of DBTT, I think their albums are all pretty solid. Sure they arent flawless but they continue to make great songs.

    Nice little side step there, nothing they have produced in the last decade has been as good as their earlier stuff.

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