FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| CD REVIEWS R.E.M. · With the departure of drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. return as a tape-loop-loving trio. · The band rework Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." What would the world be like if you lost all your reference points? A cat was no longer familiar while highways simply became long black strips stretching into the sky? This is the musical question R.E.M. ask on Up. The CD has little relation, with the exception of Michael Stipe's vocals, to R.E.M. of the past. With original drummer Bill Berry retiring from the band before the recording, the new lineup permits the band to throw away its own conceptions of itself, and in doing so has created a beautiful monster while overhauling its sound. At times they sound like Brian Eno, more often like the Magnetic Fields, and twice they go so far as to playfully recreate the infamous Beach Boy's Pet Sounds sound. Yet despite finding a new identity, the entire atmosphere of the album is one of displacement. Lyrically, Stipe explores ordinary characters who somehow don't fit into their world; they fall down, they trip, they cry, but somehow go on. The music accentuates the theme, a mere ether at one moment, solid and dark like asphalt the next. It's as though Berry's departure made each band member shed their skin. Mike Mills leaves the bass behind and concentrates on keyboards, Peter Buck farms out the guitar work while playing bass, and even Stipe picks up a guitar and plays his first solo. In between, they find time to play with tape loops, synthesizers and anything else they can get their hands on. After the disappointing Monster, and the alienating New Adventures in Hi-Fi, things are once again looking Up for R.E.M. as they rebound from the brink of retirement with their best record since Automatic For the People. 4/5 |