R.E.M. - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
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Free Music Notes for New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Free Music Review: REM - Better Than Monster
Hit: 4 Stars
REM kind of lost the plot after "Automatic For The People" with their next release "Monster". The album was an attempt to go back to a more hard rocking sound, but it was a major disappointment to my ears. I bought it and ended up selling it back to a used CD store. By the time of this album's release REM's time at the top of the charts had passed and album sales would steadily decline from then on. "New Adventures" was an album entirely written on the road during the "Monster" tour. Some of the songs were recorded in one take and the album has an overall stripped down feel to it. I think this is a decent REM release, not up there with their best, but also far from their worst. It is a rather long album consisting of 14 tracks. I believe that pairing down some of the filler might have made this a tighter collection and not have the rather bloated feel that the end product became. This would be the last REM album to feature the original lineup. Overall this is another nice REM album and worth owning for fans, but probably not essential. Free Music Review: You Will Experience The World In Hi-Fi After Listening.
Hit: 5 Stars
First of all, i'm a major R.E.M fan. Their records are inspiring, talented, and fun to listen to. New Adventures in Hi-fi is no exception. Of course, I would recommend others such as "Document" or even better "Fables of the Reconstruction/Reconstruction of the Fables" for the first-time buyer. Like the best CDs, you may need to listen to this about 3 times to "get" it. (I've owned this record for YEARS before I started to listen to it on a daily basis) But believe me, once you "get" it, you will see the world in a new light, new sound. You Will Experience The World In Hi-Fi.
Free Music Review: not my favorite
Hit: 2 Stars
REM always sucks me in to buying their CDs. This one isn't my favorite.Free Music Review: Diverting effort from R.E.M., nothing more
Hit: 3 Stars
At just over an hour, New Adventures in Hi-Fi is easily the longest R.E.M. album to date, and expectedly, one of the most bloated. The album sort of swings between the folksy pop of Automatic and the distorted glam of Monster. The middle road is the safe choice, the comfortable choice...but is it the right choice? Some of them sound like (and are) leftovers from the Monster sessions...even though most are better than almost anything that made the cut on Monster!
Problems arise on the likes of "Undertow" with Stipe going far too close to Ed Kowalczyk territory for comfort; "E-Bow Letter" sounds too much like the far superior "Country Feedback"; and there's late album filler like "Low Desert" and "So Fast So Numb." It is one of their most consistent albums since signing to a major label, but the consistency is "good enough" and almost never stellar. The highlights include the long, odd, and effectively looping "Leave," the straightforward rocker, "Departure," and the gentle distortion of the lovely "Be Mine." Those are well worth hearing, and the album gets a recommendation for fans, but don't expect to spin it as much as their best stuff from the 80s or Automatic.
Best cuts: "Leave," "Be Mine," "The Wake-Up Bomb," "Departure," "Electrolite," "How the West Was Won and Where," "Bittersweet Me," "Zither"
Free Music Review: Aluminum Tastes Like Fear!!
Hit: 4 Stars
...Probably one of the most evocative lines ever written in a pop song.
Many of the tracks for this REM record were recorded at sound checks during the Monster Tour. As a result, the guitars are loud, and the band shows a tough grittiness that comes from having been on the road for so many months. The melodic arrangements and jangly guitars of previous works are largely absent. The vocal harmonies of Stipe and Mills on prior works are also rare on this record. Stipe talks and raps like a Beatnik poet, and sings in a low tone similar to the Chronictown-Murmur-Reckoning days, but without the shyness or romantic lilt. His lyrics are ironic, dark, cutting, funny and, quite frankly, the best he has ever written. The mood is serious and reflective of a man who has worn blue jeans, eaten bad food, has been singing for 2 hours a night every night for the prior several months, and along the way has made observations about where the world is going.
The first 5 songs of this 14 song set are outstanding. After that, the CD is uneven and probably could have been cut back by 3 or 4 tracks to make a more consistent record, such as their prior release, Monster.
Part of the reason for this inconsistency is the fact that 5 songs were recorded in the studio and the remaining 7 tracks are more or less live takes. Some songs, like E-Bow The Letter, sound significantly louder and cleaner than others. (BTW: 3 of the first 5 tracks were recorded in studio). Sometimes the live format works (e.g., Electrolyte; Low Desert), but other songs (e.g., Leave; Departure) could've really benefited from some modern production techniques to create space, clarity and allow for some thoughtful overdubs of guitar hooks, or vocal harmonies. Some of the tracks sound like attempts to rewrite some of the songs on Monster.
Nonetheless, if you pare this CD down to say 10 or 11 songs, you have a collection that is as good and memorable as any of the great REM records. Now for the songs that make my list:
How The West Was Won; The Wake Up Bomb; New Test Leper; E-Bow The Letter; Bittersweet Me; Be Mine; Low Desert; Electrolite; Binky the Doormat; Zither.