Artist bio

In the '80s and '90s, when underground rock music on independent labels exploded with word-of-mouth popularity and critical acclaim and the opposing audience for mainstream pop also surged ahead to new levels of commercial enormity, a four-piece rock and roll band from Athens, Ga. forged an unforgettable career out of walking the line between the two.

R.E.M. was the acceptable edge of the unacceptable stuff; the hard-working college-rock band loved by critics from the start, and recommended by those in the know, until its gradually growing fanbase eventually made it one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

Throughout its career parabola -- from the raw, Southern art-rock of the early '80s to the singles-driven widescreen pop monoliths of its middle age, and down the slope of commercial success to the post-Bill Berry years -- R.E.M. has made engaging, self-respecting pop-rock songs and albums, staking out its claim as not the best rock band of its day, but one of the most consistent, and well-aging of its peer group.

R.E.M. also helped bring the concept of college-rock, or alternative rock, to the public consciousness. During its formative years, despite such accolades as its full-length debut Murmur being named top album of 1983 by Rolling Stone magazine, the band was largely ignored by commercial radio. But the R.E.M. bandwagon kept rolling and picking up new acolytes, largely due to the group's tireless touring schedule, and the embrace of college radio stations, which gave the band heavy airplay throughout the '80s. They were the visible face of this expansion of the music industry, in which bands that weren't incredibly popular by major-label standards could succeed by appealing to an "alternative" fanbase.

Ironically, as much as the band exemplified alternative rock, their subsequent crossover into mainstream pop stardom helped render that concept nearly obsolete. One could hardly call such latter-day R.E.M. albums like Out Of Time and Automatic For The People (each quadruple platinum) "alternatives," as would be the case with bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, dubbed with similar tags in the early '90s even as they topped the Billboard charts.

But name-calling aside, R.E.M.'s catalog, now some 13 albums strong, is one of the more accomplished of the modern rock era. And the apparent key to the group's success is that over two decades and counting, its members have always made the music that they wanted to make; what kept them interested and excited about rock. That in itself should be a fitting legacy.

Albums by this artist

Reveal (2001)

Up (1998)

New Adventures In Hi-Fi (1996)

Monster (1994)

Automatic For The People (Recommended) (1992)

Out Of Time (1991)

Fables Of The Reconstruction (1985)

Reckoning (1984)

Murmur (Recommended) (1983)

Chronic Town (Recommended) (1982)

Concerts

August 31, 1999
Chastain Park Amphitheater, Atlanta

August 20, 1999
New World Music Theatre, Tinley Park, Ill.

R.E.M.

Out Of Time

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

R.E.M. Out Of Time Warner Bros., 1991 RiYL: Liz Phair, Jeff Buckley's Grace, 10,000 Maniacs, XTC's Apple Venus Vol One

Following the band's intensely commercial major-label debut, R.E.M. adopted a mostly acoustic sound. The quartet focused less on playing in stadiums and made music better suited for headphones, car stereos and the living room hi-fi. In completing the band's ten-year evolution from underground art-rockers to the biggest pop band in the world, Out Of Time set a confusing precedent for the '90s, in which music-biz fame and artistic integrity wove in and out of each other with astounding randomness.

The album's relaxed, creative feel skyrocketed the quartet into mass superstardom while also pleasing many fans of the band's earlier material. The three-year break between records gave the songs, some of which were written as early as the 1989 Green tour, the chance to evolve and then develop in the studio. The band members met the demands of their legions of fans while still creating music that was relevant to themselves.

Green producer Scott Litt stuck around producer and his studio polish is at its most prevalent, but R.E.M. still finds a way to undercut the mass appeal with dark and obscure songs as well as emotional-but-not cheesy songs about universal love, which in the past Stipe had strayed away from as the "too obvious" topic for songs.

"Radio Song," "Shiny Happy People" and "Losing My Religion" are perfectly suited for the radio-darling megaselling singles they were (and "Near Wild Heaven" would have fit right in with those three). But tunes like the haunting "Belong," with its spoken-word images of a post-modern apocalypse, showcase the band's continued diversity and willingness to venture into new musical territory.

The trio of songs forming the album's climax serves as a magnificent foil to the top-40 sound of the nearby "Shiny Happy People" and "Me In Honey:"

"Half A World Away" is one of the band's greatest sad ballads, rivaling Green's "You Are The Everything." Stipe excellently summons a weathered but resolved traveller, witnessing "the saddest dusk ever seen" as a backdrop of determined mandolin strumming, organ and harpsichord follow the sun down.

"Texarkana" peeks beyond that dusk, transporting the astute listener to a late summer evening spent outside in middle America, looking up at the stars, or driving along a country highway. Mills' pronounced bassline and lead vocal reflect the wanderlust of observant minds, marvelling at infinity and contemplating the long road of life.

"Country Feedback" continues the Western night motif, but stretches it into a hardened three-A.M. mindset turned almost viciously inward, poring over a litany of life's not-so-pretty phases ("faith breakdown, self-hurt, plastics, collections, self-help, self-pain, ask the psychics, 'fuck off'," Stipe muses). The protagonist berates himself for a life gone awry ("I was central, I had control / I lost my head / I need this / I need this..."). But even as it reminds us of life's harsh realities, the song is not without a glimmer of hope. The sense is that the character, like ourselves, has at least the will to put his mind to rest after his self-induced penance.

Immediately following, "Me In Honey" is not as graceful a closer as this album deserves. A revisiting of 10,000 Maniacs' "Eat For Two" from the male perspective, the tune is well-developed and features Kate Pierson's vocals, but it would have done better as a b-side in favor of a more elegant ending to the record (perhaps "Endgame"?)

However, it's hard to second-guess this immensely successful album. R.E.M. finally showed its age, but did so with grace.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.