On typical Monday mornings, it’s always a chore to get out of bed but not yesterday. Feeling invigorated after a cool band (Who is Arcade Fire?) won the Album of The Year Grammy, and before anyone could Let England Shake (and props to PJ Harvey for letting me borrow this from her REMring endorsed new album), the guys at Radiohead decided to announce to the world that they were coming out with a new record.
Oh, and the record was coming out this Saturday.
And I thought to myself, what the fuck is going on? How is it possible that a band can come out with an album without months and months of promotion? That is not how the big record companies do it and of course they are big and successful because of their superior knowledge in putting out music. This is what I am used to and not some willy-nilly, oh we are going to come out with a record within the week, and on a Saturday for Christ sakes. Who comes out with albums on a Saturday?
You know, Radiohead is completely fucking up my entire music listening experience, from the random song clip or the single being released on some website to build up my expectations. Their promotion sucks compared to that of R.E.M., oh with their months of preparation for this album.
The Warner Brothers, the record company, had hours to sit in boardrooms to stare at blank walls and pick their noses to figure out how to truly make ‘Collapse Into Now’ a great record; to come out with all the catchy taglines such as ‘A Return To Form’ or ‘Back to their Classic Sound’. How to make all those wonderful videos with the lyrics.
They were able to share with all their favorite reviewers to assure that magazines like Spin put their most favorable R.E.M. fan in charge of the review of course before the fans or some of the fans start shredding it.
All we got from Radiohead was an appreciative statement that they were happy that we waited. With R.E.M. we got the same spiel we get after every record. Peter Buck thinks this is the best album that they have ever done. Michael is not talking, and a series of random facts and figures by Mike. Of course it would be possible to come up with an interview for this album based entirely off of past interviews and it would be completely believable.
We have to stop thinking about the common method for releasing an album is. What Radiohead is proving is that there are more than one methods for large mainstream bands wanting to release music and that does not necessarily mean spending 3 months hyping the shit out of it.
Whatever is in our brains, whether it’s releasing Singles, B-Sides, Tours, Press, no longer applies. We have to start from scratch and have no preconceived notions.
As a sidenote, I have been sitting here listening to the new PJ Harvey album as I type this and it’s continuing a standard for me that the new music that I am checking out and listening is 100 times better than what has been a total and utterly disappointing Collapse of My R.E.M. Fandom.
The songs on the new record blow, blow and blow again. I went from being slightly excited with this release to complete and utter boredom. The question is not whether I will actually like the new album or not to will I actually purchase it. I question whether I will have to change my site address to www.remringpre2k.com.
I wonder whether it would have just been much simpler to just release the album on December when Discoverer was promoted without any press because with fewer preconceived notions I think I would have been much more open to purchasing it.
I wonder whether my tastes and preferences are shifting and I question what is the point to writing about a band that I claim to admire when all that comes out of my mouth these days is crap, crap and more crap.
I question how anyone in the R.E.M. office likes this site. (And I do question why it has not been removed. Not that it would get me upset as I can totally understand a business having issues with a guy on a blog ragging on their wares).
I have done my spleen-venting and maybe it’s just time to move past the site to something better . . .
Comments
To sum it up..
Music, the popular culture and the fashion on the day.
Hey Eric...
Remember that time we had an argument because I told you to lighten up?
That was awesome.
The way you're feeling now, is pretty much how I felt about Accelerate. I remember you ragging on DeRogatis because he gave a frank, and in my opinion spot on, critique of that album. That album was never as good as you thought it was, and there's every chance that the next one wont be as bad.
As for the link on REMHQ, why would you assume that REM would care one way or the other? I really disliked their last album, but at no point did I think they'd become different human beings, and nothing about this band has ever suggested to me that they are anywhere near as defensive or reactionary as half of their fans seem to be. Your opinion doesn't matter that much, that's why it's safe to have one, and to express it as loudly as you wish. Fuck yeah.
see ya 'round.
rebekah
re: Hey Eric
Rebekah,
Currently I am in the midst of reading former US president Jimmy Carters presidential diaries. What I find so intriguing about the diaries is their aspect of knowing what Jimmy Carter thought at the time rather than a rehash later on of what we think after there is a time of perspective to think about the music.
It's interesting that you commented about Jim Derogatis as he has been known in the past as well to give favorable reviews to R.E.M. albums only at the end of the year to criticize them. This actually happened in the case of Around the Sun when he gave a fairly positive review of the album only to turn around to criticize it at the end of the year. He noted that at the time of the original review that critics are often given deadlines and while he posted how he felt at the time, the album obviously did not stand the test of time and was pretty much forgotten at years end.
And that is an issue with blogging in general. My feelings about a song today might be different tomorrow with some context and there are plenty of albums that I can name even from the last year that I either found very enjoyable listening to early on and lost that enthusiasm later on or in turn, albums that grew over time.
And part of that is just the nature of the beast, whether someone is writing in a blog such as myself as well as someone that might be posting on Murmurs. I am somewhat handicapped about what my initial feelings about Accelerate were as REMring 1.0 was inundated with crashes as well as malicious attacks and I should try to pull out those original views but I will say this from what I remember. I always thought that the album was a return to the basics; a band that went back to trying to find the spark which made them such a force in the 80s by creating a set of songs that matched some of their earliest output before Chronic Town in terms of force. There are songs such as Accelerate and Supernatural Superserious that I am still not all that fond of but other songs like Sing for the Submarine and Man-Sized Wreath which are worth it. I thought that the process of creating that album would allow them to move onto bigger and brighter things.
I did not see the album as a classic album ala something from the 80's or 90's but something comparable to a 4 star album out of 5. Some call it a "Return To Form" but I think it sounded more like a "Return to sounding like a band".
And while I might be asking myself the question of whether I should stay or go, there are essentially 2 aspects to that question and one is concerning me the writer and secondly it's referencing R.E.M., the band.
For many out there, I am a faceless persona and their anonymous replies saying that they believe I am troubled or hateful to the band mean very little to me because it's much easier to attack the writer as being flawed rather than provide some insight to the new music and why I should care.
And thus, that was my challenge to write about the first 5 songs in a manner which tries to persuade me to care and not because they are R.E.M. or that there is a lot worse music but the songs themselves stand by themselves as stellar moments. This is the conversation that I want to have with someone and to be honest with you I have yet to read anything close to meeting this.
Hey..
...I'm not trying to hold you to the opinion you had about Accelerate, nor even for you to justify it - if I one day change my mind about it, I'll be more than happy to admit it. I respect Derogatis for the fact that he allowed his stance on something to change, I think it would be a worse sin as a writer to feel like something you said is set in stone - immutable. People change, perspectives change...that's a good thing. I just think you are trying to hold yourself to an impossible standard, and one that is really counterproductive.
I'm not sure why you set yourself such a challenge, but if you set out to persuade yourself to care, with a view to publishing that internal dialogue, then just run with that and stop feeling so self-conscious about it. But realise that's not something that is easy to establish a conversation around. For this reader, it's been like sitting in a cafe while your friend has a rant, because you know they need to, and it's just your job to sit there and not look too awkward, while you try and think up a joke that can lighten mood and hopefully not push your dear friend entirely over the edge. [I can't think of a joke]. So now I'm just sitting here and wondering if it would be insensitive to order some hazelnut gelati, while you contemplate the break-up. If things get worse, I am culturally obliged to buy a 'slab' of beer, get you drunk, and say things like, "ahhh...don't worry about it mate, you're better off without that stupid band".
I guess all I am really saying is that it reads as something quite personal and I think that's really brave because this medium is about as impersonal as it gets. Coincidentally, I think that might be something of a theme on some of the songs from this record, and it's the aspect that I find myself most challenged by.
talk to ya later. r.
http://remnation.zoomblog.com/archivo/2011/02/14/bendito-atraso.
[ ...] Update: Today in Remring [...]
In the last weeks I read your
In the last weeks I read your comments about new R.E.M. album.
I think that you sholuld change the website's name because criticize an album is, obviusly, allowed but you have been too harsh like there is something personal beetween you and R.E.M.
I think time has come for you to change website name.
"I have done my
"I have done my spleen-venting and maybe it’s just time to move past the site to something better . . ."
the sooner the better