Confessions of a Fanboy

It rarely fails that the day after I have a conversation with this one friend of mine – I need to come up with a codename for him online. He’s never asked to remain nameless, on the other hand he’s never asked to be namedropped. “Codename” and I spend hours discussing music and those conversations have inspired pieces you read here. We’ll call him… 11. Let’s start again.

11 and I had another of our marathon chats last night. Those chats often inspire and inform my musical choices for the next day and today is no exception. Despite having bought a CD and a DVD last night, I’ve started my morning with New Adventures in Hi-Fi by R.E.M. He likes this album more than I do, but I do like it and discussing our favorite songs last night forced me to begin my day here. My day started a good many hours later than it usually does on account of that chat, but…

So I started the day with “Undertow” and have picked through the rest of the album, stopping occasionally:

• “How The West Was Won and Where it Got Us”
• “Undertow”
• “Leave”
• “So Fast, So Numb”
• “Low Desert”
• “Electrolite”

“How the West Was Won…” is one of my all-time favorite R.E.M. tracks. They tried to make cool, ambient songs on the three records they made after Bill Berry left the band with spotty results. “West” was the blueprint they should have been following all along with it’s great blend of extra terrestrial imagery in the lyrics and spooky sonics.

I’m also impressed by and pleased with those last three tracks. That’s a strong way to close out a record. “Electrolite” is the perfect bookend to “West” and “So Fast, So Numb” and “Low Desert” are such smart rock songs.

Like I mentioned before, 11 loves this record. I like it, but I have issues with it. It’s too long, for starters. It’s 14 songs and there is some deadweight on the record.

I also hate that some of the songs are so poorly recorded, having been recorded at soundchecks on their Monster world tour. Raw, unvarnished sounds are great for raw, unvarnished songs. These songs would have been better served had they been properly recorded. Scott Litt should have known better.

The other issue I have with Hi-Fi, and it’s a small one, is the lack of any great singles on the record. An album doesn’t have to do great commercially for me to like it; sales figures don’t weigh that heavily on me. The lack of a big single means the album gets ignored by all but a band’s most fervent supporters, and that’s a shame because Hi-Fi wasn’t a perfect record but it deserved a few more sets of ears wrapped around it.

Filed under: Tags: Music of the Moment, R.E.M.