R.E.M. made a difference and they will be missed. I was fresh out of high school when their opening salvo "Radio Free Europe" was released in 1981. Like Steely Dan's "Do It Again" a decade earlier, R.E.M.'s debut single sounded like the start of a wonderful musical adventure, while likewise proving to be the work of one of the smartest bands in the US.
The band issued the Chronic Town EP the following year, with their debut album Murmur not arriving until '83. These initial recordings were produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, whose work with the band would prove influential and continue on their second album, Reckoning. The decision to take their time with Murmur and to sign with fledgling indie label I.R.S. vs. major label RCA was quietly revolutionary. It not only signaled the integrity of this mystery band from Athens, Georgia but also proved instrumental in spearheading the nascent indie music movement.
The band toured ceaselessly during much of the '80s while releasing six acclaimed studio albums that decade. They scored their first hit single with "The One I Love" in '87 from Document, their first Top Ten album. Having built up a growing fan base while retaining indie cred, the band signed with major label Warner Bros. the following year. What's remarkable is how they navigated their higher profile while avoiding the trappings of rock'n'roll excess, whether it be drug-fueled career stalls or lazy songwriting. Their very first album went gold in the US, and Document was their first to go platinum.
Their sound evolved organically, and commercial breakthrough Out of Time from '91 both divided existing fans and drew plenty of new devotees, ushering in a phase of peak popularity for the band. R.E.M. at their most commercially successful was also when they were at their peak of melodic, expressive songwriting, as on "Time" and it's followup, Automatic for the People the following year. The band chose not to tour behind "Time" and "Automatic" and instead set out to record their ode to glam rock.
The resulting album, Monster, would prove to be a turning point for the band, as their fortunes gradually began to diminish and the critical accolades they had enjoyed started to wane. Monster is a brilliant, underrated album that refracted the band's signature iconoclasm through a prism of homage and sonic experimentation. It bears only passing resemblance to glam while simultaneously rocking harder than any album since Green, their '88 Warners debut. The subsequent New Adventures in Hi-Fi was another wonderfully crafted collection of beautiful songs, yet it met with mixed reviews and a notable drop in sales.
I continued to follow the band but found my interest waver with their next album, Up. That was their first without original drummer Bill Berry. Our romance resumed with Reveal, but it would prove to be short-lived. Reveal was another remarkable album, yet I secretly hoped they would find a new drummer to rejuvenate their sense of band-ness. In all, the band released 15 studio albums and the announcement of their breakup comes several months after the release of Collapse into Now. Apparently the band had begun work on a career retrospective when they decided to close up shop. "Collapse" marked the end of their contract with Warners amid speculation that they simply wanted to cease the necessary dealing with corporate politics.
Some might argue they could have called it quits back in '97 when Berry departed, but they continued to make vital music. It's hard not to find a parallel with the Rolling Stones, when founding member Bill Wyman resigned in '92, yet the Stones continued on as a four piece, likewise with three original members. It's the band's dwindling popularity and seeming cultural significance, more than a decline in their artistic accomplishments, that marked their later years. How bands deal with the departure of a founding member is telling, and the decision of R.E.M. to soldier on was not their most popular move. Yet popularity was not the band's driving force, but rather an outgrowth of their individuality.
In the coming years it is likely their abundance of superior music will help burnish their already historic reputation. Their declining record sales will become less important as such details wither in the ether, as the fact of their prolific output reemerges. They proved that a band of ordinary looking guys from a sleepy college town could become rock stars, while building up and sustaining a wildly influential career as one of the most distinctive of American bands. Their influences may have been the Byrds, the Velvet Underground, and the Beach Boys, but like those pivotal bands, their sound was all their own. I look forward to rediscovering one of America's finest.
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