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New Adventures
in Hi-Fi, R.E.M.'s 11th and last exciting album,
ended with "Electrolite," a bouncy, knowing ode to the Hollywood
Hills. As the song trailed out, Michael Stipe wryly sang
"I'm outta here." Would that he and his bandmates had walked
it like they talked it. Shortly thereafter, Bill Berry,
the band's uni-browed drummer, retired to the life of a
gentleman farmer. Apparently he took much of the band's
chemistry and enthusiasm with him.
While occasionally interesting, Reveal
bears the stench of a financially lubricated band jet-setting
from one luxury recording studio to another, phoning in
overused chord changes, adding superfluous sound effects
to self-important lyrics that are irritatingly obscure to
everyone but the singer and his entourage.
The record actually starts promisingly with the appropriately
titled "The Lifting." "All the Way to Reno," the third track,
is also dreamy in a 70's L.A. kind of way. But then the
album comes to a dead stop akin to those found on the Jersey
Turnpike on Memorial Day weekend. A nice melody or instrumental
flourish pops up here and there, but it's all very professional
and completely lacking the combination of urgency and joy
on which R.E.M.'s legend is built.
It's a little sad, especially since the band themselves
keep telling the press that they honestly believe it's the
best album in their extensive catalog. Clearly they haven't
given Reckoning, Document,
or Automatic for the People
a spin in quite some time.
With each lame album, R.E.M. more and more resemble the
Who. Both are once-vital combos who personified the integrity
of rock. And both dealt with the loss of a key member not
by bowing out with grace, but by growing dull and corporate.
How long before "Murmur The Musical!" comes to Broadway?
review by Steve Walsh
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©
Figgle 2001-2007