REM
REM ACCELERATE’ read the T-shirts, and as the lights go down, you can almost hear the revving from the wings. The implication hits like a dust-cloud in the mouth: alt.rock’s hardiest journeymen have awoken from nearly a decade of low-key,...
REM
When drummer Bill Berry departed following 1996’s classic ‘New Adventures In Hi-Fi’, REM limped on as a “three-legged dog” (their words), releasing a trio of albums that had the effect of tarnishing their once impeccable legacy. Their...
REM: 'REM Live'
It’s been over 10 years since REM released any new material worthy of their previously enviable canon (see the IRS years) but, luckily, Stipe and the boys seem to realise this and stick largely to the classics and older slices of minor-key pop...
REM : London Carling Hammersmith...
The last time REM toured in 2003, they were plugging an about-to-be-released ‘Best Of’ compilation, which went on to sell shed-loads. Now things are somewhat different. Although new album ‘Around The Sun’ topped the UK charts, it...
REM : Around The Sun
Critics, as a rule, aren’t too keen on bands of a certain age who refuse to die. Solo artists – a battle-scarred old coot like Neil Young, say – are allowed to trudge on more or less indefinitely. Reunions are permissible, especially if...
REM : In Time: The Best Of REM 1988-2003
The borderline between evergreen alt-rock elder statesmen and deathless careerist dinosaurs is often very hazy. REM were certainly a vital cultural force when they first signed to a major label 15 years ago after a fertile, promise-filled...
REM : London Brixton Academy
Michael Stipe bounces around the stage like Iggy Pop 's hyperactive nephew, pinches guitarist Peter Buck's arse, tells the crowd that he now checks into hotel rooms as HRH and admits to nicking Morrissey at the same venue in 1985. Ah, it's good...
REM : I'll Take The Rain
In some quarters, REM 's last album was hailed as the best of their career. Who are these people? Are they fucking mad? 'I'll Take The Rain' is the second single off of 'Reveal', and sounds like the fifth: a knackered old donkey of a record that...
REM : All The Way To Reno (You're Going To Be...
Tony Blair's favourite alternative rock band are back with yet another 'enigmatic' and 'accomplished' single from their 'Reveal' album. It's all very nice and everything, but essentially completely free of inspiration. But when you sign a...
REM : Reveal
Whenever Michael Stipe encountered writer's block during the gestation of 'Reveal', he got on a plane. Somewhere on the way, the search for the next phrase must have become a search for himself. "I spend half my life figuring what comes next" ,...
