There's something strange going on tonight
Sassy played an integral role in igniting a passion for R.E.M. in my extremely impressionable adolescent heart. Hell, Sassy was largely responsible for most of what I turned out to be. But of all the love affairs I began on its glossy, Neutrogena ad-ridden pages (long skirts + Doc Martens, indie flicks, sarcasm), R.E.M. has endured.
What I remember is this: Jane Pratt was in the video for Shiny Happy People. She wrote about it. I loved Sassy, Jane Pratt loved R.E.M., therefore I loved R.E.M. For my 14th birthday, I had some CDs on my wish list. One of them was R.E.M.'s latest release, Automatic for the People. I got that one, and some Spin Doctors cd, I can't even remember which. It got no play. It was then all R.E.M., all the time. I loved how poetic and beautiful the music on Automatic was. I loved how brooding and sometimes dark it could be. I had to get my hands on more.
I wasn't much of a music collector in high school (unless you count my VHS tapes of Alternative Nation and 120 Minutes), but I bought R.E.M. albums like I thought they were going to appreciate in value. I eschewed Out of Time at first, (the "Shiny, Happy" album, I thought-- I really don't like that song) and bought Green instead; loved it. Also: Eponymous, essentially a "Best of" from their pre-major label albums, which I believed for several years got me off the hook for actually buying and listening to those albums. A terrible thing to've deprived myself of Fables of the Reconstruction for so long. For the record, I've got them all now (though I seem to be missing my Reckoning), even Out of Time, which I was relieved to discover featured lots of moody, contemplative songs and little besides "Shiny Happy People" to irk me.
And after Automatic, I bought every new R.E.M. album. Usually within weeks of its release. Monster. New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Up. Reveal. Around the Sun. Accelerate. I'm pleased that I was just able to populate that list, and in the correct order (I just checked their website, to be sure), by playing my life from age 14 to now and thinking about which R.E.M. album I was listening to at the time. Monster was high school, of course. Freshman year of college was New Adventures. Up was out when I was working graveyard shifts at the crisis hotline and "Daysleeper" was my anthem. I was finishing undergrad at UC Davis when Reveal came out, and Around the Sun was right after my Dad died.
And Accelerate. Which is, of course, now.
I have said how much I love this album, yes? How it energizes me, and makes me feel acutely a part of a moment that I am grateful to be living in, instead of frightened for? Well, if I haven't, I'm saying it now. Though I'm sure you've already heard that it's a critical darling, as the band's been doing the media blitz in what's being hailed as their big "return."
Did you see them on the Colbert Report? When Colbert asked the band (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Now, everybody's hailing this as your big 'comeback' album-- don't you just want to say to those people, 'What comeback? We never went anywhere?!'" . . . to which Michael replied (again, I'm paraphrasing here), "Yes."
Well, I'm with Michael. Though I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the critics' position that the last few albums maybe lacked some of the magic and fire of their earlier stuff, it's an undeniable fact of my life that their music has been there all along. I've loved other bands, sure, and in the past ten years, other artists are getting more play than R.E.M. does, on any
given day. But for 15 years I have called them my favorite band, and with good reason: I cannot measure the seasons of my life by any other artist's discography.
And in 7 hours, I will enter the gates of the Greek Theater in Berkeley to see the band live, for the first time since I started loving them in 1992. I've been listening to their earlier stuff as I've written this, and hope to listen to 5 or 6 more albums before I leave for the concert (I'm taking the train).
This is gonna be an experience.
What I remember is this: Jane Pratt was in the video for Shiny Happy People. She wrote about it. I loved Sassy, Jane Pratt loved R.E.M., therefore I loved R.E.M. For my 14th birthday, I had some CDs on my wish list. One of them was R.E.M.'s latest release, Automatic for the People. I got that one, and some Spin Doctors cd, I can't even remember which. It got no play. It was then all R.E.M., all the time. I loved how poetic and beautiful the music on Automatic was. I loved how brooding and sometimes dark it could be. I had to get my hands on more.
I wasn't much of a music collector in high school (unless you count my VHS tapes of Alternative Nation and 120 Minutes), but I bought R.E.M. albums like I thought they were going to appreciate in value. I eschewed Out of Time at first, (the "Shiny, Happy" album, I thought-- I really don't like that song) and bought Green instead; loved it. Also: Eponymous, essentially a "Best of" from their pre-major label albums, which I believed for several years got me off the hook for actually buying and listening to those albums. A terrible thing to've deprived myself of Fables of the Reconstruction for so long. For the record, I've got them all now (though I seem to be missing my Reckoning), even Out of Time, which I was relieved to discover featured lots of moody, contemplative songs and little besides "Shiny Happy People" to irk me.
And after Automatic, I bought every new R.E.M. album. Usually within weeks of its release. Monster. New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Up. Reveal. Around the Sun. Accelerate. I'm pleased that I was just able to populate that list, and in the correct order (I just checked their website, to be sure), by playing my life from age 14 to now and thinking about which R.E.M. album I was listening to at the time. Monster was high school, of course. Freshman year of college was New Adventures. Up was out when I was working graveyard shifts at the crisis hotline and "Daysleeper" was my anthem. I was finishing undergrad at UC Davis when Reveal came out, and Around the Sun was right after my Dad died.
And Accelerate. Which is, of course, now.
I have said how much I love this album, yes? How it energizes me, and makes me feel acutely a part of a moment that I am grateful to be living in, instead of frightened for? Well, if I haven't, I'm saying it now. Though I'm sure you've already heard that it's a critical darling, as the band's been doing the media blitz in what's being hailed as their big "return."
Did you see them on the Colbert Report? When Colbert asked the band (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Now, everybody's hailing this as your big 'comeback' album-- don't you just want to say to those people, 'What comeback? We never went anywhere?!'" . . . to which Michael replied (again, I'm paraphrasing here), "Yes."
Well, I'm with Michael. Though I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the critics' position that the last few albums maybe lacked some of the magic and fire of their earlier stuff, it's an undeniable fact of my life that their music has been there all along. I've loved other bands, sure, and in the past ten years, other artists are getting more play than R.E.M. does, on any
given day. But for 15 years I have called them my favorite band, and with good reason: I cannot measure the seasons of my life by any other artist's discography.
And in 7 hours, I will enter the gates of the Greek Theater in Berkeley to see the band live, for the first time since I started loving them in 1992. I've been listening to their earlier stuff as I've written this, and hope to listen to 5 or 6 more albums before I leave for the concert (I'm taking the train).
This is gonna be an experience.