MUSIC
25 Years of REM’s Adventures in Hi-Fi
Rock band pieces together old music in new release
BY MATT TRACY
How many rock bands
get the chance to make
10 albums? If they
reach that mark, how
many still have a substantial audience
at that point? REM’s “New Adventures
in Hi-Fi,” newly available
in an expanded 2-LP/1 Blu-Ray
edition celebrating its 25th anniversary,
captures the band at a
turning point. After drummer Bill
Berry was struck by a cerebral aneurysm
onstage in 1995, he decided
to quit REM, and this would be
the last album he made with them.
It was constructed from leftovers
from their previous album, “Monster,”
and songs written on tour.
In just its fi rst two songs, it splits
the difference between “Automatic
for the People” and “Monster.” “How
the West Was Won and Where It
Got Us” is somber, dominated by
a repeating piano riff and light
on guitar, but glances towards
Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western
theme music. “The Wake-Up
Bomb” follows it by revisiting the
glam-infl uenced crunch of “Monster,”
complete with tambourines
and organ. The closer, “Electrolite,”
reworks the melody of “Nightswimming”
with a much more elaborate
arrangement.
Warner Bros. gave the band an
$8 million dollar advance after
they had a major hit with “The
One I Love,” released by the semiindependent
IRS label. They would
re-up with $80 million dollars,
which at the time was the largest
advance ever given to a musician,
when REM’s original contract ran
out. But “New Adventures in Hi-
Fi,” while not exactly experimental,
isn’t a safe bet either. It only hit
“E-Bow the Letter,” peaking at #49.
No wonder – the spacey song, featuring
backing vocals from Stipe’s
idol Patti Smith, sounds more like
a deep cut than a typical single.
In two ways, “New Adventures
in Hi-Fi” is a product of time. Like
many ‘90s albums, it used the CD’s
longer runtime to expand its space
without the self-consciousness
that came with double albums on
REM’s latest album celebrates its 25th anniversary
vinyl. Just to pick a few, the Beatles’
white album, the Clash’s “London
Calling,” and Liz Phair’s “Exile
in Guyville” all call attention to
their ambition. But the CD format
allowed a band to simply make a
65-minute album. It was also released
at the peak of the CD single.
This became an issue because
there were no worthwhile outtakes;
REM recorded all the songs
they had on hand and put them
on “New Adventures in Hi-Fi.” But
commercial considerations led to
the release of four CD singles, each
with three previously unreleased
songs. Most are live tracks, but the
band included their covers of Richard
& Linda Thompson’s “Wall of
Death,” Glenn Campbell’s “Wichita
Lineman,” and the Troggs’ “Love Is
All Around.” They even got British
dance group 808 State to remix
“King of Comedy.”
The bonus album, containing
these B-sides, is a wash. The live
versions of “New Adventures in Hi-
Fi” barely sound different from the
originals. The guitar and drum
sounds suggest a compressed studio
mix; even the demo version of
“Be Mine,” billed as a recording by
“Mike on bus,” is quite slick. The
covers fare better. “Wall of Death”
doesn’t live up to the passionate
original, recorded as the singers’
marriage was breaking up, but
they turn ‘Love Is All Around” into
a lovely piece of jangly pop. The
similarly dreamy, although more
country-tinged, “Wichita Lineman,”
also stands out, but it would have
been worth digging in the vaults to
fi nd recordings of older songs from
this tour instead of merely reprising
the original CD singles.
Stipe’s mumbled vocals on
REM’s fi rst two albums could be
heard as an aesthetic of the closet,
or, more productively, a choice of
poetic implications (even if the actual
words were hard to decipher)
over fi xed meaning. (While he was
openly queer when it was released,
“King of Comedy” resists pinning
down his sexual orientation with a
label.) Stipe was generally a better
lyricist at his most indirect.
With no background information,
“E-Bow the Letter” sounds like
a stream-of-consciousness fl ow
whose lyrics might’ve been improvised
on the spot. But it does point
towards something more precise.
The lyrics were originally intended
by Stipe to be sent as a letter to
CHRIS BILHEIMER
River Phoenix, written shortly before
his death. The chafi ng against
the constraints of stardom — “this
fame thing, I don’t get it” — and
allusions to drugs do add up to
something. “King of Comedy” lifts
its title from Martin Scorsese’s
1983 fi lm about a showbiz wannabe,
with more lyrics suggesting
Stipe distancing himself from the
arena staples REM had long since
become. Of course, he benefi ted
from the combination of fame and
cultural capital that allowed him
to befriend both Smith and Phoenix.
Without Berry, REM would go
on to explore a more electronic direction
on their next album, “Up.”
The seven-minute “Leave” (also
included in a shorter alternate
version) hints at this, starting
out with a loop of noise that runs
underneath the entire song. But
most of “New Adventures in Hi-Fi”
refl ects a band with nothing left to
prove. Far from their most ambitious
album, it suggests a band
looking back on its strengths in a
relaxed mood.
REM | “New Adventures in Hi-Fi,
25th Anniversary Edition” | Craft
Recordings/Concord | Oct. 29th
October 21 - November 3 , 2 28 021 | GayCityNews.com
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