This album is a turning point for the band. As different as MONSTER is from the rest of their previous catalog, and UP is their first as a three piece, NEW ADVENTURES is a convergence--of sound, of songwriting, and of stardom. Here is a do it yourself touring band that then found a home in the studio and then tried to recapture the tour aesthetic only to be beaten up on the road--Berry's aneurysm, Stipe's hernia, Mills' abdominal issues--and in the process the band tries to do both at the same time, touring and recording. There are clips of Peter Buck talking about recording before they embark on the tour and when I saw the band live during the first leg, they were already playing UNDERTOW, DEPARTURE, and REVOLUTION, so this was definitely the plan going in. The result is a mix of crunchy arena echo sounds with pulsing organ and bellowed vocals, to subdued studio magic--kind of AUTOMATIC mixed with MONSTER.
If there is one theme to the album it is travel or movement and can you blame the group? R.E.M. launched the longest tour of their tenure and its most ambitious, so as they're putting together tracks how could the motion of the road not sneak into the album? Another theme seems to be the investigation of the strangeness of the rock and roll lifestyle, and the media's portrayal of the same. There is a grandeur and a grittiness to the album that is especially evident on the second half with BITTERSWEET, BINKY, and LOW DESERT. The band also seems more open to experimentation--perhaps due to their tour partners Radiohead--whose influence crosses over into their first albums as a three piece.
This album is also Berry's swansong and the difference between this album and the albums yet to come is stark, as I listen to UP the veto power the band enjoyed kept coming up in my mind and I wondered if that album would've been shorter. However, NEW ADVENTURES is long by at least two tracks not necessarily because of song quality, but because of similar variations on a theme, so what exactly is the influence of Berry on this album? He wrote the song LEAVE which is telling, but I always thought this or DEPARTURE should be here and maybe not both. In any case, this album feels exhausting, it feels like you've traveled thousands of miles after listening and it's so rich and multi-layered that it invites revisiting.
The singles released perplexed me at the time and made me think that the band really didn't know how to promote themselves, or maybe the record company led them a certain way. E-BOW was probably the exact wrong song to release first as it fits the context of an album, but on its own is hard to digest. Also, playing WAKE UP BOMB on the MTV Awards was a bad choice as in my opinion it is their worst song ... ever. More on that later. Almost anything on the second half of the album would've been more interesting to release first. NEW ADVENTURES was also the beginning of the band doing better in the International over the American market and the focus of their future albums and tours reflects this, in fact the album did worse in the US than anywhere else even with critical praise. The US mass culture just did not jump on it and because of the alienation from MONSTER to old fans, the alienation of this album lost a bunch more.
These tracks are unlike anything R.E.M. ever did and that is its value. The band took risks and threw everything they had in here which at time transcends, but it also clunks at times. It's a beautiful, ugly, sprawling album that I'm sure Berry is proud that it was his last. Tracking R.E.M. through this album from MONSTER and its differences simply puts the next three albums in perspective, if this album made fans pause then just wait for UP.
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