It's interesting revisiting this album knowing what an enormous turning point for the band it was. It's chock full of unintentional radio songs, making the DJ bashing first song a bit ironic. The songs range from the bubblegum (Shiny Happy People, Near Wild Heaven) to the somber (Country Feedback) to the downright tragic (Low). Yet the album has a strange sort of balance, the kind of balance that makes you realize that the band has reached the pinnacle of its songwriting and studio prowess.
The band spent a long time on this album, some six months, which adds to the relaxed feel and particularly in the second half. There is absolutely no sense of urgency on the album as with previous R.E.M. efforts which I cannot stress enough. For the first time in a couple of albums the band isn't trying to cram something down our throats and it is like a breath of fresh air. The album is more art than politics, more descriptive than hyperbolic, and more heartfelt than vitriolic. In essence it's damn near perfect. What did you expect from Michael Stipe attempting to write love songs, although most of them end up being unrequited love dashed hopes. The album is exactly what Warner Bros signed up for and the band delivers. The only thing lacking here was a tour, although they pretty much toured every radio and TV station in the world in promoting the album.
In hindsight, not touring here or after Automatic could've been a huge error for the band commercially. The sense of striking while the iron is hot was lost on a band that was completely exhausted. Through their first 10 years, they toured and recorded almost non-stop and went into this album with a no tour agreement. This weight lifted, they promptly made two amazing albums without a tour. However, then there was Monster and ... well ... we'll get into that later.
The album also features a lot more strings and keyboard. A choice that adds a touch of melancholia to everything, but does not overpower the album. At times there is a sense of overproduction, particularly on Radio Song or Me In Honey, and the formers KRS-1 rap is not as groundbreaking or good as when it first hit. For my money, Q-Tip's rap on The Outsiders later on blows it away, while still keeping to the pace of the band. We also see a good amount of mandolin, but Losing My Religion excluded, not as much as Green.
This is also the emergence of Mike Mills as lead singer on a couple of tracks, although he claims one and a half. His voice is like a beacon in the darkness, clear and concise in contrast to Stipe's often garbled and rough lyrics. In other words, while Stipe makes you want to listen and pay attention as he could say anything at anytime, Mills sings with confidence and puts the listener in a place where they will agree with everything he has to say before saying it. There is also an instrumental of sorts, making this an album with a low Stipe appearance rate. Has ever a band refuted the theory of the lead singer is the band more than with this album? It's the work of a true team, a group where the total is truly the sum of it's parts.
The real turning point here isn't necessarily musical, but social. The band has to come out of the alternative rock scene darkness and into the mainstream light and it is fun to see Stipe start to grant substantial interviews (still very guarded), and know that 15 years later, he will be downright lovely to chat with.
A small note. At the beginning of this project I wasn't entirely sure that I was going to cover this album and the next because they are extremely well documented. However, for the sake of completeness I am carrying on and wouldn't you know it? I've already found errors in the Hal Leonard Out Of Time book. So, without further ado ... Radio Song ...
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