Monster by R.E.M.

Pros: REM had not yet lost their knack for making catchy songs.
Cons: Some fairly nondescript songs, Stipe's overzealous pushing of the falsetto button.

It's a question that's plagued everyone from The Beatles and The Stones to Marvin and Stevie...how do you follow up the perfect album? While R.E.M. had been making records and steadily building a following since 1980, they hit their commercial peak in ...

Pros: good experimentation with a new sound
Cons: some songs aren't quite as good

After spending a good chunk of the '80s as America's favorite college band, R.E.M. finally started hitting it big toward the end of the decade. Then in 1991, they hit it really big with Out of Time, selling lots of copies and winning ...

Pros: Good vocals, Great lyrics, Interesting tunes
Cons: Moments where lyrics are still indecipherable.

Every now and then when I look at my older reviews on Epinions, I ask myself "What were you thinking?" I look at how I rate some things and I wonder, "Honestly, what did you expect?!" Because I very seldom go back and re-rate my reviews, I am left with ...

Pros: Innovative stuff; some hard-rockin' tracks
Cons: A lot of experiments gone wrong; very uneven disc

R.E.M. has had a checkered career in the 1990s. While 1992's Automatic for the People was a fantastic disc, the majority of the band's output in the 1990s just pales when compared to the groundbreaking stuff the group recorded in the 1980s.
...

Pros: Pretty blue CD design, Strange Currencies, Michael Stipe
Cons: The exact same chords over and over and over and over and over and over

REM is one of my most favourite bands - and the fact they've been around (in one form or another) for over 20 years impresses me to pieces.

However, that doesn't mean I have to like everything they make. In fact, I think after they put out...

Pros: Some good REM songs, a few classics.
Cons: A few lows too, not as consistent as Automatic For The People.

Monster is the most controversial album in the REM catalog. I can say that judged solely on the types of review of it one sees here on the Epinions site. Half of them love the album, while the other half tears it to bits. If one goes into the used...

Pros: Exciting songs, some great ballads, Stipe, its different.
Cons: Some horrible bland moments, samey, Some throw-away lyrics

With the new R.E.M album under a month away I thought I’d go back and have a look at some of their past works. The one I found first and so by default the one I’m reviewing today is the bands 1994 follow up to the runaway success of Automatic ...

Pros: Peter Buck is a guitar machine; Michael Stipe is always interesting.
Cons: Many fans didn't seem to "get" it. Not as eclectic as Out of Time.

I like to think of REM as a group of slightly-deranged mad scientists. I envision their studio as looking something like a wrecked trailer park in the aftermath of a tornado, with junk strewn all over the place. Perhaps random bolts of electricity snap...

Pros: Something different from R.E.M., can be found at most used record stores
Cons: Can be a little repetitive, hard to hear some lyrics

"Monster" is a very strange album. Judging from the reviews I've read, people either love it or hate ...

Pros: A few songs come off OK.
Cons: Murky production and ugly guitars put to unsuitable tunes.

(Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Review Body" section. The section titled "Track Reviews" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and ...

Pros: Some great rock tunes---not as bad as you've been told.
Cons: Lags in places, falls apart near the end.

Monster is brilliant. The apex of an illustrious career, R.E.M. reached the forefront---and, indeed, surpassed the finest of the fine, the most creative of their creative potential up until Automatic---with the gorgeous, brilliant,...

Pros: R.E.M. Does grunge, and does a surprisingly good job.
Cons: At first listen sounds nearly unbearable. Tracks 2 and 9 are indeed similar.

The one seems to be the R.E.M. CD that most R.E.M. fans really love bashing. It's a change of direction, and a rather wild one at that, especially when you consider that R.E.M.'s two latest offerings were Automatic For The People and Out Of Time, which...

Pros: Great energy! A true rock and roll record!
Cons: It takes a while to grow on the listener

The 1994 release "Monster" was the last good CD REM has made. I think that Monster stands out from the band's other records, in that it rocks hard most of the time. It also makes use of a lot of distortion and guitar effects that are not used in previous...

Pros: Michael Stipe
Cons: Totally different style than their previous music

It looks like I'm going to be somewhat in the minority here, but I don't particularly care for this album. It is one of those that with repeated listenings, I'll like it better. That is only because it becomes totally familiar, not because the music...

Pros: Good album from R.E.M.
Cons: Few tracks are predictable

After the success of "Automatic For The People" in 1992, R.E.M. decided to return to hard rocking guitars and get away from the experimental stuff of "Out Of Time" and "Automatic For The People". Around this period, singer...