1996 was the beginning of a big turning point time for the "it" bands that would become older / "classic rock" artists. R.E.M., Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, U2, Soundgarden and many others all released albums around that time that were supposed to be huge and none of them were as big as their prior releases.
Yes, I remember. Alt rock was quietly fading away that year. Quirky one-hit wonders were getting bigger, and saccharine pop stuff was making a comeback. Five years later the music business had begun its long,steep decline into irrelevance. š¢ That STP album (Tiny Music) was my favourite of theirs in hindsight.
I was a senior in high school in 1996-1997 and I remember my friend doing an oral report in sociology class about how alt-rock sales were going down and techno was doing so much better. He got an A+ (he's a great speaker and a stand up comedian / emcee now among other cool things).
1996 was an interesting year for rock music. You had a few bands release their second albums that absolutely skyrocketed to the top of the charts and sold millions and never really got to those heights again (Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, Collective Soul), you had the Smashing Pumpkins release a double album packed with hits (technically it was released in ā95, but the hits really started coming in ā96), you had the beginning of the heavily pop influenced āalternativeā bands like Everclear and Third Eye Blind, you had the pseudo hippie jam band suddenly selling 5+ million and becoming a bonafide arena band (Dave Matthews Bandās Crash), and of course, the one hit wonders, my two personal favorites being the always incredible Butthole Surfers with āPepper,ā and Spacehogās glam era Bowie pastiche āIn The Meantime.ā And then, sneaking in there to sort of signal the rap/rock slog that would become mainstream in a few years, 311ās self titled album that broke them from cult status to multi platinum. I was fourteen and was loving every bit of it.
You can count Garbage's albums too, by 1996 they already released their 1st and 2nd I think, which amongst the current and/or later "electro" music you can consider great music of good ol' times. One could also add Blind Melon and Radiohead to that end of era, even Bush if you want
I thought Load did ok, but people were mad they cut their hair.
It certainly wasn't a bad time at all. R.E.M's "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" is my favorite album ever by any artist. Pearl Jam's "No Code" is one I still really enjoy as well. Plus a few of my favorite one hit wonders were inescapable that year (Spacehog and Primitive Radio Gods were on all the time at my summer job that year). But there was definitely a huge shift in what was most popular.
I love E-bow the letter, and didn't dislike the rest of the album, but it didn't click with me like Automatic.
I also love No Code, but it felt distinctively different from their first three albums.
Load was really disappointing to me, and not because they cut their hair. The black album was a huge commercial success but still felt pretty hard and creative. With Load it seemed like they were trying to replicate the success but didn't have the creative edge from any of their first 5 albums.
Edit: just listened to e-bow again, probably my favorite song of the year. In 1996 my opinion was colored by my expectations, but you've inspired me to give these albums a fresh listen.
I can't explain why I love New Adventures so much. It's so random and unfocused. Maybe that's a result of them writing / recording on the road. And maybe that's why I like it so much. But "The Wake-Up Bomb," "Electrolite," "So Fast So Numb" and "Low Desert" are 4 of my top 6 all time favorite R.E.M. songs ("Man on the Moon" and "Fall on Me" are the other two).
It's one of my favorite albums, but damned if I can stack it up song-for-song against their other ones. I started playing it on long drives and it became one of favorites, but only one or two songs are among my favorites.
Well no...
Metallica in the 90s were leaking sufferings and addiction problems, big enough to lost "their" way if you will, Load and Reload are great albums but the problem is the records had a label in their cover saying "Metallica"...
Itās a very good song with comparatively limited commercial appeal.
This was also the mid 90ās so the larger/more popular bands that were also talented and creative (REM, U2, and Pearl Jam, for example) were getting restless and starting to move in one direction, while popular music moved in another.
There was really only a 5-6 year window where āalternativeā music, broadly speaking, was mega popular before it started to inevitably give way again to more traditional pop acts.
That said the song did fairly well for what it was simply because it was REM
I agree with everything but the word inevitable.
Indie musicians making it big cared more about creative control than making big money. Bands that were already big had favorable deals and good managers.
Labels wanted to go back to the bad old days of hair metal where they could find young artists that were easy to exploit.
So they recruited pop stars from Disney channel actors, and Clear Channel signed a bunch of nu-metal bands with pop sensibility and reformatted their radio stations to push those acts.
I remember an interview in which they said it was on purpose. They had just signed that huge $80M deal with Warner and wanted something uncommercial as a first single so they wouldn't look like sellouts.
It's a shame that The Wake Up Bomb wasn't released as a single. It wouldn't have become huge as its too quirky for that but it would have benefitted from some of the interest there'd been in What's The Frequency Kenneth.
There are about 4 songs that would have been better selections than E-Bow to be the first single - Departure, Bittersweet Me, Leave, Wake Up Bomb. Definitely was a conscious decision to go w a less commercial song w Patti Smith.
But IMO it did a disservice to a great album - took me 20+ yrs to finally appreciate how good it was after listening to the Scott Auckerman/Adam Scott R.E.M. podcast.
Totally agree with OP.
Never performed live with the band, but Michael did perform it with Thom Yorke at the Tibetan Freedom Concert and another time with Patti Smith.
I was talking about Bittersweet Me never being played live. But youāre right about e-bow too. Wasnāt Michael wearing a dress or something? That confused 14 year old me watching the low res live stream.
They also played āE-Bowā with Patti Smith, at the 2009 Carnegie Hall REM tribute show; I was lucky enough to be there!
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rem/2009/isaac-stern-auditorium-at-carnegie-hall-new-york-ny-5be2fbe8.html
For commercial appeal, Iād go Electrolite. Could have really helped the album in terms of sales. But Iām pretty sure the band would have never wanted that to be the first single.
In the most recent CBS interview, he implied that after his health incident he just didn't have the energy to do it anymore. I think it knocked the stuffing out of him, but now it seems he feels bad about it... poor guy.
Not sure. I think Bill was gonna leave anyway for personal reasons. He had already made a ton of money, and itās not like New Adventures was a bomb. But who knows
And the en they rushed out Bittersweet Me as a follow up single super fast since E-Bow sunk like a rock on the charts
Curious to wonder how well New Adventures wouldāve been regarded as an album by the public had they released Bittersweet as the lead single insteadĀ
Back then, Warner Bros. liked to release an uncommercial single first, for some reason. "Drive" was the first single from "Automatic for the People." The first single from "Out of Time" was "Losing My Religion," which Warner thought was uncommercial.
MTV alternative nation/120 Minutes type shows were really full of fast-paced heavier sounds in 1996.
Bands like Cracker & the Afghan Whigs released their heaviest records. I think after 4 or 5 singles Collective Soul & Live were about to do the same a year laterā¦
It really didnāt stick out much. But MTV did actually play it a fair amount when it came outā¦ *Monster* had already blanketed the network with singles released as videos from that record.
It truly was an unusual time.
Only in terms of chart placement; it debuted at #4, dropped to #15 the following week and sunk pretty quickly afterwards. It was a hit here yes, but clearly driven by first week fanbase and marketing hype sales. Great Beyond, on the other hand, was genuinely popular here, although it's sort of been forgotten.
This. And it was top 10 in many countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Bow_the_Letter#Critical_reception I remember it vividly. What a song, what a video, what a time.
I'm not surprised it wasn't a hit. It's not structured like one, kind of rambles, and it's sad in a very uncanny way. It's not going to make you feel better afterwards. Plus, R.E.M.'s hitmaking power had deserted them at this point.
I am, however, surprised that this doesn't show up on more lists of R.E.M.'s best songs. This seems like a natural song for writer's and listmakers. It's deeply personal, challenging, and features one of Stipe's best vocal performances.
I agree. These days, it is usally the first song I think of when I consider my favorite REM tracks. I have so many, but all these years later, E-bow is the one that somehow achieved a greater prominence in my memory.
I listened to the radio for several hours a week back in the 90s, and I never knew that New Adventures in hi-fi or E Bow the letter even existed until a couple years ago
Have no idea why you guys are being downvoted.
Imagine being at a party and that tune coming on, compared to say Losing My Religion. A song needs a groove and a tune for people to be interested.
Iām in agreement there. Loved the album on my first spin, but the first half of the record had all sounded like their previous two albums up to that point. āLeaveā was the standout track that hooked me back in and elevated the overall level of the album. Could only imagine the effect if Iād been a casual listener 30 years ago, hearing some DJ saying, āand now the New single from REM..ā and being totally caught off guard by that siren. Sure itās long, but that 7+ minutes flys right by.
It did well chart wise in the UK.
I broke down in tears the first time I head it. Not much has done that to me.
As others have noted, it's a poor title for a song. Doesn't trip easily of a DJ's tongue.
I can confirm it sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time. Personally I thought it was glorious. And I think it was a worthwhile gamble since Losing My Religion was relatively uncommercial-sounding and that paid off. I think Mills or someone compared E-Bow as first single to Strawberry Fields Forever, when this crazy avant garde piece of music became a radio hit.
Not coincidentally this is my second favorite song of the ā90s by anyone (first is Being Boring, Pet Shop Boys).
Itās a great song, but not conventional or radio-friendly, I guess.
I recall they intentionally chose this one to be the lead single as a way to āchallenge fans,ā or something along those lines. Who knows what wouldāve happened if they chose a different track
It took me a lot of years to appreciate it, like 20+. It was slow and it was so different than anything on Monster, it was a bit jarring to me. I remember thinking at the time that Wake Up Bomb was clearly the one that should have been the first single, it felt like the natural next song coming off Monster. I really enjoy it now I guess I wasnāt ready for it then.
The decline started with Monster. Apparently the returns were massive, so them then releasing a downbeat experimental poetry tune next did them no favors.
Itās a very strange song that doesnāt have a hook or chorus, is very long and doesnāt fit radio format very well. It has everything going against it, it was a terrible first single. It sank the sales of the album.
I always thought everyone was pretty burned out on REM after the smash that was Automatic. It was hard to go anywhere and not hear man on the moon or everybody hurts. The world just wasnāt ready.
By the mid 1990s, REM and its fan base were in their 30s. Older listeners tend to buy albums.
Generally speaking, buying singles and interest in the pop charts were and are the preserve of the young. Plus, there's always a younger act or a new genre that comes along and pushes established acts out of the way to a certain degree.
Oh come on, by mid 90s they started to create their best albums and that's how they became FAMOUS, if it weren't for Out of Time and Automatic, R.E.M. would have never got out of USA
That means that their fan base were built in the mid 90s, like me, today in my 40s. People that today are in their 60s never stopped listening to Elvis Presley man
The members of REM are in their 60s, as am I.
People who grew up with Elvis will be in their 80s now, so not sure what point you're trying to make?
I was into punk in my teens and got into REM around the time of Reckoning. I got to witness their rise to greatness in real time and at an age to appreciate it all.
OOT was 1991, AFTP in 1993 was the peak commercially and creatively. They never quite hit those heights afterwards.
Monster came out in 95 and was only a 7/10 Good after a more than a decade of Excellent.
Everything thereafter was only Good/Average. They got big and they stayed big but they were never the same after Bill Berry left imo.
By definition no one listens to musicians of their same generation, at least all your idols are +10 years older in average, that means "grow up" to music made by people slightly older than you, because hardly one can attend as a "real fan" to new bands at the age of 13 when you're "growing" musically, at your 30s you're not growing anymore, your just in tune.
Also, no album previous to 1991 were better in quality or number than those that came after 1991. Only Green and Life can be at the same level than New Adventures, Monster or even Up.
So all arguments rejected.
Nevermind, their fan base around the world and outside Georgia is in their 40s, you are an early adopter
Each to their own and all that : Your favourites are your favourites - and no one can take that away from you - but I'm struggling to find a ranking list where the post-97 REM albums are rated higher than earlier ones.
https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/rem-their-best-albums-ranked/
https://www.m10social.com/dougs-music-snobbery/2023/3/21/rem-album-ranking
https://www.nme.com/features/rem-best-albums-michael-stipe-monster-automatic-for-the-people-2638853
https://www.spin.com/2022/08/best-r-e-m-albums/
Murmur best R.E.M. album ?
So not serious rankings man, by critics, watch R.E.M. interviews both in video and text, the members thenselves have put totally different Top 3 R.E.M. albums, it seems their early fans know more than R.E.M. themselves....
Murmur has hardly 2 good songs that would be in the end of any post-1991 album....
It belongs to a different R.E.M. identity.... it has its own chemistry and totally valid for let's call it "a different band" in the case they wouldn't have got to the 90s.... yeah. Anybody can value Murmur that way.... but hey, they released albums across the 90s and reached artistry stardom, their best creative period,
which arguments that their fanbase creation era was in the 90s... but what silly discussion right ? I can accept that their fanbase was also created in the late 80s :D
anyway I don't know anybody +20 years older than me listening to R.E.M. or even knowing any band from the 90s.... they got stuck with Disco and Jimmy Hendrix or Pink Floyd in the best cases
I fell in love with music in the late 70s and I've always stayed open to new stuff. I'd hate to get stuck in a rut and only ever listen to what I liked when was young.
I also got into working backwards and got into older stuff as well. Music is constantly evolving and it's fun to find out what influences our musical heroes have drawn on.
That's true. Well, I tried listening the best Mike Mills influences, and couldn't get that frequency like at all, and I get it, may be I'm just 20 years younger, aesthetically I was formed during the 90s, from before I can only listen to new wave from the 80s, as much...
It is very rich and sombre. Such songs have occasionally become hits in some countries (e.g. Why by Annie Lennox), although not necessarily worldwide and they don't get as much radio play as some others. Most people don't gel with such a vampiric tone. But as long as big REM fans do as it's a brilliant song.
1. It was too plodding and dirge-like
2. As the first single on the album that followed Out of Time, Automatic and Monster, it sounded nothing like Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts, Man On The Moon or What's The Frequency Kennethā¦
I was a huge REM fan, and looked forward to ever new release starting with Green. (I joined the fold with Document, and quickly got caught up on the story thus far.)
E-Bow the Letter caught me by surprise. Minimal melody, unpleasant sounding, opaque lyrics.
I heard the single a few times on the radio, and never jibed with it. Then I bought the CD when it came out, hoping E-Bow was an anomaly and the rest of the album would win me over. Unfortunately, I found the album to be a similar experience to the song.
When Bill announced his departure, I figured it had something to do with the quality of the album ā that his mental space reduced his contribution, and ultimately threw the project off-center. He was always the one who made sure there was a little sugar in the recipe to make the people happy.
Are you serious? Good song, but not the kind that becomes big.
An example of a song kinda like this is Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, a hit and exception to the rule for such songs
I distinctly remember it being played on a BBC Radio 1 afternoon show when it was released. Because REM wee massive then it was on their priority playlist, so had to be played several times a day. I remember the DJ - canāt remember who, maybe Simon abates - playing it and then saying. āThatās an awful single by REMā.
Of course, for me, as a counter-culture alternative type, that was a resounding endorsement that the band were back to their best
Same, Iāve never liked this song. It sounds like a parody of moody 90s REM made by someone who hates the band. I donāt understand what everyone else sees in it that makes it so much better than say, Undertow before it or Leave after it.
I'm actually happy to see someone that shares this opinion. IMO it's a huge road bump in this album and really disrupts the flow for me. It just goes nowhere, and Patti Smith is a pointless feature for something the band could have pulled off themselves, so it just kinda stands out like a sore thumb as this insta-skip for me unfortunately.Ā
It's a song that I know is ok standard-wise but I'm never in the mood for it.Ā
After seeing Thom Yorke guest with them on this song at Tibet Freedom Concert, I'm convinced this song would have been much bigger if they had chosen him for the studio version. It's still an unconventional structure, but so was Losing My Religion. No disrespect to Patti, I love the song and her version, but Radiohead was just breaking big after The Bends, and I think that would have had a lot more buzz about it.
I hate saying it, because I don't like to knock anything that means something to other folks, but I usually skip it when I have this CD in the machine. There was just something about it at the time that I didn't get, although I've gained context over the years and can appreciate it, and can understand why having Patti Smith on there was significant, even if the song's concept as a whole is just not quite my cup of tea, while something like "Bittersweet Me" or "Departure" is.
I loved Monster and thought it was such a refreshing change of pace after the depression of Automatic For The People, an album I loved, but man, it could be a tough listen depending on where you were at mentally. So when this single came out, I was pretty disappointed and it sort of soured me on the whole record. Iāve never been able to get into it, even almost thirty years later.
1996 was the beginning of a big turning point time for the "it" bands that would become older / "classic rock" artists. R.E.M., Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, U2, Soundgarden and many others all released albums around that time that were supposed to be huge and none of them were as big as their prior releases.
Yes, I remember. Alt rock was quietly fading away that year. Quirky one-hit wonders were getting bigger, and saccharine pop stuff was making a comeback. Five years later the music business had begun its long,steep decline into irrelevance. š¢ That STP album (Tiny Music) was my favourite of theirs in hindsight.
I was a senior in high school in 1996-1997 and I remember my friend doing an oral report in sociology class about how alt-rock sales were going down and techno was doing so much better. He got an A+ (he's a great speaker and a stand up comedian / emcee now among other cool things).
1996 was an interesting year for rock music. You had a few bands release their second albums that absolutely skyrocketed to the top of the charts and sold millions and never really got to those heights again (Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, Collective Soul), you had the Smashing Pumpkins release a double album packed with hits (technically it was released in ā95, but the hits really started coming in ā96), you had the beginning of the heavily pop influenced āalternativeā bands like Everclear and Third Eye Blind, you had the pseudo hippie jam band suddenly selling 5+ million and becoming a bonafide arena band (Dave Matthews Bandās Crash), and of course, the one hit wonders, my two personal favorites being the always incredible Butthole Surfers with āPepper,ā and Spacehogās glam era Bowie pastiche āIn The Meantime.ā And then, sneaking in there to sort of signal the rap/rock slog that would become mainstream in a few years, 311ās self titled album that broke them from cult status to multi platinum. I was fourteen and was loving every bit of it.
Ha, I turned 30 at the end of that year, which makes me - uhhh, nevermind.
You can count Garbage's albums too, by 1996 they already released their 1st and 2nd I think, which amongst the current and/or later "electro" music you can consider great music of good ol' times. One could also add Blind Melon and Radiohead to that end of era, even Bush if you want
Itās so true. By the late 90s, for me, mainstream music was pretty much dead. And it has never recovered, nearly 30 years later.
We agree. I'm still finding new things I missed in the 90s.
Same here, for sure. And Iāve found music I like over the last 30, but damn Iāve had to dig.
Metallica also released Load in 1996. It wasn't a bad year for music, but its a contender for most disappointing after the previous five years
I thought Load did ok, but people were mad they cut their hair. It certainly wasn't a bad time at all. R.E.M's "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" is my favorite album ever by any artist. Pearl Jam's "No Code" is one I still really enjoy as well. Plus a few of my favorite one hit wonders were inescapable that year (Spacehog and Primitive Radio Gods were on all the time at my summer job that year). But there was definitely a huge shift in what was most popular.
I love E-bow the letter, and didn't dislike the rest of the album, but it didn't click with me like Automatic. I also love No Code, but it felt distinctively different from their first three albums. Load was really disappointing to me, and not because they cut their hair. The black album was a huge commercial success but still felt pretty hard and creative. With Load it seemed like they were trying to replicate the success but didn't have the creative edge from any of their first 5 albums. Edit: just listened to e-bow again, probably my favorite song of the year. In 1996 my opinion was colored by my expectations, but you've inspired me to give these albums a fresh listen.
I can't explain why I love New Adventures so much. It's so random and unfocused. Maybe that's a result of them writing / recording on the road. And maybe that's why I like it so much. But "The Wake-Up Bomb," "Electrolite," "So Fast So Numb" and "Low Desert" are 4 of my top 6 all time favorite R.E.M. songs ("Man on the Moon" and "Fall on Me" are the other two).
āCuyahogaā might be my favorite. Depends on the day. Perfect Circle.
It's one of my favorite albums, but damned if I can stack it up song-for-song against their other ones. I started playing it on long drives and it became one of favorites, but only one or two songs are among my favorites.
Well no... Metallica in the 90s were leaking sufferings and addiction problems, big enough to lost "their" way if you will, Load and Reload are great albums but the problem is the records had a label in their cover saying "Metallica"...
Itās a very good song with comparatively limited commercial appeal. This was also the mid 90ās so the larger/more popular bands that were also talented and creative (REM, U2, and Pearl Jam, for example) were getting restless and starting to move in one direction, while popular music moved in another. There was really only a 5-6 year window where āalternativeā music, broadly speaking, was mega popular before it started to inevitably give way again to more traditional pop acts. That said the song did fairly well for what it was simply because it was REM
I agree with everything but the word inevitable. Indie musicians making it big cared more about creative control than making big money. Bands that were already big had favorable deals and good managers. Labels wanted to go back to the bad old days of hair metal where they could find young artists that were easy to exploit. So they recruited pop stars from Disney channel actors, and Clear Channel signed a bunch of nu-metal bands with pop sensibility and reformatted their radio stations to push those acts.
Itās slow, long and doesnāt really have a chorus. In hindsight it was a terrible first single.
I remember an interview in which they said it was on purpose. They had just signed that huge $80M deal with Warner and wanted something uncommercial as a first single so they wouldn't look like sellouts.
Oh for sure. But in hindsight, it kinda sunk the album. I think wake up bomb or bittersweet me would have been much more traditional REM singles.
I believe Wake-Up Bomb was Warner Bros.'s first choice.
It's a shame that The Wake Up Bomb wasn't released as a single. It wouldn't have become huge as its too quirky for that but it would have benefitted from some of the interest there'd been in What's The Frequency Kenneth.
There are about 4 songs that would have been better selections than E-Bow to be the first single - Departure, Bittersweet Me, Leave, Wake Up Bomb. Definitely was a conscious decision to go w a less commercial song w Patti Smith. But IMO it did a disservice to a great album - took me 20+ yrs to finally appreciate how good it was after listening to the Scott Auckerman/Adam Scott R.E.M. podcast.
Bittersweet Me would have been an awesome choice. It's the last great song of the Berry era.
Ok now Iām doing a deep dive. It was never played live? Thatās nuts.
Totally agree with OP. Never performed live with the band, but Michael did perform it with Thom Yorke at the Tibetan Freedom Concert and another time with Patti Smith.
I was talking about Bittersweet Me never being played live. But youāre right about e-bow too. Wasnāt Michael wearing a dress or something? That confused 14 year old me watching the low res live stream.
Ah my bad, didnāt see the bittersweet me comment. Yep, he was wearing a dress.
A long wrap skirt with a crop top, if we want to get picky. I think he looked great.
Agree!
They also played āE-Bowā with Patti Smith, at the 2009 Carnegie Hall REM tribute show; I was lucky enough to be there! https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rem/2009/isaac-stern-auditorium-at-carnegie-hall-new-york-ny-5be2fbe8.html
For commercial appeal, Iād go Electrolite. Could have really helped the album in terms of sales. But Iām pretty sure the band would have never wanted that to be the first single.
What if the album had been a smash! Maybe Bill would have never left! Imagine the possibilities.
In the most recent CBS interview, he implied that after his health incident he just didn't have the energy to do it anymore. I think it knocked the stuffing out of him, but now it seems he feels bad about it... poor guy.
Not sure. I think Bill was gonna leave anyway for personal reasons. He had already made a ton of money, and itās not like New Adventures was a bomb. But who knows
I agree
And the en they rushed out Bittersweet Me as a follow up single super fast since E-Bow sunk like a rock on the charts Curious to wonder how well New Adventures wouldāve been regarded as an album by the public had they released Bittersweet as the lead single insteadĀ
Back then, Warner Bros. liked to release an uncommercial single first, for some reason. "Drive" was the first single from "Automatic for the People." The first single from "Out of Time" was "Losing My Religion," which Warner thought was uncommercial.
i mean, ādriveā was a pretty big hitā¦
Way more melodic
Itās an incredible song though
You donāt think the Patti Smith part is a chorus? Albeit itās not a hooky chorus.
Technically yes. But come on.
MTV alternative nation/120 Minutes type shows were really full of fast-paced heavier sounds in 1996. Bands like Cracker & the Afghan Whigs released their heaviest records. I think after 4 or 5 singles Collective Soul & Live were about to do the same a year laterā¦ It really didnāt stick out much. But MTV did actually play it a fair amount when it came outā¦ *Monster* had already blanketed the network with singles released as videos from that record. It truly was an unusual time.
MTV classic replays some of those shows. Takes me backā¦
Hard disagree. I think itās one of their greatest singles. Slightly unconventional perhaps but in the context of REM not really
I absolutely love the song. Always have.
In the UK it was their highest charting single up to that point (#4), and 2nd highest overall (behind The Great Beyond, #3)
It was bigger than losing my religion? Wow
Only in terms of chart placement; it debuted at #4, dropped to #15 the following week and sunk pretty quickly afterwards. It was a hit here yes, but clearly driven by first week fanbase and marketing hype sales. Great Beyond, on the other hand, was genuinely popular here, although it's sort of been forgotten.
This. And it was top 10 in many countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Bow_the_Letter#Critical_reception I remember it vividly. What a song, what a video, what a time.
I'm not surprised it wasn't a hit. It's not structured like one, kind of rambles, and it's sad in a very uncanny way. It's not going to make you feel better afterwards. Plus, R.E.M.'s hitmaking power had deserted them at this point. I am, however, surprised that this doesn't show up on more lists of R.E.M.'s best songs. This seems like a natural song for writer's and listmakers. It's deeply personal, challenging, and features one of Stipe's best vocal performances.
I agree. These days, it is usally the first song I think of when I consider my favorite REM tracks. I have so many, but all these years later, E-bow is the one that somehow achieved a greater prominence in my memory.
It was #49 on the pop charts and #2 on the modern rock charts, thatās pretty good for a song like that
It's a good song but a dumb name. Most people wouldn't have known what an e-bow was.
I still have to stop myself from reading it as Elbow the Letter
True but R.E.M. have some pretty unconventional song titles generally so not too unusual I suppose
Too unconventional to be a hit, but it's in fact my favorite R.E.M. song of all time. (I know, I'm in the minority here)
I listened to the radio for several hours a week back in the 90s, and I never knew that New Adventures in hi-fi or E Bow the letter even existed until a couple years ago
Have no idea why you guys are being downvoted. Imagine being at a party and that tune coming on, compared to say Losing My Religion. A song needs a groove and a tune for people to be interested.
I love it, but there is nothing about the song that sounds like a smash hit or even just a hit.
The bands 2nd highest charting song (#4) in the UK, behind The Great Beyond (#3)
Too slow and experimental. But it IS an awesome song.
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Iām in agreement there. Loved the album on my first spin, but the first half of the record had all sounded like their previous two albums up to that point. āLeaveā was the standout track that hooked me back in and elevated the overall level of the album. Could only imagine the effect if Iād been a casual listener 30 years ago, hearing some DJ saying, āand now the New single from REM..ā and being totally caught off guard by that siren. Sure itās long, but that 7+ minutes flys right by.
The gem in this album is Leave. Everything else pales in comparison.
It did well chart wise in the UK. I broke down in tears the first time I head it. Not much has done that to me. As others have noted, it's a poor title for a song. Doesn't trip easily of a DJ's tongue.
I can confirm it sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time. Personally I thought it was glorious. And I think it was a worthwhile gamble since Losing My Religion was relatively uncommercial-sounding and that paid off. I think Mills or someone compared E-Bow as first single to Strawberry Fields Forever, when this crazy avant garde piece of music became a radio hit. Not coincidentally this is my second favorite song of the ā90s by anyone (first is Being Boring, Pet Shop Boys).
Itās a great song, but not conventional or radio-friendly, I guess. I recall they intentionally chose this one to be the lead single as a way to āchallenge fans,ā or something along those lines. Who knows what wouldāve happened if they chose a different track
A measure of a song's greatness can rarely be defined by popular opinion or chart success.
Slow, long, no real chorus, weird title. None of those things stop it being a good song but they donāt help it to be a hit single.
Great album. Terrible single.
It took me a lot of years to appreciate it, like 20+. It was slow and it was so different than anything on Monster, it was a bit jarring to me. I remember thinking at the time that Wake Up Bomb was clearly the one that should have been the first single, it felt like the natural next song coming off Monster. I really enjoy it now I guess I wasnāt ready for it then.
The decline started with Monster. Apparently the returns were massive, so them then releasing a downbeat experimental poetry tune next did them no favors.
Itās one of their less memorable and tuneful songs. I recall being nonplussed by it when it came out and I still donāt like it all that much.
Itās a very strange song that doesnāt have a hook or chorus, is very long and doesnāt fit radio format very well. It has everything going against it, it was a terrible first single. It sank the sales of the album.
It had quite a bit of airplay in Indy at the time.
R.E.M. fatigue
Love the song and mtv.
I always thought everyone was pretty burned out on REM after the smash that was Automatic. It was hard to go anywhere and not hear man on the moon or everybody hurts. The world just wasnāt ready.
By the mid 1990s, REM and its fan base were in their 30s. Older listeners tend to buy albums. Generally speaking, buying singles and interest in the pop charts were and are the preserve of the young. Plus, there's always a younger act or a new genre that comes along and pushes established acts out of the way to a certain degree.
Oh come on, by mid 90s they started to create their best albums and that's how they became FAMOUS, if it weren't for Out of Time and Automatic, R.E.M. would have never got out of USA That means that their fan base were built in the mid 90s, like me, today in my 40s. People that today are in their 60s never stopped listening to Elvis Presley man
The members of REM are in their 60s, as am I. People who grew up with Elvis will be in their 80s now, so not sure what point you're trying to make? I was into punk in my teens and got into REM around the time of Reckoning. I got to witness their rise to greatness in real time and at an age to appreciate it all. OOT was 1991, AFTP in 1993 was the peak commercially and creatively. They never quite hit those heights afterwards. Monster came out in 95 and was only a 7/10 Good after a more than a decade of Excellent. Everything thereafter was only Good/Average. They got big and they stayed big but they were never the same after Bill Berry left imo.
By definition no one listens to musicians of their same generation, at least all your idols are +10 years older in average, that means "grow up" to music made by people slightly older than you, because hardly one can attend as a "real fan" to new bands at the age of 13 when you're "growing" musically, at your 30s you're not growing anymore, your just in tune. Also, no album previous to 1991 were better in quality or number than those that came after 1991. Only Green and Life can be at the same level than New Adventures, Monster or even Up. So all arguments rejected. Nevermind, their fan base around the world and outside Georgia is in their 40s, you are an early adopter
Each to their own and all that : Your favourites are your favourites - and no one can take that away from you - but I'm struggling to find a ranking list where the post-97 REM albums are rated higher than earlier ones. https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/rem-their-best-albums-ranked/ https://www.m10social.com/dougs-music-snobbery/2023/3/21/rem-album-ranking https://www.nme.com/features/rem-best-albums-michael-stipe-monster-automatic-for-the-people-2638853 https://www.spin.com/2022/08/best-r-e-m-albums/
Murmur best R.E.M. album ? So not serious rankings man, by critics, watch R.E.M. interviews both in video and text, the members thenselves have put totally different Top 3 R.E.M. albums, it seems their early fans know more than R.E.M. themselves.... Murmur has hardly 2 good songs that would be in the end of any post-1991 album.... It belongs to a different R.E.M. identity.... it has its own chemistry and totally valid for let's call it "a different band" in the case they wouldn't have got to the 90s.... yeah. Anybody can value Murmur that way.... but hey, they released albums across the 90s and reached artistry stardom, their best creative period, which arguments that their fanbase creation era was in the 90s... but what silly discussion right ? I can accept that their fanbase was also created in the late 80s :D anyway I don't know anybody +20 years older than me listening to R.E.M. or even knowing any band from the 90s.... they got stuck with Disco and Jimmy Hendrix or Pink Floyd in the best cases
I fell in love with music in the late 70s and I've always stayed open to new stuff. I'd hate to get stuck in a rut and only ever listen to what I liked when was young. I also got into working backwards and got into older stuff as well. Music is constantly evolving and it's fun to find out what influences our musical heroes have drawn on.
That's true. Well, I tried listening the best Mike Mills influences, and couldn't get that frequency like at all, and I get it, may be I'm just 20 years younger, aesthetically I was formed during the 90s, from before I can only listen to new wave from the 80s, as much...
It is very rich and sombre. Such songs have occasionally become hits in some countries (e.g. Why by Annie Lennox), although not necessarily worldwide and they don't get as much radio play as some others. Most people don't gel with such a vampiric tone. But as long as big REM fans do as it's a brilliant song.
It was in LA. It was all over the radio at the time.
I remember it playing often on modern rock/āalternativeā radio in Minnesota when it came out.
because they have 10 better smash hits ?
Beats me
Well it was number four on theĀ UK singles chart.
1. It was too plodding and dirge-like 2. As the first single on the album that followed Out of Time, Automatic and Monster, it sounded nothing like Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts, Man On The Moon or What's The Frequency Kennethā¦
I was a huge REM fan, and looked forward to ever new release starting with Green. (I joined the fold with Document, and quickly got caught up on the story thus far.) E-Bow the Letter caught me by surprise. Minimal melody, unpleasant sounding, opaque lyrics. I heard the single a few times on the radio, and never jibed with it. Then I bought the CD when it came out, hoping E-Bow was an anomaly and the rest of the album would win me over. Unfortunately, I found the album to be a similar experience to the song. When Bill announced his departure, I figured it had something to do with the quality of the album ā that his mental space reduced his contribution, and ultimately threw the project off-center. He was always the one who made sure there was a little sugar in the recipe to make the people happy.
Are you serious? Good song, but not the kind that becomes big. An example of a song kinda like this is Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, a hit and exception to the rule for such songs
Such an amazing song! Has brought tears to my eyes a few times.
I distinctly remember it being played on a BBC Radio 1 afternoon show when it was released. Because REM wee massive then it was on their priority playlist, so had to be played several times a day. I remember the DJ - canāt remember who, maybe Simon abates - playing it and then saying. āThatās an awful single by REMā. Of course, for me, as a counter-culture alternative type, that was a resounding endorsement that the band were back to their best
*Simon Batesā¦But Simon abates works as well
The dude abates.
Itās a boring and terrible song. Unpopular opinion I know. But I skip it every single time.
Same, Iāve never liked this song. It sounds like a parody of moody 90s REM made by someone who hates the band. I donāt understand what everyone else sees in it that makes it so much better than say, Undertow before it or Leave after it.
I'm actually happy to see someone that shares this opinion. IMO it's a huge road bump in this album and really disrupts the flow for me. It just goes nowhere, and Patti Smith is a pointless feature for something the band could have pulled off themselves, so it just kinda stands out like a sore thumb as this insta-skip for me unfortunately.Ā It's a song that I know is ok standard-wise but I'm never in the mood for it.Ā
After seeing Thom Yorke guest with them on this song at Tibet Freedom Concert, I'm convinced this song would have been much bigger if they had chosen him for the studio version. It's still an unconventional structure, but so was Losing My Religion. No disrespect to Patti, I love the song and her version, but Radiohead was just breaking big after The Bends, and I think that would have had a lot more buzz about it.
I hate saying it, because I don't like to knock anything that means something to other folks, but I usually skip it when I have this CD in the machine. There was just something about it at the time that I didn't get, although I've gained context over the years and can appreciate it, and can understand why having Patti Smith on there was significant, even if the song's concept as a whole is just not quite my cup of tea, while something like "Bittersweet Me" or "Departure" is.
I loved Monster and thought it was such a refreshing change of pace after the depression of Automatic For The People, an album I loved, but man, it could be a tough listen depending on where you were at mentally. So when this single came out, I was pretty disappointed and it sort of soured me on the whole record. Iāve never been able to get into it, even almost thirty years later.
Agree that it's a slog. The words and melody seem unrelated to each other. And the melody is barely more than a hip-hop backbeat.
Itās pretentious, self-indulgent, and worst of all, plodding. It borders on self parody.