SlackMF

I'm one of those people who wish they would return to a style they possessed in the early-going. I wouldn't necessarily categorize it as "country rock" sounding or anything like that, although some of their songs did indeed take on more of a folk style. I loved those songs and most of them rank among my favorite out of all that they've done. What I miss most about the early days of REM and what I wish I could see (and hear) again is not so much based on sound or style as it is in the mystery that used to encompass the band as a whole.

I also miss being able to relate to them. I'm not sure if this is going to make sense at all...and many people here will never understand this, but I could relate more to albums like Murmur and Reckoning and Fables. Why? I think it had to do with growing up in the south. For instance, some of the imagery they used on album covers looked and felt familiar to me; the kudzu on the front of Murmur, for example. It's something I know...it's part of my everyday life, and when I see that, I can immediately find a common ground with the band...which leads me into their music. Many of the instruments they played on early albums are used in abundance in southern gospel, country or bluegrass. I know those genres are not distinctively southern, but they are a staple of southern music. For this example, I'll use the banjo that made a regular appearance in some of their early songs. That particular sound is very familiar to me. Even some of the lyrics made me think of my personal life...people and situations I knew and came into contact with on a daily basis.

There is also a languid air in some of those early songs that I also find familiar. I don't know if this holds true anymore - especially around the big cities of the south - but this region of the country (especially the rural areas) move very slow. Life itself moves slow. There is no rush. Everything is measured. I miss that in REM songs.

The new songs, to me, don't have these same qualities about them. Well, let me rephrase that...most of the new songs don't have any of these qualities. There are a few that hearken back to the early days ("Country Feedback", "Electrolite", etc.), but for the most part, I don't feel I can relate the same to a keyboard pounding out synthesized techno beats the same way I can a banjo's strings being plucked. Can I listen to the keyboard and enjoy it? Sure! However, it doesn't make me feel the same way as that banjo does. I relate to it differently. REM's early music "spoke" (for lack of a better word) to me in a totally different way than their more recent offerings...and the early stuff was much more personal, if you can call it that.

Not everyone feels this way because we are all from different places in the world. That's cool. You may relate to something totally different...but that's what you know. If REM's music in meant to be taken by each person and made into several different things by each respective person based on feeling, emotion, even culture and how the music relates to them, then the music is doing it's job.

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Obamaham Lincoln