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Author Topic: Fables of the Recontextualisation  (Read 5461 times)

Gryff

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Fables of the Recontextualisation
« on: 11 Apr 2007, 04:43 »
Matthew Perpetua of Fluxblog has started a "side project" where he intends to write about every R.E.M. song on every R.E.M. album. It is called Pop Songs 07.

I've had a read of what he's done so far and it's pretty good! Just impressions, feelings and general musings on the songs, rather than taking on the role of some kind of Official Historian, which is a refreshing way to do it, I think. And he's writing about them out of chronological order to spice things up a bit -- it's interesting to see tracks that were recorded more than twenty years apart being interpreted side by side. This looks to me like it will be a fascinating project!
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Valrus

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #1 on: 11 Apr 2007, 05:11 »
Wow, what a great thing. Thanks for the heads up.
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öde

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #2 on: 11 Apr 2007, 12:12 »
It's not as if you have anything better to do.

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Johnny C

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #3 on: 11 Apr 2007, 12:26 »
From Gryff's description I gather this guy is doing something slightly different. That book is essentially a big R.E.M. history - and it stops at New Adventures In Hi-Fi to boot. This is more like a collection of personal essays which will wind up detailing one man's relationship with the music he listens to, or at least with the music of one band that he listens to.
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KharBevNor

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #4 on: 11 Apr 2007, 13:10 »
Man why would you waste this much time on R.E.M. of all things????
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Kai

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #5 on: 11 Apr 2007, 18:40 »
Except for their cover of Sex Bomb. that was not very good
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Quote from: Mr. Doctor on 21 Sep 2009, 12:01
but the music sucks because the keyboards don't have the cold/mechanical sound they had but a wannabe techno sound that it's pathetic for Rammstein standars.

MusicScribbles

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #6 on: 11 Apr 2007, 18:48 »
And to think that I've never really been interested in listening to any R.E.M. Now I feel extremely ignorant and would like to redeem myself. Closest thing to the Beatles you say? That makes them slightly more interesting.
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Kai

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #7 on: 11 Apr 2007, 18:55 »
Not so much close to the Beatles in style as they are in the fact that both bands became ridiculously popular (almost phenomenon like) and continued to put out some great stuff nonetheless.

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Quote from: Mr. Doctor on 21 Sep 2009, 12:01
but the music sucks because the keyboards don't have the cold/mechanical sound they had but a wannabe techno sound that it's pathetic for Rammstein standars.

MusicScribbles

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #8 on: 11 Apr 2007, 19:04 »
Yeah...I got that part. Guess I didn't make it sound that way. I just have this eyelash rolling around under my eyelid. It bothers me. A lot.
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Gryff

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #9 on: 12 Apr 2007, 00:05 »
If R.E.M. had broken up after New Adventures in Hi Fi I think they would probably be a lot more respected these days. I mean, I like a lot of Up but R.E.M. were a band where every member played an integral part in the creation of their music, and losing their drummer could and probably should have been a sign that they should call it a day. In fact, in many ways the direness of Around The Sun can be considered Bill Berry's fault, since apparently he was only going to leave the band on the condition that they continued to make music without him...

Actually, imagine if The Beatles had continued into the Seventies without, say George. How different would their reputation be today?

Better to burn out than fade away etcetera etcetera.
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Jackie Blue

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #10 on: 13 Apr 2007, 11:58 »
Quote from: Gryff on 12 Apr 2007, 00:05
If R.E.M. had broken up after New Adventures in Hi Fi I think they would probably be a lot more respected these days.

Agreed.  I have a hard time figuring out exactly why they got bad after that - surely Bill Berry wasn't contributing THAT much to the songwriting process - but bad they did get.  It's frustrating because I consider New Adventures in Hi-Fi to be their second best album (Document being the best).
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Quote from: negative creep on 11 Jan 2009, 18:57
Man, this thread really makes me want to suck some cock.

Jackie Blue

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #11 on: 13 Apr 2007, 13:46 »
Quote from: tommydski on 13 Apr 2007, 13:23
I think 'Murmur' and 'Reckoning' are such great albums that it's unfair to compare the later records.

I disagree; aside from their last three albums, Murmur and Reckoning are easily my LEAST favorite of their catalog.  Both have great songs but I think Murmur has quite a lot of mediocre filler (like "Moral Kiosk" f'rinstance) and Reckoning suffers from really poor production and has some mediocre stuff as well ("Harborcoat" I could totally live without).

What I find especially odd about this is that Chronic Town is so completely amazing.  I don't think they did another song as good as "Wolves, Lower" or "Gardening at Night" until at least Fables.
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Quote from: negative creep on 11 Jan 2009, 18:57
Man, this thread really makes me want to suck some cock.

Jackie Blue

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #12 on: 13 Apr 2007, 14:51 »
I did have an original cassette of Murmur (I'm old, remember).  Sound quality isn't what turned me off about it; I just really think it has mostly mediocre songs.  I think it's one of those "classics" that didn't age well at all, like Spiderland.
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Quote from: negative creep on 11 Jan 2009, 18:57
Man, this thread really makes me want to suck some cock.

Jackie Blue

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #13 on: 14 Apr 2007, 12:18 »
Monster is better than Murmur.

Yeah, I said it.
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Quote from: negative creep on 11 Jan 2009, 18:57
Man, this thread really makes me want to suck some cock.

alongwaltz

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Re: Fables of the Recontextualisation
« Reply #14 on: 20 Apr 2007, 20:27 »
I love everything up to Around The Sun.  New Adventures is up there in terms of their best complete album.
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