The album Michael Stipe wants REM to be remembered for: “A fearful force”
By the start of the 1980s, it was pretty obvious that rock music, at least in the traditional sense, was becoming obsolete and transforming into something different that appealed to a new generation.
The emergence of post-punk as a more cerebral interpretation of the punk ethos was a slight indication of the change, while the emergence of new wave as the other, alternative spawn of punk rock took a lighter approach than its counterpart, with synths and poppier hooks being thrown in for good measure. On top of this, there was an entirely new label being applied liberally to bands who worked independent from major labels, being dubbed as ‘indie rock’.
Given how rock was going through something of an identity crisis at the time, it makes complete sense that some of the foremost acts of this era would largely choose to distance themselves from the terminology entirely, with REM being a prime example of this. “I never thought of REM as a ‘rock band’,” frontman Michael Stipe relayed to Louder Sound in 2021. “I always felt like I was a punk rocker who was immersing myself into some post-new wave something, and presenting ourselves as who we were, helping to radically spearhead and alter what pop music was going to become.”
For someone who is so frequently labelled as a hero of rock music from the period, to be so openly dismissive of having played a part in its transformation is a bold claim, although he did concede that by the time they’d reached the mid-1990s, they were working on material that brought them as close to achieving a rock sound as they’d ever ventured before.
He claimed that during the early part of the decade, they were beginning to run out of steam performing songs in the same style, with early ‘90s records such as Automatic for the People and Out of Time having run their course as far as Stipe was concerned. As an antidote to the more jangly and relaxed approach that these albums offered, he felt that they needed to create something with more of a jagged edge.
“New Adventures in Hi-Fi might be as close as we came to being a four-piece rock band, and I say that with no regret,” he argued, stating that their tenth album, released in 1996, had taken things further in this direction than they’d ever been. “It was Bill, Mike and Peter performing at their very best as a three-piece and me doing what I do on top of that, creating a fearful force.”
He continued by noting how it was largely written while on the road in support of its predecessor, Monster, an album that had emerged from a creatively and emotionally testing period for the band, but they realised while on the road that the musical connection they shared on stage gave them complete freedom to explore a far wider variety of sounds than they had initially imagined.
“Looking back, it does feel like it’s pulling from all through our career,” he concluded, before adding: “I’m so proud of that record.”
You could call this a rock record if you wanted, but it takes from such a diverse palate of influences that it ends up representing a lot of different things, and most importantly, sums up just how unique and important REM were in both a contemporary and forward-looking sense. REM may not have been your typical rock band, but they did a much better job of being one than most of their contemporaries.
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