R.E.M.
Athens, Georgia8 reviews across 5 releases
R.E.M. was formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 and emerged from the early-1980s college-rock scene with jangling guitars, propulsive rhythms, and Michael Stipe's often opaque vocals. The band could make cryptic writing serve concise pop songs, but its sound kept moving. By Monster, the guitars had become loud, abrasive, and grungy, with the earlier hooks replaced by a sustained wall of feedback while Stipe inhabited darker characters. The 1998 Up moved further from rock into electronic textures and programmed rhythms after drummer Bill Berry's departure. Reveal softened that experiment into atmospheric arrangements, acoustic landscapes, and strong melodies with a more familiar sense of lyrical yearning. Its music still floated, but the band no longer depended on the four-piece attack that had shaped its earlier records.
In 1997, drummer Bill Berry left R.E.M. after the brain aneurysm he had suffered two years earlier, and the band continued as a trio. Joey Waronker supplied drums on Reveal, while the group kept working without replacing Berry as a permanent member. After Around the Sun in 2004, R.E.M. recorded Accelerate in 2008 and Collapse into Now in 2011. The latter was their final studio album. On September 21, 2011, the band announced its breakup, ending a 31-year run without a farewell tour. The four original members later appeared together at the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, where they performed "Losing My Religion."
5 releases reviewed
Monster
The Best of R.E.M.: In Time 1988-2003
Around the Sun