Live Tracks - R.E.M.

October 15th, 2007 - by Ana Ng

Albums, New Releases, Reviews, Rock

For a band that’s been known to go several years (and multiple successful albums) without a tour, maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that R.E.M. waited 27 years to drop a live album. But as R.E.M. fans have come to learn, good things come to those wait… and wait… and wait a little more. I’ve seen R.E.M. at least a few times over the past 11 or 12 years, and R.E.M. Live, released today at long last, has all the best elements of a the band’s live gig (almost).

#1 - Micheal Stipe. Stipey brings the energy from the very first track “I Took Your Name.” From there, he and the boys rock into “So fast, so numb” and there showcase one of my favorite features of any live show, but a R.E.M. show in particular: when Stipey breaks out of the vocal routine so familiar from the album and lets loose, holler-singing the chorus — “LISTEN! This is NOW! This is HERE! This is ME!” — as if there’s a specific someone at the back of the auditorium he’s trying to convince. Later in the album, there’s some cool, kind of surprising (however brief) harmonizing on “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?” Then, of course, there’s the banter — a little shy, a little political, a little ironic, never overbearing or intrusive. It’s all here, so it’s just like being there.

#2 - Variety variety variety. With 13-ish albums out in the world, you never get to hear all your favorites at an R.E.M. show, but they always do their best to jump around in history, play the number ones, and test their diehard fans and tease the crowd with a few lesser known tracks. So Live’s got “Losing My Religion,” “Man on the Moon,” and “Everybody Hurts” for the radio fans. And for those who didn’t check out after about 2000, there are several tracks from Around the Sun, a few from Reveal and Up, and an unreleased track called “I’m gonna DJ.”

#3 - Still more variety. Another great thing about R.E.M. is the sheer musical genius of Mike Mills… and with that comes an amazing variety instrumentation, which sounds pretty cool on an album — and damn amazing in a live show. I don’t have a great ear for knowing exactly what instrument is playing when, but there are some well placed harmonicas and accordions and a most excellent section of psychedelic keyboard/guitar jamming at the beginning of “Walk Unafraid.”

#4 - The crowd. One of the best things about R.E.M. Live is that it almost encapsulates the energy of being at a live show — the energy that comes from the crowd just as much, if not more, than from the band. In every song, you can hear the crowd wooting, clapping, and cheering. And on songs like “Losing My Religion” and “Man on the Moon” you can hear the full voice of the crowd singing along in unison (”Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!”). Just like being there. As I listened, I found myself singing along, stopping my fingers from typing so I could throw my arms into the hair, and start dancing along.

Even as I rocked out, there were definitely a few places where I noticed the album falls short. Being cued in to Stipey’s lead vocals the whole time is great (ironically, you can understand all the lyrics better here than on any studio album!), but I would have liked if they could have mixed in more of Millsy’s mic. I really miss the richness of his backing vocals and the layers of harmonizing and alternating lyrics, which are really only hinted at.

But I think my biggest disappointment is the absence of “Its the End of the World as We Know It.” The album ends rather anti-climactically with “Man on the Moon.” Maybe that’s lame to say, but whatever. Every time I’ve seen R.E.M., they’ve ended with “End of the World…” so for me that’s part of the quintessiantial live experience. Maybe they didn’t want it to seem kitschy or cheesy… maybe they didn’t want to do the thing you would expect them to do… maybe they really didn’t play “End of the World” as an encore in Dublin (although I doubt it)… But, I mean, c’mon, if they’re gonna make one live album in 27 years, they could at least throw out that much-anticipated bone.

Otherwise, for a live album, I think this one might be close to perfect. Of course, don’t go thinking you can just buy the album in place of actually going to an R.E.M. show. No purely aural experience can recreate the visual magic of Mike Mills’ notoriously colorful concert garb or Stipey’s wild hip-gyrating arm-flailing dance moves. No way. No how.