There's a monster chasing after you! Click on this link to escape back to the main R.E.M. page!!! Amonster For the People Overall Album Score: 6.5 out of 10 Okay, look. I know that there's a lot of tendency for artists to produce something GREAT and then follow it up with something totally different to avoid people and critics comparing it to everything, but R.E.M. didn't have to do it! With Monster, they attempt to harden their sound, and they aren't any good at hard rock! ... Most of these songs don't even sound like hard rock even though that's probably what their attempt was. ... This album is so bloody screwed up that I'm still trying to get over headaches. A frustrating album. Even though R.E.M. did fail at their flirtation with hard rock, there are still a few notable numbers in here. "Bang and Blame" was the highest-scored track on here (garnering a 9), and it actually has a rather effective combination between R.E.M.'s old jangle pop style and topping it off with a pretty decent hard rock chorus. "Crush With Eyeliner" is another fairly decent song, even though they needed to put a lot more umph in it. The messiest songs on here sound like they were written as regular R.E.M. tunes, and those nasty, grunge-fied electric guitars just decide to come in and dirty everything up! Ew! And, I really don't know what was with "Let Me In." That song is totally not R.E.M. This is a good album to just pretend doesn't exist. Overall Album Score: 6.5 out of 10 (The first artistic mishap R.E.M. ever took. Monster is simply not very good.) Average Song Score: 7.0 ("Crush With Eyeliner" and "Bang and Blame" are my picks for the best songs on here ... the rest range from mediocre to plain-bad.) Album Tilt: 6.5 (A monster of a disappointment.) Artist Rating: 6.0 (R.E.M. fails to even be artistically valid with this album. Their approach toward hard rock failed most extremely.) Track Reviews What's the Frequency, Kenneth? 7.5/10 Oh ... R.E.M. sure did change their sound completely for this album!! ... Okay, that was sarcasm. This isn't really much different from R.E.M. of the old days except they put a lot of hard guitars in here. The melody, singing, general style of arrangements are all very R.E.M. That all said, I really don't like all these hard guitars. It doesn't suit R.E.M. whatsoever. This song would have been scores better had they just treated it like normal! Those freaking Radishes Entering Mars! Crush With Eyeliner 8.5/10 Well, this song is a little bit different in style. I can't really picture this being a typical R.E.M. ditty ... sounds more like your typical grunge. And, actually, it's pretty good. ... This new sound is much more suited to this sort of song! ... Something that's supposed to sound grungy! That said, I wish it didn't sound so passive. It's a good song, but it could have used more passion. King of Comedy 8/10 This song sounds goofy to me! ... It doesn't sound grungy at all to me. It's more ... I don't know ... goofy hard-80s pop? ... Can anyone tell me 'why?' I Don't Sleep, I Dream 6/10 I guess only a band called R.E.M. would know how to do that! ... This seems to me to be a bit more of a typical R.E.M. song except the melody isn't any good and neither is that jangly, ineffective instrumentation. This is a small bomb! R.E.M. never used to do that! Star 69 7.5/10 Dudes! I can't even hear the vocals! ... This album is so screwed up! ... I don't think this song is too awful, however. The loud guitars are messy but ... they're loud! The melody is passable. Strange Currencies 8/10 Well, this pretty much is typical R.E.M. ... well, at least Automatic For the People R.E.M., because this song sounds almost exactly like "Everybody Hurts!" And, it's not nearly as good! Tongue 7/10 Michael Stipe delivers some falsetto vocals for this rather dull piano-pop song. I can't really say that I hate this song, though. The melody is okay (even though it repeats way too much), and I always like it when they decide to play some piano. Bang and Blame 9/10 They've got a neat little groove going on here! ... Oh yeah, baby, I really like the groove! (...In places, this song reminds me too much of "Losing My Religion"...) But this is a good song when it's all said and done. The chorus is a really nice hard rock thingy and the rest of the song is just typical R.E.M. I Took Your Name 7/10 OHHH MICHAEL STIPE!!!!! SPEAK UP!!!!! I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER ALL THIS STATIC (distorted electric guitars). Who had the stupid idea to make R.E.M. a stupid hard rock band? Weren't there enough of those idiots running around? Let Me In 3/10 You SUCK. This song doesn't even have a melody. How miserable. This song sounds like someone's killing the cat. Circus Envy 6/10 More like Kinks envy! ... This hard rock riff is a near-copy from that classico hard rock ditty "You Really Got Me." And with Stipe being completely drowned out again, what's the point of listening to it? The guitars are really ugly. But I suppose the melody is alright ... they really needed to do something about that instrumentation. They're skills at that used to be the envy of the prom. You 6/10 Wow! Look! They named a song after you! Hurrah! We can all celebrate now or something! ... Anyway, this song isn't anything you ought to jump up and down for with excitement. I think it could have been much better. The hard, ugly instrumentation here is another tremendous burden to what could have been a rather beautiful and resonant song. R.E.M. didn't care much about beauty anymore, I guess, and so this song is SIX'D! Eat me up here.

All reviews are copyrighted by Michael Lawrence. He's a goat?