Click on this link to embark on a new adventure in Re-M Nude Adventures in Hi-Fi Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 Instead of returning exactly to form, R.E.M. take what they did in Monster and basically clean it up for this album! New Adventures in Hi-Fi is a very 1996-sounding album ... It has loud, distorted electric guitars from its beginning to end (with some room for acoustic numbers), except it's polished up. Also, the songs are better written! The principle flaw of this album is, indeed, its running length. At 65 minutes long, this is easily the lengthiest album they ever released! That usually wouldn't be such a bad thing if all the songs in it were stupendous, but in this case, that's just not so! There were some very stupendous songs in the first part of the album. "How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us" is nothing short of an R.E.M. classic. "The Wake Up Bomb," "The New Test Leper," "E-bow the Letter," "Leave," "Depature," "Bittersweet Me," "So Fast So Numb," and "Electrolite" would have made an album on its own. Everything else not mentioned could have seriously been lopped off, and I never would have missed 'em! ...At any rate, this is still a mightily fine album. Heck, its' tons better than that Monster crap, so New Adventures in Hi-Fi is something that I'm definitely willing to embrace with open arms. Besides that, I enjoy the heck out of it. Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 (This would have been in the 9-category if some of the songs were cut! Nevertheless, this should be essential to anyone collecting R.E.M. albums.) Average Song Score: 8.6 (The songs! ... All but two of them are fantastic!) Album Tilt: 8.5 (In spite of the fact that this album is more than an hour long, it's generally one that's fun to sit through.) Artist Rating: 8.5 (I usually can't complain about R.E.M.'s artistic integrity. This sounds like what Monster probably should have. It's much neater and the songs are better written.) Track Reviews How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us 10/10 I really really really really like this calm groove! ... The piano in this is very nice, indeedy! And the lucid melody, with hooks, is very pleasant. A very nice song ... It's almost completely like a returned-to-form R.E.M., except that piano really makes it sound different. This is also very serious-minded, but that doesn't detract anything at all from it. It's all right if a song is serious-minded if it's actually effective. The Wake-Up Bomb 9.5/10 Louder, more distorted ... Is this the type of post-grunge feel that R.E.M. were trying to do with Monster except with ****MUCH**** more effective results? ... I'd say so! This is an awesome song! Not only is the melody good, but the grungy instrumentation is really wicked as well. New Test Leper 9/10 Really really a very nice contemporary alternative rock song ... It's even an acoustic song, but it's loud and highly entertaining. The melody has a sort of hymnal quality (which I guess would make sense, because this song has a religious subject matter). I like it! Undertow 8/10 This is another song with some heavily distorted guitars. It's a really fun song, to be sure, and the arrangements were done very well! (I really enjoy those industrial-type hisses in the background, in particular.) It's a strong song, but it's not nearly as effective as the previous three. E-bow the Letter 9/10 Wow! This song seems so unique to me! ... It's very loud ... and those screeching sounds we here are really rather mesmerizing! I'm not a huge fan of the melody (even though it is good) ... but this is an oddly affecting song. Leave 9/10 Another remarkably strong song! ... The goofy 'zipping noise' in the background hardly detracts from it, even though it very well could have. It's seven minutes long, Stipe's vocal performance is really good, and I like the melody, too. Entertaining and affecting! Departure 9/10 A very weak nine, I think, in comparison to "E-bow the Letter" and "Leave," ... but this sure as heck is better than an 8.5, so ... Wow! This is another good song! I really like the heavy guitars, the melody ... all very stupendous! I love it!!!! ... though I don't love it as much as "E-bow the Letter" or "Leave." Bittersweet Me 8.5/10 Another remarkably strong track! ... Will they ever end??? (I hope not!) I like the melody and the instrumentation (involving more heavy guitars) is very very nice! ... Oy! Be Mine 8/10 Uhhh... this a pretty good song. Maybe too simple and not exciting enough to compare with many of this album's best tracks, but whatever. I still think it's a pretty entertaining song. Binky the Doormat 7/10 Boy ... that loudly mixed guitar isn't so great on this one. They should have mixed it better! ... Some of the previous songs were mixed so dang well that I loved the loud guitars. This one is just 'eh.' Oh well! I like the song, overall, though. Zither 8/10 Dudes! This is an instrumental! ... It's not bad, but ... where the freaky deaky is Michael Stipe! He's the guy with *THE VOICE* ... this seems filler-y to me, though it isn't bad. So Fast, So Numb 9/10 Yay! The good songs are back! This one has a really good melody! ... I looooove the melody! And the instrumentation and studio production was really nicely done. Another good one! Hurrah! Low Desert 7.5/10 This isn't really so much different from the other songs ... except this is weaker in pretty much all the categories. The production is just a little bit sloppy, the melody is just a little bit uninteresting ... it doesn't all come together to make a particularly intriguing song. Oh well. Electrolite 8.5/10 This is a nice'n'pleasant song where Michael Stipe admits that he's actually Martin Sheen, Steve McQueen, and Jimmy Dean in disguise! ... I think the production is ever so slightly sloppy, but I do like the piano and violin. It's not a crime to send me an e-mail here, even though I might sic the mafia on you.

All reviews are copyrighted by Michael Lawrence. He doesn't take drugs. Much.