Maybe I’m thinking more of the video, where Madonna writhes around on the floor in a wedding dress. Even “Like a Virgin” doesn’t sound as dirty as I remember it. The whole album is a confident, concise set of well-crafted pop songs. I’d come across both “Live to Tell” and “Papa Don’t Preach” on YouTube recently and remembered how catchy those old songs were and then I suddenly owned them. I suppose I truly became a gay man when I bought the Madonna collection. All of Elvis’s output alone is more than 40 years old, what with him having died in 1977 and all. The songs collected on these albums span 60 (!) years, from 1956 to 2016. Don Henley, Actual Miles: Henley’s Greatest HitsĪ bit of an eclectic mix and my first purchases of anything by Madonna, Elvis or Don Henley (if you exclude The Eagles).Whether that was the right choice is really just a matter of opinion.įor some reason (well, sale prices helped) I’ve gone on a compilation-buying binge lately, having grabbed the following greatest hits/best of collections:
This is a distinctive alternate take on Monster and makes it “fit” better with the albums that came before and after it. Seeing bands (and producers) rework their material is always enjoyable, even if the results aren’t necessarily better–sometimes specifically if they aren’t better. I will say I love that this remix exists alongside the original. “Crush with Eyeliner” begins with Stipe singing “lalala” sans instruments It’s quirky, but leaves me wondering why it was added. Little flourishes that didn’t exist before have been added here and there, to no real effect. “Tongue” now fades out for no discernible reason. There are a few choices that are puzzling. “Let Me In”, with the fuzz all but removed, sounds far more plaintive, and again I think this weakens the flavor of the original, but the new crispness of Stipe’s delivery somewhat compensates. It’s trippy to hear how utterly clear the vocals really are, though. He sounds more like himself now, which is great in a general sense, but a bit of flavor is lost as a result. One of the effects of the new clarity of Stipe’s vocals is to slightly diminish the feel of the characters he’s portraying in some songs. Is this a better version of Monster? My impulse is to say no, not better, just different. “Strange Currencies” was always pretty straightforward, and the remix version is mostly the same, apart from Stipe’s vocals being pushed up that much more in the mix. There are even a few bits here and there that seem to be trying to brighten the overall mood. The reverb in “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” is simply gone. “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” ends with a completely different extended outro. But Litt goes further, sometimes using completely different vocal takes entirely. Stipe’s vocals are indeed pushed much more to the front, providing a clarity to his words that is at times almost startling. All the same songs are here, but the presentation at times is so dramatically different that they feel like they came from somewhere else. The remix feels like a completely different album at times. They never recorded anything that sounded quite like it before or after. This makes the album unique among their releases. a different, “bigger” sound, as well as one that was looser, muddier, with the illusion of being sloppy, although the production was actually quite meticulous. With Monster, there was a conscious effort to give R.E.M. On the other five albums Scott Litt produced with the band, including one that came after Monster, Stipe’s vocals (and his singing in general) is clear and in the front of the mix. Overemphasizing the feedback, tremolo and fuzzy guitars, which was popular at the time due to the rise of grunge (in retrospect it was kind of the “onion on the belt” of the early 1990s)īoth of these are true of the 1994 original release, but each was a deliberate choice.Burying Michael Stipe’s vocals deep in the mix.Scott Litt, the original producer, was allowed to handle the remix, and he apparently had some big regrets in how he handled Monster back in 1994, chiefly being: I’ll have more thoughts later, as I’ve only just listened to the album, but it’s a bit bonkers. stuff, but I want to focus on is that third disc, the remix of the album. A collection of live songs recorded in Chicago in 1995 ( Monster came out in 1994).A collection of outtakes and demos from the Monster sessions.The album consists of four discs (for those who remember physical media): I hadn’t listened to the remastered 25th anniversary edition until now. The last time I ranked R.E.M.’s albums, I put Monster at #3 (of 15 studio releases).
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