We know some folks out there are full of snarky comments in the wake of R.E.M.'s announcement today that they are breaking up. ("Wait, I didn't know they were still around!" Real original.) That doesn't make the band's dissolution any less depressing in our eyes though, especially since the trio finally seemed to have finally regained a bit of the swagger and power they lost when drummer Bill Berry left the band years ago. Since that point they group has drifted somewhat aimlessly trying to discover just who they were anymore, and it seemed like they might have finally begun to find the answer to that quest since this year's Collapse Into Now was their strongest outing since New Adventures In Hi-Fi was released over 15 years ago. more ›

It takes a lot of balls to kick-off your third LP - following two hugely successful LPs - with a song as discordant as "Feeling Gravity's Pull," but, then, that's R.E.M. While previous LPs Murmur and Reckoning opened with the rollicking "Radio Free Europe" and "Harborcoat," respectively, the band indicated a shift in direction with Fables of the Reconstruction, an album that's recently been given the remaster/repackage/rerelease treatment. Recorded during late winter of 1985 in London, the album's sound reflects the mood of the band-members as, raw and drained from years of constant touring ("We've been on this shift too long," Michael Stipe sings on "Driver 8"), they tried to put together another album against the backdrop of internal feuding and a dark, cold winter in England. It's also the sound of a band not content to stand pat and struggling to move its sound forward. And the opening moments of Fables, those three opening note, are as clear a call as any. more ›

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