| | R E M Monster CD R E M Discography of CDs
 (6 Customer Reviews)
MONSTER was nominated for a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.
A return to big guitars and big statements following the dark, intimate AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE.
Recorded at Ocean Way Recording, Los Angeles, California; Criteria Recording Studios, Miami, Florida; Crossover Soundstage, Atlanta, Georgia; Kingsway Studio, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Recording information: Ocean Way Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Ane; Bill Berry; Lou Barlow; Lynda; Michael Stipe; Mike Mills; Peter Buck; Rain; Sally Dworsky; Thurston Moore.
R.E.M.: Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitar); Mike Mills (bass); Bill Berry (drums).
Additional personnel: Bertis Downs (keyboards); Jefferson Holt, Sally Dworski, Ane, Lynda, Lou, Rain.
Rolling Stone (10/6/94, p.84) - 4.5 Stars - Excellent - "...MONSTER is a deeply felt, thematically coherent, consistently invigorating challenge to 'evolve or die,' with all the courage of its convictions..."
Spin (12/94, p.76) - Ranked #6 in Spin's list of the '20 Best Albums Of '94.'
Spin (11/94, p.91) - Highly Recommended - "...this is its most implacable --and convincing--music since MURMUR....Even as MONSTER flirts with unreason and breaks down old taboos, it observes the strict protocols of the forms it plays havoc with..."
Entertainment Weekly (9/30/94, pp.56-57) - "...MONSTER proves no one cranks the amplifiers and mumbles lyrics in quite the same thrilling way as the originators..." - Rating: B+
Q (11/94, p.118) - 3 Stars - Good - "...MONSTER is a balder and starker bit of landscaping and whether everything in the garden remains lovely is up to debate..."
Vibe (12/94-1/95, p.142) - "...Lulled by the aural Prozac of their more melodic tunes, it's easy for one to forget that R.E.M. are a rock 'n' roll band. Their new MONSTER puts them back on the block of their noisy origins and Stipe's buried-in-the-mix lyrics..."
Musician (11/94, p.91) - "...the band hasn't really changed at all: the songs still stress melody over meaning, the playing still emphasizes the unit over the individuals, and the sound remains as fresh as it was a dozen years ago..."
Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #3 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
Mojo (Publisher) (p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 - "With '92's AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, R.E.M. reached their creative peak."
New York Times (Publisher) (1/5/95, p.C15) - Included on Jon Pareles' list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "...Peter Buck's guitars blare and buzz to carry the pioneering collegiate-rock band into the age of grunge."
New York Times (Publisher) (1/5/95, p.C15) - Included on Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "...This is R.E.M.'s big, dumb rock record. Except it's not dumb at all..."
NME (Magazine) (12/24/94, p.22) - Ranked #14 in NME's list of the 'Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'
NME (Magazine) (9/29/94, p.47) - 7 - Very Good - "...At best stunning, at worst merely diverting, MONSTER sounds like the album they 'had' to make, to clear out their system..."
Blender (Magazine) (p.106) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "MONSTER is music of a moment -- '90s alt-rock perfected." Monster Music | List Price | $7.98 (You save $1.59) | | Category | Rock Albums, Alternative CDs, Rock/Pop | | Label | Warner Bros. (Record Label) | | Orig Year | 1994 | | All Time Sales Rank |  15530  | | CD Universe Part number | 1101392 | | Catalog number | 45740 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Sep 27, 1994 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | R.E.M.; Scott Litt | | Engineer | Pat McCarthy; Patrick McCarthy | | Personnel | Michael Stipe - vocals
Mike Mills - bass
Peter Buck - guitar
Peter Buck - guitar
Bill Berry - drums
Bill Berry - drums
Also: Ane', Bertis Downs, Rain, Jefferson Holt, Lou, Lynda, Sally Dworski, Thurston Moore |
Monster Music Review Average Rating: (3.2 out of 5 stars)   List All Reviews Weakest REM is still worth a listen
R.E.M. might just be the greatest rock band that has ever entered a recording studio. When I first heard "Murmur" in '83 it changed my life. Only the Clash's "London Calling" and Gang of Four's "Entertainment" have ever meant as much. "Monster" does not reach the standard of most R.E.M. releases. It does not approach the effortless brilliance of "Murmur", "Reckoning" or "Life's Rich Pageant". It does not even rise to the level of more recent releases like "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" or the criminally under-rated "Up". What is missing from "Monster"? - MELODY! This is simply not a particularly tuneful set of songs. With the exception of the two hits (Kenneth and Blame) there is little that rewards repeated listening. I'd rather hear "Fretless" from the Until the End of the World soundtrack or "The Great Beyond" from Man on the Moon. That is not to say that the disc is bad - almost everything this band does is worth hearing. But if you're new to R.E.M. (where have you been?!) start with anything but this or Dead Letter Office.
Submitted by a reviewer (Evansville, IN, USA)
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Recorded as an album to tour behind, Monster is equal parts big, loud and creepy. Lyrically, Michael Stipe often writes abouts the obsessive, compulsive and sometimes vindictive aspects of sex in songs such as 'Tongue', 'Strange Currencies, 'Bang And Blame' and especially 'You'. 'What's The Frequency, Kenneth' is an excellent rumination on the media barrage we faced then and especially now. A shock to fans who jumped on board during Out of Time and Automatic For The People, this album has taken its share of flak. However, interesting arrangements and lyrical relevance make this one a keeper.
Submitted by bertecho (Fort Worth, TX)
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 Is this R.E.M.? Such a boring album!
R.E.M.'s weakdest album. But there are a few good tracks: "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", "Bang And Blame", "Tongue" and "Strange Currencies", my favorite song on Monster. "Let Me In" was written for Kurt Cobain (because of his death in 1994). It's not such a bad song. "I Don't Sleep, I Dream" is also pretty good. This is not the classic R.E.M. album, but don't avoid it, there are some good songs on it!
Submitted by a reviewer (Somewhere Town)
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more guitars aren't bad..
Another "Automatic For The People" would just have been plain boring.Monster came out at the time where alternative music was taking different strands and was about re-defining yourself.Take Sonic Youth's "Experimental" or Radiohead's "The Bends" for example.Still now,I listen to Monster now and I like it.Actually its probably the only REM album I can keep listening to.I have seemed to got over the rest of their stuff.For some reason, Monster stands the test of time.I have got over the rest of REM's stuff.Don't get me wrong I can't say that "Automatic" and "Adventures" were bad albums but I think a lot of REMs works lack rawness and Monster offers a lot more of that.I give four stars for taking the courage to do something different.
Submitted by a reviewer (sydney)
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Monster is indeed R.E.M.'s long-promised "rock" album; it just doesn't rock in the way one might expect. Instead of R.E.M.'s trademark anthemic bashers, Monster offers a set of murky sludge, powered by the heavily distorted and delayed guitar of Peter Buck. Stipe's vocals have been pushed to the back of the mix, along with Bill Berry's drums, which accentuates the muscular pulse of Buck's chords. From the androgynous sleaze of "Crush with Eyeliner" to the subtle, Eastern-tinged menace of "You," most of the album sounds dense, dirty and grimy, which makes the punchy guitars of "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and the warped soul of "Tongue" all the more distinctive. Monster doesn't have the conceptual unity or consistently brilliant songwriting of Automatic, but it does offer a wide range of sonic textures that have never been heard on an R.E.M. album before.
Submitted by subhuman (Madison, WI)
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Purchase Monster CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | R E M Green CD (1988)
Monster album
 $6.45  
The album that found the band sandwiched between being an important cult band on the verge of major success and being the world's most successful rock band of the 90s. A tricky situation, but this album made the breakthrough and mighty Warner Brothers were behind it. R.E.M. were able to get their folky mandolin material like 'You Are The ...
| | R E M Out Of Time CD (1991)
Monster CD music
$10.09 
Additional personnel includes: KRS-One, Kate Pierson (vocals); Peter Holsapple (guitar, bass); John Keane (pedal steel guitar); David Kampers, David Braitberg, David Arenz, Ellie Arenz (violin); Paul Murphy, Reid Harris (viola); Andrew Cox, Elizabeth Murphy (cello); Kidd Jordan (bass clarinet, alto, tenor & baritone saxophones); Cecil Welch (flugelhorn); Ralph Jones (acoustic bass).
Before Nirvana's NEVERMIND closed out the year with the unexpected commercial triumph of grunge rock, R.E.M.'s OUT OF TIME was the sound of alternative music circa 1991. The smash singles "Losing My Religion"--perhaps the only Top Five US single ever to feature the mandolin as its lead instrument--and "Shiny Happy People" were the commercial face of the album. Elsewhere, however, R.E.M. makes a point of moving away from expectations, resulting in intriguing experiments like the surprisingly funky "Radio Song" (featuring rapper KRS-One), the spoken-word ambient chill-out ...
| | R E M Automatic For The People CD (1992)
Monster music CDs
$9.69 
AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE was nominated for 1994 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and Best Alternative Music Album.
AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE is a true classic of rock in the 1990s. Released shortly after the successful OUT OF TIME, it finds R.E.M. on a creative roll with no shortage of original ideas; yet it also shows the band embracing even further the darker aesthetic shadings hinted at on "Losing My Religion." Bold songs such as the ominous "Drive" and the empathetic "Everybody Hurts" demonstrated that the band were not reluctant to experiment, while "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" and the elegiac Andy Kaufman tribute "Man On The Moon" displayed all of the intelligent pop savvy on which the band's reputation was first built. However, it is on songs such as "Sweetness Follows," "Nightswimming," and "Find the River" that a haunting melancholy emerges that is unlike anything the band previously attained. The songs are sparse yet full of deep emotion and conjure a Southern gothic emotionality that one mind find in amidst the pages of Flannery O'Connor's most redemptive work. AUTOMATIC is not R.E.M.'s most upbeat record, but it is unquestionably one of its most rewarding.
Recorded at Bearsville Studio, Bearsville, New ...
| | R E M New Adventures In Hi-Fi CD (1996)
Monster songs
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Most of the songs on NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI were recorded live, or during pre-concert soundchecks, on R.E.M.'s 1995 MONSTER tour.
NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.
In the wake of the raging, guitar-fueled MONSTER, R.E.M. has made an album dominated by disconsolate ballads and acoustic instrumentation. NEW ADVENTURES has a stately, elegiac feel. It's punctuated by a few all-out rockers, but the overall mood is dusky and introspective. Michael Stipe's stream-of-consciousness imagery has developed into an incisive, poetic style of great power and resonance, from the religious overtones of "Undertow" (which reveals a Can influence) to the breathless travelogue of "Departure."
The opener, "How the West Was Won And Where It Got Us," sets a dark tone, with an eerie organ backdrop and a mournful piano providing a staccato riff. Punk goddess Patti Smith guests on "E-Bow the Letter," a wordy ramble that finds Stipe questioning, and ultimately denigrating, "this fame thing." A similar theme is explored on "The Wake-Up Bomb," a MONSTERish raveup that attacks celebrity star trips.
NEW ADVENTURES is loaded with musical surprises, including a zippy synthesizer that sparks "Leave," a campy instrumental called "Zither" and various discordant touches throughout. ...
| | R E M Up CD (1998)
Monster album
$10.89 
The departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997 no doubt unsettled his former R.E.M.-mates, who found themselves straddling not only creative, but personal crossroads. Rather than giving up, the remaining members of R.E.M. reinvented themselves and released UP, a stunning, eloquent album of dark vulnerability and experimentalism. The emotional disquiet Stipe evokes is nearly shocking in its plainspoken lyricism. Songs like the agonized "Sad Professor" and the wary, hypnotic "Suspicion" seem almost too naked for Stipe, who spent years cloaking his words in mumbles and misnomers. For the first time, lyrics are even included in the packaging.
"Hope" is a breathless, galloping piece of pseudo-electronica that raises the ghost of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" before ending in a heady roar of noise. The gorgeous jangle of "At My Most Beautiful" is pure poetry, an unabashed disclosure of Buck's giddy reverence for Brian Wilson. Although a drum machine is used at times (Beck drummer Joey Waronker and Tuatara percussionist Barrett Martin also guest on many tracks), an array of disparate sounds, from vibes to violin, infuses the songs with a newfound expressiveness. UP is unlike any other album in the band's long catalogue--a bold, brilliant spark of musical genius and genuine empathetic revelation.
Principally recorded at ...
| | R E M Fables Of The Reconstruction CD (1985)
Monster CD music
$8.85
FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION finds R.E.M.'s star rising fast. With major label world domination still comfortably off in the future, the band was still experimenting; their jangly frenetic sound was deepening by fathoms, and Michael Stipe's formless rants were solidifying (his diction was improving, too, which only served to clarify his prodigious poetic gift). The album featured some of the group's most solid pop songcraft to date, as well as some pretty heady meandering ("Feeling Gravity's Pull").
FABLES produced some important hits for the group at this crucial juncture of its career. Radio staples like "Driver 8" kept them popular with the increasingly important college crowd (heretofore their bread and butter), while the crisp, jumpy and irresistibly catchy "Can't Get There From Here" brought them to a new level ...
| | Hot Club Of San Francisco Live MCMVC CD (1996)
Monster music CDs
$13.85
| | Orquesta Mondragon Viaje Con Nosotros A Traves De 21 Exitos CD (2004) Import
Monster songs
$16.29
| | Hazel O'Connor See The Writing On The Wall CD (1999) (Import) Germany
Monster album
$24.95
| | Art Of Fighting Second Storey CD (2005) (Import) Japan
Monster CD music
$39.39
| | Karnataka Strange Behaviour Live CDs (2006)
Monster music CDs
$19.49
| | Matt Monro Rare Monro CD (2006) (Import) England
Monster songs
$17.09
| | Tim Schurrer Never Be Alone CD (2007)
Monster album
$9.59
Sparked by his passion for music, Tim put out his "Forever Mine EP" in the summer of 2006 at just 19 years old. After finishing the EP, he started playing shows in Kansas City, making connections, and writing more music. He soon decided to take what he had learned and expand on it: he wanted to create a full-length album. And thus, production of "Never Be Alone" began in the fall of 2006 in a small studio in Lenexa, Kansas, where John Mayer and Ben Folds had once played years before. Taking the bulk of the production ...
| | David Sylvian Brilliant Trees CD (2008) (Import) Japan
Monster CD music
$49.69
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