Plus one on all of this.
Theyâd some run from 83-88 - an album a year and all of a high standard. Berry was so important to them. Wasnât it him who came up with the melody for Everybody Hurts for example?
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The songwriting is generally credited to all four, but there is some evidence he was perhaps the most important ingredient in their IRS days. In early interviews for example the other members referred to him as the best songwriter in the band. Other than Everybody Hurts, I have seen him credited with Perfect Circle, Driver 8 and Green Grow the rushes.
The best evidence is the fact their music went steadily downhill after he left.
pretend REM lads
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I also saw Near Wild Heaven credited to him.
Only music though. Stipe wrote all lyrics.
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14 years ago is recent?
Jesus Fagan. I still put on DVDs of the 73 All Ireland thinking itâs recent
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Youâre too busy sticking your nose into every corner, poking about for things to complain about, arenât you? Well let me tell you something - this is exactly how Nazi Germany started! A lot of layabouts with nothing better to do than to cause trouble!
âCinema in your head.â Very apt.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is one of the most enigmatic characters in music, a figure who has re-invented the wheel so prolifically that it becomes hard to imagine him taking reference from any other musician. That said, even Yorke has taken inspiration from other artists over the years â going as far on one occasion to saying that one record changed his life.
The record that Yorke spoke at depth about his love for and gave the accolade of being the album that changed his life was R.E.M.âs New Adventures in Hi-Fi which came out in 1996. This was a fascinating period in Radioheadâs career following the release of The Bends one year before and with the band heading into the studio to work on the seminal OK Computer .
New Adventures in Hi-Fi is also Michael Stipeâs favourite R.E.M. record which is widely considered to be the band at the peak of their powers and is an incredible piece of work that is a true masterpiece. The record is not just revered by critics but with fans as well, with the project shifting over seven million units and with a reputation that still gets higher as the years go on.
Yorke has shared the stage with the American rock icons on occasions in the past, filling in for Patti Smith on the stunning âE-Bow The Letterâ which features on the aforementioned record. It is clear to see from these performances alone that there is a great two-way street of respect that is shared between both artists.
The Radiohead frontman revealed that he doesnât feel that he doesnât see himself as a maverick figure in music before describing Michael Stipe as a âgeniusâ and adding that âhis lyrics are like a car ride along a street full of traffic signs and billboards. A neon-coloured trip, total cinema in your head, and endlessly inspiringâ.
Yorke continued: âBefore I discovered R.E.M. in the mid-eighties, I was listening to bands like Japan. Music to kill time with. Then I discovered R.E.M. and it turned my life upside down. Michael Stipe was singing about his flaws and weaknesses, and that it is okay to be weird. I was weird.â Yorke noted to VinylWriters , âAnd through his songs Stipe spoke to me, âItâs okay, you donât have to justify yourself to anyone.â Shortly after that, I signed up for art school and started to take making music seriously.
âNonetheless, my favourite R.E.M. record New Adventures In Hi-Fi was released years later. I remember that a while before its release, we were hanging out with R.E.M. in the Penthouse Suite of U2âs Hotel in Dublin, a bizarre place. Mike Mills sat down to the piano and played the melody of âElectroliteâ to me. I said: âThis is very simple, but also very beautiful.â A few months later, I heard what they had done with this melody- the best song of their career. âYour eyes are burning holes through me / Iâm gasoline / Iâm burninâ cleanâ,â Yorke concluded.
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Fucking brilliant album. Itâs possibly my favourite of the Warners era REM back cat.
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New Adventures in Hi-Fi is their best album, their only one that I really like. New Test Leper is a great song.
Only shiny Happy people are up in Leinster house 
the pricks
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I have to say, and I am not being deliberately cantankerous, but for me New Adventures in Hi-Fi is easily the most overrated REM album.
It has great moments - E-bow in particular, Electrolite, and to a lesser extent West was Won, So Fast So Numb and Low Desert.
That is 5 songs out of 14.
Of the remaining 9, I could take or leave them with some truly terrible efforts on there such as the ridicuously meandering âLeaveâ or the utterly forgettable âUndertowâ or âBinky the Doormatâ.
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Ok, youâve been at this craic for years now ⌠and iâll relent
Will you throw up a list of 8-10 REM songs there that youâd highly recommend and iâll give them a go - thereâs too many albums to go splashing about in willy-nilly â
They have numerous superior songs to that.
Just listen to automatic for the people. If you donât like that thereâd be no point pursuing other albums or songs.
We had REM playing in the back ground of a video to raise funds for north west romanian relief fundâ, stills and video of kids dying in Aids clinics ,orphans , sewer kids etc, music made all the difference, love a lot of their stuff since
âEverybody hurtsâ