In a lot of ways I agree with you, Gavin, regarding R.E.M.'s output post-Document. Despite genuinely good material on all of their Warner Brothers albums, all but two are not consistent enough to measure up to their IRS releases. Those two albums are the aforementioned Automatic for the People, which I can not praise enough, and the totally underrated and absolutely amazing New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Released in 1996, 15 years into their career, this album is so indescribably fantastic in that it sounds nothing like R.E.M. All remnants of their original IRS sound have been destroyed, and their chamber pop sound they had adopted with Out of Time and Automatic for the People only rears its head on the beautiful closing track Electrolite. The rest of the album is a mix of melancholy acoustic numbers (New Test Leper) and distorted, heavily processed, sample heavy pieces that will totally blow your mind. This album sold basically no records and yielded their lowest charting lead single since 1986's Fall On Me (E-Bow the Letter, which features Patti Smith on backing vocals) and due to its relative commercial failure they abandoned this new sound for a retro chamber pop sound on 1998's Up. That's a real shame, because this would have been a way cooler way for R.E.M. to age. If you haven't really listened to New Adventures, I fully recommend it. It's one of my favorite R.E.M. albums, and it's a shame it's so often overlooked.
Almost no studio recordings from the album can be found on youtube, but I'll be happy to send anyone a link.
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