Great thread Rick!

Are you still planning to complete the reviews? I'd LOVE to hear what you have to say about the rest of the 90s REM albums and their later material.

Looks good so far.

I await "Monster".... be gentle, as it is one of the worst. lol. I would personally give it about a 5/10 actually. It is middle of the road stuff. Not awful, Not great... just average. I do not hate it as much as some though, I think it is an interesting shift into the world of alt. rock, just has no one great song that stands out and seems kinda forced.

But I will await your review to see how that turns out.

No way man! Monster's great! I love how REM can put out an accoustic rock masterpiece and then immediately after put out a big rock album that kicks ass too! The album's full of great tunes like What's The Frequency, Strange Currencies, Circus Envy, You, Tongue, Crush With Eyeliner, etc. Nearly every song on this album is good - great in my opinon.

In my personal opinon, the only REM album that could possibly qualify as middle of the road would be Around The Sun. Some don't like Reveal, but I think Reveal kicks ass.

Monster is okay. I hate the song Tongue though.

I think the whole concept around the song is interesting. Michael's falsetto is funny and reminds me of U2's Lemon.

Maybe I haven't given it enough of a chance, I don't know. It just never grew on me.

That's probably because it's terrible.

I listened to it again, and yes it really isn't a good song. Not one of Michael Stipe's best efforts, that's for sure.

Monster all around though is a strong album. But New Adventures kicks its ass.

I just realized, in Rick's original post he said Monster was released in 1995, when in fact it was actually released in 1994.