R.E.M. / Stipe - General Discussions

Originally posted by diederLifes Rich Pageant has the best opening three songs ever. Wow.

Originally posted by popmarter:I wonder will U2 follow suit and announce a split soon, seems their recording career as a commercial entity could also be at an end ,REM last album was largely ignored by the masses with a lot of my mates asking "are they still around?haven't heard of them since the great beyond", and that is the reason they have split ,if it was No1 all over the world and got airplay they would of stayed at it no doubt about it, with the disastrous performace of NOLOTH it seems U2 are on a similar slide to REM,even taking over Letterman and the BBC for a week didn't help in their quest for big album sales and airplay, ever since the last album U2 have been conning fans into believing that another album was imminent ,with Bono even saying they had 4 albums ready ,seems like somebody in the band(No Drummers mentioned) might have doubts about continuing ,now it seems that is well on the back burner.U2 always wanted to go out on top and from a touring point of view now would seem like a suitable time,because lets face it ,they are not going be relevant again ,what radio or music station wants to play new music from a bunch of 50 year olds ,with the airways been so clogged up with Piss pop and R&B .One things for sure U2 and Rem have shared so many similarities over the years ,from been biggest bands in the world,Top tours,massive selling albums and singles ,If U2s next album under performs commercially and more importantly critically(amongst fans) ,they could be left with no other option,Respect to both bands as they have made some amazing music. .

Originally posted by ap5Over the course of their career REM only ranks behind U2 for me. Their run of albums from Murmur through Monster was tremendous.
While Reveal and Around the Sun were real missteps, I have to say I think Accelerate and Collapse Into Now are very good - not ground breaking or new, but strong, 'best of' REM sounds/songs.

They were great live too.

I will miss their music!

Originally posted by Cypress:I'm devastated by this news, R. E. M. have been one of my favourite bands, a constant in my life for many many years. I have all their albums, have seen them in concert various times. I somehow sensed something like this was coming up after not having the band tour this year. Their last album is very good. I'm grateful for all the music they gave us over all these years, I'll miss them a lot.