Post Description

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. Michael 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 for the People, but it does offer a wide range of sonic textures that have never been heard on an R.E.M. album before. [Monster was reissued as part of Warner's 2005 R.E.M. reissue series. Each album was presented in a double-disc digipack, containing a CD on the first disc and a DVD-A version of the album on the second. [br]
Track listing
1. What's the Frequency, Kenneth? 4:00
2. Crush with Eyeliner 4:39
3. King of Comedy 3:40
4. I Don't Sleep, I Dream 3:27
5. Star 69 3:07
6. Strange Currencies 3:52
7. Tongue 4:13
8. Bang and Blame 5:30
9. I Took Your Name 4:02
10. Let Me In 3:28
11. Circus Envy 4:15
12. You 4:54