[intothenight]

Micheal Stipe and Gordie have somewhat similar voices obviously. .

What I just realized however, is even the backup vocals, Paul and Mike Mills have a similar singing voice.

Amazing really.

[thipfan73]

Micheal Stipe and Gordie have somewhat similar voices obviously. .

What I just realized however, is even the backup vocals, Paul and Mike Mills have a similar singing voice.

Amazing really.

I don't get how I can not like REM but love the Hip so much. REM lost me around the "Losing My Religion" time, right around the time they were really becoming big.

BTW, I don't think Paul and Mike have similar voices. I mean yeah, they both have nasal voices but Paul's is a bit higher and has more of a rough sound to.

[The Darkest Canuck]

Monster is every bit as good as anything the hip have ever recorded...



there, i said it.

[direwolf74]

Monster is every bit as good as anything the hip have ever recorded...



there, i said it.

Automatic for the People is even better.

[The Darkest Canuck]

I'm really more of a Monster man myself.

[scottitude]

I don't get how I can not like REM but love the Hip so much. REM lost me around the "Losing My Religion" time, right around the time they were really becoming big.

Same here, but I loved them back in the day. And until a buddy of mine said The Hip reminded him of REM, the comparison never occurred to me. By that time Stipe had just gotten so weird and their music so un-REM that it kind of offended me.

I thought Monster was only "okay", and only because of a couple of tracks.

~Scott

[Billy]

Lifes Rich Pageant is such a fantastic album.

[tigerthelion]

Monster is every bit as good as anything the hip have ever recorded...



there, i said it.

Oooh brave man! Just kidding.

I don't like any REM album as much as my favourite Hip albums but I do like some REM songs as much as my favourite Hip songs. They are a very good band that has been around longer than the Hip. They do deserve credit. I just happen to like the Hip a bit better. 'Monster' does have some gems on it though like "Bang and Blame", "Star 69", "WTF Kenneth".

[sadies]

Lifes Rich Pageant is such a fantastic album.

could not agree more. a classic that i think would really suprise people on this list who perhaps are more familiar with the 90s REM.

I would say it is actually my favourite album -- full stop (though Day For Night has gotta be in the Top 5, so u know where i'm comin' from).

[Killer Whale Tank]

But sonically both the Hip and Downie have always been tougher than REM. And they remain a much more menacing presence.

[nois]

more of document myself, or even epo.

[direwolf74]

Lifes Rich Pageant is such a fantastic album.

could not agree more. a classic that i think would really suprise people on this list who perhaps are more familiar with the 90s REM.
.

Surprised? Not me. Life's Rich Pageant was the album that first got me into R.E.M. way back in the day. Document is another classic album.

Speaking of R.E.M. I had a good long listen to their new album at the record store today, and I gotta say I wasn't too impressed. Is it just me or have Michael and the boys gotten more and more, oh how should I put this....BORING over the last couple of records. Reveal had some nice moments and there are 4 or 5 decent songs on Around the Sun, but overall they just don't compare to the brilliance of Out of Time, Monster, Automatic for the People, or even the consistently solid New Adventures in Hi-fi. They seem to be missing a lot of the passion, energy and enthusiasm that they once had. Is it a coincidence that this downhill slide started after the departure of Bill Berry? Who knows. All I know is that this band needs to get re-energized in the same way that the Hip have been re-energized with In Between Evolution. Or the same way U2 was re-energized with the Elevation Tour. There's no doubt in my mind that their excellent new song "Vertigo" is a direct product of the energy they were feeling on that last tour. Anybody who saw them in 2001 knows what I'm talking about.

[grooveless touque]

Lifes Rich Pageant is such a fantastic album.

could not agree more.

Me too!! LRP is one of the greatest rock records of the 80s. Maybe THE best, insofar as my tastes are concerned. And New Adventures ranks right up there with Phantom Power as the twin towers of what I call "mature rock". New Adventures is far and away my favourite album of the 90s...no single Hip album rises above it. I truly think it's the pinnacle of literate rock music for me.