Tag Archives: New Adventures in Hi-Fi

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Song of the Day #2,798: ‘The Wake-Up Bomb’ – R.E.M.

newadventuresR.E.M. officially broke up five years ago, but in my book the band’s real end came 15 years before that. New Adventures in Hi-Fi, released in September of 1996, was the last R.E.M. album to feature drummer Bill Berry and the last to sound completely like the band I loved.

Subsequent releases had their moments. 1998’s Up, the first post-Berry record, was the high water mark for that era, fueled by the band’s uncertainty about their identity as a trio. Reveal, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now had some high spots but weren’t memorable overall.

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Song of the Day #1,183: ‘Electrolite’ – R.E.M.

R.E.M.’s last album as a quartet — and therefore the last “true” R.E.M. album — was 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

It would be easy to dismiss the band’s subsequent output as a pale reflection on its first ten albums, but that’s a bit too easy. The five albums R.E.M. recorded after Bill Berry’s departure include some memorable work. Most notably, 1998’s Up, the band’s first record as a trio, is a rich and resonant album.

At the time of Up‘s release, Berry made the very gracious statement that he left the band only to see them record their best album yet. An exaggeration, perhaps, but certainly a sign that his was an amicable departure.

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Song of the Day #687: ‘New Test Leper’ – R.E.M.

I’ve talked about a couple of albums being R.E.M.’s most overrated, and now I arrive at an album I consider one of their most underrated.

1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi is a sprawling effort largely recorded during sound checks and rehearsals for their Monster tour, giving it a casual, ramshackle feel. It blends the rocking sound of Monster with the more acoustic flavors of the band’s earlier work.

I call the album underrated not because it was critically panned (on the contrary, it received strong reviews) or a dud on the charts (it sold reasonably well, though not at the levels of their previous three albums) but because in discussions of R.E.M.’s best work, I rarely see New Adventures in Hi-Fi mentioned. And I believe it absolutely belongs in that mix.

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