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R.E.M. - Up
This was a weird pivot for REM, post-Bill Berry, and they signpost it pretty heavily right out of the gate.
There’s always that tension between “what do the fans want” and “do we want to do”, and this tilts heavily towards the latter, with virtually no jangle, lots of keyboards, etc. (Nigel Godrich engineered nearly all tracks, which makes sense.)
Didn’t like it much on release, but with time and distance I appreciate it more.
@dnanian You never really appreciate drummers until they're gone. I'm reminded of when Spinal Tap lost Nigel Tufnel and they got around to humoring bassist Derek Smalls and indulging in his 3-piece jazz experiments at the county fair. Such a funny scene.
But I'm also a sucker for Nigel Godrich. His production on Terror Twilight made for my favorite Pavement record. OK Computer is my favorite Radiohead, etc.
@pabloniusmonk Godrich didn’t actually produce Up, he just engineered it (as that’s how he started). But you can hear his influence.
Terror Twilight is a great album… I probably haven’t featured Pavement enough here. :-)
Probably got the most introspective work out of McCartney in decades in 2005
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
@Chancerubbage @dnanian Chaos and Creation in the Backyard! Macca's big divorce album. This one was a very interesting album. Of note that Macca never deigned to work with Godrich again. Rumor was he wanted to be challenged & Godrich lived up to the assignment. There were some really moody tracks on there. "How Kind of You", "Jenny Wren", etc. I would like to know the songs that Godrich rejected. Great album.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_and_Creation_in_the_Backyard
@pabloniusmonk @Chancerubbage McCartney - especially in his late period - is a truly interesting combination of lazy and workaholic. Getting someone to challenge him is always a good idea.
@dnanian @Chancerubbage I think you're spot-on there, Dave. I forgot that George Martin suggested Godrich!
https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/paul-mccartney/albums/chaos-and-creation-in-the-backyard/
@dnanian I bought and still have the CD for this 3-piece REM debut. I liked that it said "thank you" on it as if saying thank you for indulging us.
@pabloniusmonk Yah, I have the CDs for all of them (and the vinyl, too).
They were at a point where they could have done anything they wanted, including not playing to expectations of an increasing mainstream fan base.
@Chancerubbage @pabloniusmonk For sure. But then they pivoted away right after…hard, when you re-up a very $$ contract, to put out something that divergent.
I for one appreciated it, I indulged them, so to speak. I can’t say that about every moment of their WB contract.