New Adventures In Hi-Fi (U.S. Version)

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Cited as the most dramatic and wide-ranging musical statement the group has ever made, these 14 new songs range from hushed acoustic to full-on electric, from studio s in Seattle to an acoustic jam in a Philadelphia bathroom. Both spontaneous and intensely focused, the album represents the band at the height of their creative powers. "E-Bow the Letter," featuring backing vocals by Patti Smith, is the first single and video; "Bittersweet Me" will be the follow-up. .co.uk ------ New Adventures, despite its studiocentric title, is a snaps-from-the-road record in the tradition of Neil Young's Time Fades Away and Jackson Browne's Running on Empty. Like them, it captures a where-am-I-and-why ambience, even with its concert and sound-check material reworked in post-tour sessions. This is very much a transitional album, its feel somewhere between the chamber-folk sweep of Out of Time and Automatic for the People and the distortion-pedal party that raged on Monster. It's the work of a band pretty near its peak consolidating familiar sounds and styles while tinkering with the edges. --Rickey Wright P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); BBC Review ---------- One of REM's strengths is their urge to push themselves creatively. Having ascended to rock's global elite in the early '90s they could have relaxed into the usual superstar routine of touring followed by . Instead after a long break, when they did eventually tour the world again they decided to write and record an album while on the road. New Adventures is the result. It's much better than the preceding Monster. Monster marked the return of Peter Buck's appetite for loud electric guitars after the acoustic period of Out of Time and Automatic For The People, but it tried too hard and didn't have enough good songs. New Adventures rocks out too, but is much more relaxed and successful. the songs live and at sound checks is a shrewd move as this rough and ready approach makes the material feel fresh and alive. The Wake Up Bomb rocks like a mother while Undertow swaggers along on overdrive and thrilling waves of feedback. On Departure, an enjoyable three chord th, and Binky The Doormat the band are having fun and it's thoroughly infectious. New Adventures also features half a dozen songs recorded in the studio. These show range, depth and quality. How The West Was Won sounds like Pere Ubu (always a compliment in my book), New Test Leper is genuinely touching. E-Bow The Letter is the stand out track, a classic: experimental yet gorgeous. In fact, the only thing wrong with New Adventures is that it's just a bit too long, with a couple of below-par tracks (in particular the turgid Leave). This was to become a significant problem in the next phase of the band's career as they lost focus when Bill Berry left. But remove the filler and this is a very good album, perhaps even the last great REM album. --Nick Reynolds Find more music at the BBC ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/syn//albumreviews/-/music/ ) This link will take you off in a new window See more ( javascript:void(0) )