I recently purchased the new R.E.M. album Collapse Into Now, and I like it. The band's releases before this one have decent (Accelerate) and mediocre at best (Reveal) for fans like me who have been listening to their work since Murmur.
My favorite R.E.M. album is Life's Rich Pageant. I like the album so much that I smuggled the phrase "life's rich pageant" into the book I'm writing/revising. "I Believe" above comes from that album, a work that also features "Begin the Begin," "Fall on Me," "What If We Give It Away?," and "Superman." Other favorite albums are mine are Fables of the Reconstruction, Reckoning, and Document. That era was a fine time to be a R.E.M. fan.
And I'm particularly fond of Automatic for the People too although I despise "Everybody Hurts." On that album the final three songs are outstanding: "Man on the Moon," "Nightswimming," and "Find the River." It's hard to repeat that kind of trio to close an album.
An emerging band that reminds me of R.E.M. in some respects is Frontier Ruckus, whose second album I featured on my "Top Ten/Twenty Albums of 2010" post. Check out the video for "Nerves of the Nightmind" from Deadmalls and Nightfalls below.
Now Frontier Ruckus is more alt-country, folk-rock, Americana, or whatever the heck they want to describe themselves as, but Milia's lyrics remind of Stipe's in some respects although when you compare his lyrics to Stipe's lyrics from the early R.E.M albums, there's a lot more to go on when deciphering meaning. But they both have playful and literary steaks as writers.
Early R.E.M. lyrics, to my eyes at least, remind me of "language poetry," and some of Milia's lyrics work that way too even though "Nerves of the Nightmind" isn't that hard to figure out unless I'm really off base.
And speaking of lyrics, both are below.
"I Believe" by R.E.M.
When I was young and full of grace
And spirited - a rattlesnake
When I was young and fever fell
My spirit, I will not tell
You're on your honor not to tell
I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract
Explain the change, the difference between
What you want and what you need, there's the key,
Your adventure for today, what do you do
Between the horns of the day?
(chorus)
I believe my shirt is wearing thin
And change is what I believe in
When I was young and give and take
And foolish said my fool awake
When I was young and fever fell
My spirit, I will not tell
You're on your honor, on your honor
Trust in your calling, make sure your calling's true
Think of others, the others think of you
Silly rule golden words make, practice, practice makes perfect,
Perfect is a fault, and fault lines change
I believe my humor's wearing thin
And change is what I believe in
I believe my shirt is wearing thin
And change is what I believe in
(repeat chorus)
When I was young and full of grace
As spirited a rattlesnake
When I was young and fever fell
My spirit, I will not tell
You're on your honor, on your honor
I believe in example
I believe my throat hurts
Example is the checker to the key
I believe my humor's wearing thin
And I believe the poles are shifting
(repeat chorus)
"Nerves of the Nightmind" by Frontier Ruckus
All the vegetation in the settled world is stirring
I'm blurring into sun-burnt and heartbroken worrying
about how the day took such a long time to die
when it was reeking of women I once had on my side
but now that I've found another smell to believe in
I'm buzzing like hell just to hope I can breathe it
and resurrect the simplistic calm in some eyes
that are trying to find you or
bury your nightmind
and it will take
time.
Oh, your tongue and the twilight marina
when so young and brave and still dreaming
getting to know you lash by dark lash
the rooms where you sleep in
the floors where you crash
and gas-stations are pleasantly blowing
thunder rolls for dresses you're wearing
on a body so unknowing
of what that blowing’s for our preparing
and patience is never affording
when prettiness and sweetness are pouring
out from you and
onto me and
dampness of sweat is the sweetest recording
and you can lay with your head on my body
the worlds of the night and disease try to rob me
all the vegetation in the settled world is stirring
but stillness and calmness are all that I'm hearing
now
and it will take
time.
But time is for hearts that don't know what they're eating
and nerves that don't spend every night-chance retreating.
about how the day took such a long time to die
when it was reeking of women I once had on my side
but now that I've found another smell to believe in
I'm buzzing like hell just to hope I can breathe it
and resurrect the simplistic calm in some eyes
that are trying to find you or
bury your nightmind
and it will take
time.
Oh, your tongue and the twilight marina
when so young and brave and still dreaming
getting to know you lash by dark lash
the rooms where you sleep in
the floors where you crash
and gas-stations are pleasantly blowing
thunder rolls for dresses you're wearing
on a body so unknowing
of what that blowing’s for our preparing
and patience is never affording
when prettiness and sweetness are pouring
out from you and
onto me and
dampness of sweat is the sweetest recording
and you can lay with your head on my body
the worlds of the night and disease try to rob me
all the vegetation in the settled world is stirring
but stillness and calmness are all that I'm hearing
now
and it will take
time.
But time is for hearts that don't know what they're eating
and nerves that don't spend every night-chance retreating.
No comments:
Post a Comment