The Best of R.E.M.—In Time
1988-2003
R.E.M.
Warner Bros. Records
(out of five)

Your favorite R.E.M. song may very well have come a rental car ride away from never materializing. Read the liner notes of the band’s latest contribution and read for yourself how “Man On The Moon” came to be. In their first greatest-hits album of their major label days, the members of R.E.M. have put together a catalog of 16 songs, including two new ones, with extensive liner notes.

R.E.M. is, arguably, one of the most nocturnal bands of the past 25 years, lurking in the shadows of other groups’ success while securing its place as one of the seminal American bands of all time album after album.

The Best of R.E.M.—In Time: 1988-2003 is no exception. Accessible to newcomers of the now-trio or followers of the group since 1982’s Chronic Townare powerless but to listen to Michael Stipe’s haunting voice as it leads listeners down memory lane while jarring them into the present with two new cuts: “Bad Day” and “Animal.”

My only complaint is that any greatest-hits album by a band like R.E.M. needs to be at least two discs. This is the prolific group’s second retrospective after its 1988’s Eponymous, a summary of the band’s work on independent label IRS, and it’s still not enough. While classics like “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts,” “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” and “Stand” are here, an entire album full of music didn’t make the cut. But never fear. The album is also available in an extended special edition, including a second CD of rarities, live, acoustic and non-album versions of staples like “Pop Song ’89”, “Country Feedback,” “The One I Love” and “Drive.”

Unfortunately, all that information came off the front of the CD, since Warner Bros. decided not to send the whole package. So take my word for it, that other CD is good…even though I haven’t heard it. Just trust me. Why? Because I’m a journalist, asshole.

However, the addition of “Bad Day”—which harks back to 1987’s “It’s The End Of The Word As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”—makes up for the notable omissions on this otherwise great record.

Similarly, “Animal” picks up where New Adventures in Hi-Fi left off, experimenting with more electronic sounds, vocal dubs and distortion.

Written in only 15 minutes (according to the liner notes), “Animal” has a rough, ragged and edgy sound that really punctuates Michael Stipe’s range as a singer.

It’s almost not fair to judge an R.E.M. greatest hits album on a scale of any sort, but as long as songs like “Fuck a Bitch” and “Weedhead” are in existence, it’s refreshing to hear what a guitar, bass and visionary frontman can do in 55 minutes. —AB

Ghetto Pop Life
DM & Jemini
Lex
(out of five)

Hope
Non-Prophets
Lex
(out of five)

Lex Records, the nascent hip-hop-inclined branch of the seminal electronic label Warp, is quickly making a name for itself as, well, the label that gets a lot of hype around a couple of well-to-do artists who eventually put out albums that only half live up to it.

I’m talking about DM & Jemini’s (Dangermouse and Jemini’s) admirably flawed Ghetto Pop Life from a few months ago. Riding on the strength of the single “The Only One,” a song which managed to be even catchier than Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” (if that’s possible), it seemed like the time was ripe for an intelligent new voice in hip hop. And who better to bring it than Warp?

But the album is fraught with tired references to a gangster lifestyle that these two Georgia natives seemed to learn more from N.W.A.’s back catalog than from their own experiences.

So I was doubly hopeful when I learned that Sage Francis, who penned last year’s masterful Personal Journals, was teaming up with a little-known MC named Joe Beats to make a sort of anti-hip-hop album under the name of Non-Prophets.
The beauty of Personal Journals was how Sage used the language of hip hop to paint a picture of his life growing up as, yes, a white kid in Rhode Island, but that, in not succumbing to the trappings of the genre, he created something else entirely. It was so different that people, for lack of a better word, started calling it emo (shudder).

Well, for those of you wondering, that old Sage is dead, and he was shot in the head by the Non-Prophets. Hope is by far a more violent affair that takes wicked jabs at mainstream hip-hop artists, 2-year-old babies (shocking!) and even freeloading file sharers (how timely!). The production is top-notch, as consistently catchy as it is varied. (Check out “Disasters,” “Bounce,” and “Tolerance Level.”)

But like my mom used to say, if you spend all your time hanging out with garbagemen, you’re gonna get some shit on ya. I guess what I’m saying is, I’d rather hear a breakthrough album (like say, Viktor Vaughn’s, aka MF Doom’s, Vaudeville Villain) that plays with its genre’s conventions but stands apart from them, instead of one that depends on mediocrity as its fuel. Non-Prophets has made a highly listenable, very literate and clever album that points toward greatness. They just need to shift their focus elsewhere.

Sleep/Holiday
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
Sanctuary
(out of 5)

All right, let’s just get this out of the way: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci is one of the worst band names ever. They’re Welsh. Give them a break. We’re lucky they at least sing in English for us poor American slobs.

Yes, crappy band names are old hat to the Welsh, but so are some pretty solid bands (i.e., Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers), although Gorky’s predates both. So sure, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci would probably get more Google search hits as, let’s say, Porky’s Erotic Mincemeat, but that’s just not ever going to happen, so get it out of your head.

The fact is, for a band whose name practically dictates that the first two paragraphs of a review be dedicated to making fun of it, this is all pretty mellow, accessible stuff. Sleep/Holiday is rather a fitting title for these 12 songs about waking up, dreaming and, um, mowing the lawn.

Euros Childs’s affected tenor recalls a Split Enz-era Neil Finn. But the artist I am most reminded of while listening to Sleep/Holiday is the solo work of the late, great Elliott Smith. Not to get too emotional here, but hearing Smith’s legacy live on, at least in my mind, has served as something of a comfort to me, still so soon after his loss.

Because sometimes we all just need a little break, a longer nap or a vacation. If nothing else, something softspoken to distract us from most of the crap that passes as music today. Well, ladies and gents, you need look no further.

Softcore Jukebox
Ladytron
Emperor Norton
(out of five)

It’s hard to go wrong with one of the best songs ever (My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon”) leading off a mix CD that chronicles your influences and, of course, includes two of your own tracks among them. Ladytron has compiled a literate and well-flowing history of electroclash for the uninitiated. But for all the mixing equipment I’m assuming they have at their disposal, none of the tracks even fade into each other. I could have done the same thing in like 20 minutes. Well, I don’t know about posing for that album cover.—BS

Lazy Bones
Gift Anon
My Sweet Records
Local Artist

Gift Anon comes straight to us out of Provo, Utah. Like the chorus of the third track on Lazy Bones, the band’s new album, I wanted more. Not in the sense of wanting to hear more, but more in the sense of wanting something more from the band, something a bit different from the rest of those local bands.

Gift Anon sounds like its members have that potential. This album is pretty and would be good for spending the day in the park with your headphones on, but it failed to convince me that I'd want to put it into my CD player at home or the one in my car. There are some cool sounds on the album, like the gentle use of strings, but other than that, it didn’t kill me softly with its songs.—HH

adam@chronicle.utah.edu
brent@red-mag.com