How I Hear It: R.E.M. disbands after 3 decades of greatness

‘80s alt-rockers announce retirement

Posted on Sept. 25, 2011, at 10:20 p.m.

Jimmy Carter was president; Michael Jackson released his first huge album, “Off The Wall; and it snowed in the Sahara Desert for the first and only recorded time.

This was 1979 — the last time R.E.M. was not an active band.

On Sept. 21, the band announced the world would be without R.E.M. once again, as they “decided to call it a day as a band,” according to a post on their official website.

R.E.M. was a living dinosaur, one of the last relevant musical artifacts from the ‘80s. They were the original pioneers of alternative rock, adding lighter elements to the post-punk of ‘70s bands like Joy Division and Television.

Bands from the same period like Steely Dan, Styx and The Cure are still out and about, but aside from U2 and AC/DC, I can’t think of other bands from that era that still thrive today.

And U2 and AC/DC aren’t exactly pertinent in today’s music scene. They put on massive tours and people attend them in droves, but the main draw of a U2 or AC/DC show is to see them play the hits from their heyday, not to hear the deep cuts from their latest.

Meanwhile, lead singer Michael Stipe and company consistently released albums that have received unwavering critical acclaim. 1987’s “Document” and 1992’s “Automatic For The People” were huge hits for R.E.M., but 2008’s “Accelerate” has been nearly as critically successful as their iconic albums.

The break-up comes fresh off the release their latest album, “Collapse Into Now,” which hit stores in March of this year. Prominent music publications like Rolling Stone and SPIN have shown approval of their effort, which has already reached Silver status in the UK.

Members of R.E.M. posted statements as to their reasons for ending work with the band on their official website.

“During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, ‘what next,’” bassist Mike Mills said. “Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.”

The “greatest hits retrospective,” titled “Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011,” is scheduled to be released in November.

“We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it,” frontman Michael Stipe said.

R.E.M. managed to stick around in the collective consciousness of the American public while not becoming a burden and causing people to wonder when they would just give it up, like the Rolling Stones.

The problem with the Rolling Stones is they don’t know how to act their age, how to be old. Mick Jagger is a 68-year-old man who still dresses and prances around the stage like he did back in 1964, earning a collective eye-roll from any onlookers.

They can’t embrace being old, so they try too hard to be young and get made fun of for it.

Perhaps it is because they have always been slightly restrained in demeanor, but R.E.M have aged like William Shatner has — this may be shocking, but the man is 80 years old.

Like Shatner, R.E.M. doesn’t wear its age on its sleeve, playing with passion and creativity they had when they first picked up their instruments in 1980. Shatner looks closer to 60 than 80 and R.E.M. sounds more like a 10-year-old band than 31-year-veterans

“A wise man once said, ‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave,’” Stipe said.

R.E.M. are master partygoers who knew exactly when their time was up. Hoards of disciples will whine and moan that they shouldn’t call it quits; but that’s fanboy talk — R.E.M. knows what they’re doing.

Better to leave at the top of your game than stick around too long, realizing you should have stopped years ago.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 25th, 2011, 10:20 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.