eMusic Review 0
If you’re one of those R.E.M. snobs who rolled their eyes and gagged when “Everybody Hurts” was a hit in 1993, now is a good time to apologize. That sentimentalist single shows up about halfway through this 40-song retrospective — the first to span the band’s entire career — and it’s unlike anything that comes before or after. Notorious guitar jangler Peter Buck plays a riff so innocuous you barely notice it behind bassist Mike Mills’s church organ, and when Michael Stipe chimes in, there’s no doubt about what he’s saying or what he means: “If you think you’ve had too much of this life/ well, hang on.” Strings kick in, arranged by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones with tact and grace.
“Everybody Hurts” is an overt reminder that R.E.M.’s catalog is founded on a rare spirit of compassion. That’s not to say there aren’t clunkers here: “Stand”‘s garish awfulness isn’t rescued by the band’s disclaimer that it was stupid by design, and “Shiny Happy People” perhaps belongs on a worst-of compilation, not a best-of. Still, for all their conventionality — the endless midtempo four-four rhythms, the predictable chord changes, the seeming inability to be even mildly offensive —… read more »
