Recorded during and immediately following R.E.M.'s disaster-prone Monster tour, New Adventures in Hi-Fi feels like it was recorded on the road. Not only are all of Michael Stipe's lyrics on the album about moving or travel, the sound is ragged and varied, pieced together from tapes recorded at shows, soundtracks, and studios, giving it a loose, careening charm. New Adventures has the same spirit of much of R.E.M.'s I.R.S. records, but don't take the title of New Adventures in Hi-Fi lightly -- R.E.M. try different textures ...
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Recorded during and immediately following R.E.M.'s disaster-prone Monster tour, New Adventures in Hi-Fi feels like it was recorded on the road. Not only are all of Michael Stipe's lyrics on the album about moving or travel, the sound is ragged and varied, pieced together from tapes recorded at shows, soundtracks, and studios, giving it a loose, careening charm. New Adventures has the same spirit of much of R.E.M.'s I.R.S. records, but don't take the title of New Adventures in Hi-Fi lightly -- R.E.M. try different textures and new studio tricks. "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" opens the album with a rolling, vaguely hip-hop drum beat and slowly adds on jazzily dissonant piano. "E-Bow the Letter" starts out as an updated version of "Country Feedback," then it turns in on itself with layers of moaning guitar effects and Patti Smith's haunting backing vocals. Clocking in at seven minutes, "Leave" is the longest track R.E.M. have yet recorded and it's one of their strangest and best -- an affecting minor-key dirge with a howling, siren-like feedback loop that runs throughout the entire song. Elsewhere, R.E.M. tread standard territory: "Electrolite" is a lovely piano-based ballad, "Departure" rocks like a Document outtake, the chiming opening riff of "Bittersweet Me" sounds like it was written in 1985, "New Test Leper" is gently winding folk-rock, and "The Wake-Up Bomb" and "Undertow" rock like the Monster outtakes they are. New Adventures in Hi-Fi may run a little too long -- it clocks in at 62 minutes, by far the longest album R.E.M. have ever released -- yet in its multifaceted sprawl, they wound up with one of their best records of the '90s. [The 25th Anniversary edition of New Adventures in Hi-Fi contained a bonus disc that rounded up all the B-sides from the "E-Bow the Letter," "Bittersweet Me," "Electrolite," and "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" singles, adding an alternate version of "Leave" from the A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack. Among these flip sides are live versions of New Adventures songs, an acoustic version of "New Test Leper," an 808 State remix of Monster's "King of Comedy," the non-LP instrumental "Tricycle," and a whole host of covers, including Richard & Linda Thompson's "Wall of Death," a live version of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman," Vic Chesnutt's "Sponge," and the Troggs' "Love Is All Around." It may be a bit patchwork, but the variety of sources and sounds makes for a good companion album to the original LP.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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Add this copy of New Adventures in Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Edition) [2 to cart. $25.53, new condition, Sold by Salzer's Records rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from ventura, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Craft Recordings.
Add this copy of New Adventures in Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Edition) to cart. $27.92, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Concord.
Add this copy of New Adventures in Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Edition) [2 to cart. $35.73, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Craft Recordings.
Add this copy of New Adventures in Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Edition) to cart. $41.96, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2021 by UMC/Concord Records.
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