R.E.M // Everyday is yours to win

  This song,"Every day is yours to win" is from the album "Collapse into now".

                                                                  Short biography of R.E.M

R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia , formed in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's unclear vocals. R.E.M. released its first single, "Radio Free Europe", in 1981 on the independent record label Hib-Tone. The single was followed by the Chronic Town EP in 1982, the band's first release on I.R.S. Records. In 1983, the group released its critically acclaimed debut album, Murmur, and built its reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring, and the support of college radio. Following years of underground success, R.E.M. achieved a mainstream hit in 1987 with the single "The One I Love". The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.

By the early 1990s, when alternative rock began to experience broad mainstream success, R.E.M. was viewed by subsequent acts such as Nirvana and Pavement as a pioneer of the genre and released its two most commercially successful albums, Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), which veered from the band's established sound. R.E.M.'s 1994 release, Monster, was a return to a more rock-oriented sound. The band began its first tour in six years to support the album; the tour was marred by medical emergencies suffered by three band members. In 1996, R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported US$80 million, at the time the most expensive recording contract in history. The following year, Bill Berry left the band, while Buck, Mills, and Stipe continued the group as a trio. Through some changes in musical style, the band continued its career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success. In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. R.E.M. disbanded in September 2011, announcing the split on its website.

                     

                                                                                 Two contrasting reviews

I ) The negative one : 

An ep's worth of merely decent material (Discoverer, All the Best, Oh my Heart, Alligator) does not a good or even average album make.  The lyrics are vapid and self conscious and we have heard many of these arrangements done before, except done more convincingly, with more energy, and with far more meaning.  This band has nothing to say anymore, which would still make for a pleasant pop album if R.E.M. remembered to bring the hooks, the riffs, or even memorable or emotive lyrics.  This record, as it stands, just feels completely empty.   

Accelerate showed a reinvigorated band getting back to what they do best.  After hearing Collapse Into Now it is clear that Accelerate was really just R.E.M.'s last gasp of air disguised as a creative rebirth.  No reason to "hang it up" at this point as they are still selling records and people still show up to watch them play but to think that they will do anything meaningful or build/expand on their past body of work at this point is setting yourself up for disappointment.  Expect safe, bland, and emotionally detached rehashes of past glories from this point on.  R.E.M. has released "bad" records in the past (see Up, Around the Sun, etc.) but they have never been this formulaic; a true parody of past work.

II) The positive one:

After few listens I think it will be everything I ever hoped for. The songs have a quite good balance between the fast "Accelerate-tracks" and the usual acoustic numbers. The playing is pretty straight but I love the fact that Stipe has taken his lyrics and singing to a new kind of direction. Something that is direct yet naive. Realistic but still impressionistic. They are irritating but in a beautiful way. Old man doing silly things because he can but I never doubt his intelligence. Hard to choose a favourite song from this album because there are so many. It Happened Today might be the one. There isn´t any tracks I would take away. They all have their place.

I´m thinking hard if I need to squeeze half a point or a full point away from this rating. Because the music feels a bit safe and Stipe is, well, I don´t know exactly what. Thing is, I have listened to this quite a lot, this is intelligent, well done craftmanship and I don´t skip a song. Extra mention to beautiful graphics and booklet. Just the way R.E.M. graphics are with lot of stripes this time.

Personnally,i don´t like this song because this type of music its not one of my favorites. I find that the lyrics aren´t good,because, for me,they haven´t a particular sense,and,when you listen to this song, the rythm is quite monotonus,with only a not so good guitar and the drummer play all the 3:30 minutes the same slow and mediocre rythm.And,definitely, the use of electronical sounds and distorsion is ,for me, only a way to hide the not exceptional voice and causes havoc in the quality of the song, personnaly I don´t like it at all.

The meaning of the video it´s not so easy to get.I have saw that every person that appears in the video have an "special" character that makes them different from the norm,and, from my point of view , the meaning of the video is that everyone is a hero and he can "win" despite their difference , difference that does not only different, but also heroes , in this sense , I am completely agree, everyone has to be himself ,because the difference between people does the variety of the human genre.