Peter Ames Carlin

Whatzisname famously opined that The Clash was the only band that mattered, but he got that wrong: R.E.M. is the only band that matters, and this book adeptly chronicles their rise, less so their fall. The book begins by alternating chronological narrative with biographical treatments of the bandmen's youth, though Stipe and Buck get much more thorough treatment than Berry and Mills. The approach is band-friendly, and apparently their niceguy personae, always ready to schmooze with fans or help out when asked with other people's recordings and careers, is pretty much accurate. If the book has a fault, it's hard to find, but it could perhaps use a bit more bite in the sense of elucidating the inevitable controversy over their 'selling out' by signing with a major label, not so much in and of itself, but the brouhaha it aroused in their fan base, as well as the somewhat associated controversy aroused by some of same whenever they dared to do a cheerful song such as 'Shiny happy people'. Their always-shrouded personal lives are not explicated particularly well; there's a lot of brief 'what', 'why' not so much as marriages and lovers come and go. I was surprised to read that there was quite a bit of critical and to a lesser extent commercial success for their output this century, which was at best spotty. The author takes the time to explain, inter alia, just who Jefferson Holy was, a figure usually just namechecked and then moving along without explaining him. I also thought he did a great job of describing their present whereabouts and activities, musical and otherwise.… (more)