Monster (album)

Monster
Studio album by R.E.M.
Released	26 September 1994 (UK) 27 September 1994 (U.S.)
Recorded	April–July 1994
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	49:15
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Scott Litt, R.E.M.
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (A-) link Rolling Stone link
R.E.M. chronology
Automatic for the People (1992) Monster (1994) New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)

Monster is R.E.M.'s ninth album, and their fourth major label release for Warner Bros., released in 1994. It is their most guitar-heavy album to date, with glam/70s rock and grunge influences. It is also very multi-layered, with references to projected images, both in the media and in personal identity, particularly in terms of sexuality.

Details

Monster became a multi-platinum seller, and received critical acclaim by most critics, reaching #1 worldwide. There were several hits from the album, particularly "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?," "Strange Currencies," and "Bang and Blame." The song "Let Me In" was written for Kurt Cobain, who died shortly after the sessions for Monster started. Michael Stipe said that the lyrics of the song were basically what he would tell Kurt over the phone.^[1] The song was recorded on Kurt Cobain's Jag-Stang. "King of Comedy" is a heavily processed, electronic-sounding track; Peter Buck called it a "Leonard Cohen rip-off."^[1] It had started out as a song called "Yes I Am Fucking With You". The caption in the liner notes reading "For River" is a dedication to late actor River Phoenix, a friend of Michael Stipe's, who died of a drug overdose of cocaine and heroin on October 31, 1993. In 2005, Warner Bros. Records issued an expanded two-disc edition of Monster which includes a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner, and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes. The CD (as with all in this series) is not remastered.

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

1. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" – 4:00 (download sample here)
2. "Crush with Eyeliner" – 4:39
3. "King of Comedy" – 3:40
4. "I Don't Sleep, I Dream" – 3:27
5. "Star 69" – 3:07
6. "Strange Currencies" – 3:52
7. "Tongue" – 4:13
8. "Bang and Blame"¹ – 5:30
9. "I Took Your Name" – 4:02
10. "Let Me In" – 3:28
11. "Circus Envy" – 4:15
12. "You" – 4:54

Notes

¹ Track followed by a brief untitled instrumental. Monster had several live B-sides. Instrumental versions of "What’s the Frequency, Kenneth", "Bang and Blame", "Crush with Eyeliner", "Strange Currencies" and "Tongue" were also issued on the Monster singles.

Personnel

• Bill Berry – drums, bass, vocals
• Peter Buck – guitar, Farfisa organ
• Mike Mills – bass, piano, organ, guitar, vocals
• Michael Stipe – vocals

Additional personnel

• Ané, Lynda Stipe, Lou Barlow and Rain Phoenix on "Bang and Blame"
• Sally Dworsky on "King of Comedy" and "Bang and Blame" (misspelled as "Dworski" on the liner notes)
• Thurston Moore (from Sonic Youth) on "Crush with Eyeliner"

Charts

Album

Single

Certifications

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Black, Johnny (2004). Reveal: The Story of R.E.M.. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-776-5.