WEEKEND VIDEO / A FAVORITE FROM 15 YEARS AGO
“Bang and Blame” |
Stipe shaves his head, Buck turns it up to 11 (which, for R.E.M., is more like 8.5) and they deliver excellent songs about being famous in the age of alternative culture. It’s their most forceful, heavy record: established superstars kicking it like a pissed-off garage band. As romantic metaphors go, the call-return anthem “Star 69” hasn’t aged well. But Monster is music of a moment — ’90s alt-rock perfected.
~ Blender