"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"and "Star 69"

I agree with "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" but I can't stand "Star 69". The second song I was thinking of was "Crush with Eyeliner" but I just went and listened to it after not hearing it for many years and was kind of unimpressed. So maybe there's only one good song on Monster.

it was love on first listen and i still like it a lot these days

My fav. off Monster is Bang and blame even though it is a rip-off of Talking hea'ds the lady dont mind.

It's not that I don't love it...I love them all but it's just up against so much competition. Also if it wasn't for WTTO it'd be even lower. Certainly lower than Fables and probably ATS which I love. It fit's my moods more esp. in winter.

Monster is a bad album, in contrast to some of their other work. 'What's The Frequency Kenneth' is a good song, but it's one of the most commonly played R.E.M songs on the radio, which has lowered it's value to me. I guess that overplaying songs ruins them for me.

Bad Day and It's The End of the World are my two favourite R.E.M songs, and the band said that the songs were 'cousins', so that explains why I like them both so much.

Reveal is a great album. Quite mellow. Nice and relaxing. I wouldn't say there was a bad song on it.

Have you heard the original version of Bad Day? They wrote and recorded a demo in 1986, but it wasn't released as a single until 2003 (iirc). If not, then listen to it and you'll really hear the relationship between those two songs.

Bad Day:


It's The End Of The World:


Here's the original instrumental demo of ITEOTWAWKI, with some of the backing vocals:

I hadn't heard that version until now, thanks for enlightening me! I love the backing vocals for Bad Day, I'm glad they kept them from the original version. Comparing it with the vocals-less version of ITEOTW the similarities are more obvious than comparing both 'finished' songs. Fantastic :D

i really never understood the Monster hate

Does anyone else really love this?