“A wise man once said–’the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave” – Michael Stipe

It is with mixed emotions I see REM head for the hills. I remember fondly stealing my brother’s records of Green and Document, and a case could be made for anything they made up until ‘Automatic for the people’. After that point, the quality control seemed to slip, or maybe Bill Berry had a bigger influence on the band than you would have imagined. I stopped listening to them a couple of albums ago, and there was certainly little excitement attached to a new release from them.

So have they done the right thing? Should they have done what U2, Prince and many others do, and continue to milk their fan base for anything they can get out of them? I guess they’ve made their money, and they are not the type to continue if their soul isn’t in it. I’m sure we’ll see all of the members in various musical groups and off shoots for years to come, and that’s a lot more interesting than doing the same old, same old.

We tip our hat to them!