R.E.M. are back...for a day at the beach

Ha, you didn't think we were done with the R.E.M. of the Reveal period, did you? Well, technically, you could've thought that, because I thought I was after I resequenced and reworked the album. But, just out of due diligence, I decided to check the singles' b-sides, just to see I wasn't missing a great song to mix into Rerevealed. And well, there wasn't, but the stuff I found was still too good to just leave on the side, so I immediately thought 'companion EP'. Well, and then I checked the R.E.M.ixes that was issued a year later, and while most of that one isn't great, I found a song here and there I liked, and so the 'companion EP' becomes a companion album, R.E.M.'s A Day At The Beach. 

The title is not only chosen because the songs here have the same sunkissed quality as the ones on Reveal, but here the band's love for the Beach Boys comes out even more openly, mainly because the electronic trickery is downplayed, mostly because the Reveal songs themselves (at least on the first side, more on that later) are demo versions, which in many ways are more pure than the sometimes overly fussy final versions. "Summer Turns To High" in its '32 Chord Song Demo' version really does sound like a Beach Boys song here, And hey, I even saved "Beachball" from the scrap heap to include here! I might have been a bit harsh on it in my write-up for Rerevealed, but context is important. As little as I thought it fit into Reveal, it fits well here in a more open Beach Boys-homage context and sound. Hell, R.E.M. have even done a surf instrumental, "165 Hillcrest", which I use as an opener to establish the right mood. 

A Day At The Beach is actually divided into two sides, like in the old days of vinyl. Side a with the first five tracks is the Beach Side, while side b is the Bar Side. Which means that the purer Beach Boys homage tracks are representing the day at thebeach, while side b is when towards the end of the afternoon you go and get a drink or three in a beach bar with some beats in the background while you do so. So the remixes end up on side b, which concludes in a bookends way with "2JN", a song that also sounds like it comes from the Beach Boys, but not from one of their sun'n'surf albums, but rather from Pet Sounds.  

One of the interesting side effects of this double R.E.M. project is the appreciation I gained for "The Lifting". Originally when I resequenced the original album it was to put that song in a later spot because I didn't think it was a great opener, but it is a much better song than I remembered, unnecessary electronica embellishments be damned. And so A Day On The Beach has two versions of "The Lifting", the original version - a little slower, and mostly bereft of all the electronic stuff - and a lovely remix that thankfully goes easy on the dance beats. That's why I only kept a short bit of "I'll Take The Rain" which is almost all atmosphere, before the really heavy (and kind of cliché) dance beats come in right after. 

So, another ten tracks to really wrap up R.E.M.'s summer extravaganza in style. Soak in the sun once more with Michael, Mike and Peter. Surf's up, dudes!