R.E.M.

Live At The Olympia In Dublin

Warner Bros. Records

By Davin Seay

Rumor has it that R.E.M. had recently considered throwing in the towel, ending a career that was stretching well into its third decade. To help make up their minds, and see if they still cared, they performed over four nights in Dublin in early 2007. Judging from the results, R.E.M. Live At The Olympia In Dublin -- a heaping helping of 39 new and vintage tracks -- the evidence is still out.

There's always been a distinct reticence to the R.E.M. sound, a combination of their fastidious production standards and Stipe's idiosyncratic mix of navel gazing and strum und drang. Passion is often sacrificed for precision, a curious contradiction for a band that virtually invented emo. As apparent from this sprawling concert collection, spanning over fifteen years and fourteen original albums, R.E.M was responsible for a lot more besides -- a whole generation of earnest indie bands cast from their mold.

As to whether that template is still timely, the band provides an answer of sorts by reaching far back into their catalog for the evening's set list. A good portion of the material is culled from such formative albums as their groundbreaking 1983 debut Murmur, it's follow-up Reckoning (1984), all the way through Fables Of The Reconstruction (1985), Life's Rich Pageant (1986) and Document (1987) -- a complete run of the quartet's tenure at I.R.S. Records, before signing to Warner Bros. and breaking big.

In other words, R.E.M. seems to be looking back to see forward into their uncertain future. It's an understandable strategy considering the oft-voiced claim that the group's most fertile era was at I.R.S., an argument underscored by such Live At The Olympia standouts as "Disturbance At Heron House," "South Central Rain," "Auctioneer," "Pretty Persuasion" and the magisterial "Cuyahoga." Over half the cuts on this offering, in fact, date from before 1988, which seems to suggest even the band thinks it best years are behind it.

The dearth of material from their hit-making middle period adds to the impression of a group gazing in reverse. With the exception of the evocative "Electrolite," the odd inclusions from their Nineties output have a throwaway feel to them. Barely remembered album tracks like "Circus Envy" and "Drive" have not aged well. It's also revealing that the group included nothing from 1998's dirge-like Up, a nadir which by itself could have prompted talk of quitting.

But there are two factors that keep Live At The Olympia from being an elegiac exercise from a group whose meter has expired. First is R.E.M's formidable stage skills. Primarily known for its studio output (this is only the second official live album released over a fifteen year span) R.E.M. is equally, if not more, compelling on stage. The strictures of the concert setting work in their favor, cutting back on the fussy production frills to reveal solid songwriting bones. This sort of well-oiled instrumental interplay comes only from years of playing together, and hearing Stipe having to fight for his place in the mix brings a new, altogether more urgent, thrust to his vocals. In short, Live At The Olympia rocks quite convincingly.

The other key element in the quit-or-continue debate is the inclusion of eight tracks from the as-of-then unreleased album Accelerate. R.E.M.'s strongest, most energized offering in years, Accelerate was one of the most unjustly overlooked offerings of '08. These seventeen cuts (including three live tracks) brim with primitive energy and propulsive hooks from a group that often seems to have just run out of steam. And Accelerate may well be more than a return to form: it could also be a harbinger of things to come. Live versions of "Mr. Richards," "Horse To Water," "Living Well Is The Best Revenge" and "Houston," give the band, and their fans, hope that a late blooming is in the offing.

All of which makes Live At The Olympia both a quirky career retrospective and an ambiguous document from a band balanced between who they were and what they might still become. The vintage tracks make it hard to imagine where else they might take their sound. A sameness settles on stretches of this album suggesting that a noble, but necessary, finale may be in order. Then, as if from some future still to be determined, material from Accelerate (including the thrilling "I'm Gonna DJ", a fitting follow-up to "The End Of The World (As We Know)") explodes the nostalgic glow and the group sounds delighted, as if caught in the act of surprising itself.

Of course, in a career as long as R.E.M.'s, surprise is the hardest thing to sustain