Live at the Olympia

October 29, 2009

My apologies to those still waiting around for me to write about Accelerate — it will come, eventually! — but to tide you over in the meantime, you can read my review of the band’s new Live at the Olympia over at Pitchfork.

19 Responses to “Live at the Olympia”

  1. miguel Says:

    Great review!

    Can’t wait to read about the Accelerate songs and the outakes (SDBMD and On the fly). I really like On the fly. I think it sounds great live. It gives the record a nice breathing space between all the fast rock songs. If you don’t listen closely, it can feel like a boring around the sun outake but there is something deeper or darker underneath the surface which makes it good.

  2. spanghew Says:

    Well hell: you just sold me a copy of this, which I was going to ignore on the grounds that, meh, live album blah-blah-blah.

    Nice review!

  3. Jared W Says:

    I’m enjoying the album actually. The version of “I’ve Been High” is a really really nice surprise (been streaming on REMHQ), and it’s great to hear the ‘oldies’ done live in such quality.

    Worth noting how well Michael’s voice has held up over the years! A lot of singers who need to get up that high can’t sustain it with age. He sounds just like he did back in the early 80s. He can still nail “Kohoutek”; wow.

  4. Dark Bob Says:

    This record is soooo much better than ‘REM LIVE’ That record was way too slick and polished for my tastes. ‘Live at the Olympia’ has a realness and rawness to it that brings the songs alive. Great song selection as far as I’m concerned. ‘A must’ for fans. And a damn good introduction to their music for anyone checking them out for the first time.

  5. ChampionOfTheWorld Says:

    ………..And my apologies for not sending you a small stipend for your efforts, Sir :) ….I like ON THE FLY…

  6. heyberto Says:

    Disguised… indeed it was.

  7. ChampionOfTheWorld Says:

    Would’ve thought by now we would be ready to proceed ——WHOH !

  8. ChampionOfTheWorld Says:

    Happy 50th , Michael. I don’t sleep I dream…….!!!!!

  9. ChampionOfTheWorld Says:

    I’m on call
    So be there
    One and all
    So be there

  10. ChampionOfTheWorld Says:

    We have many things in common, they increase

  11. Dark Bob Says:

    RZZZZ!

  12. ChampionOfTheWorld Says:

    Albert Camus died suddenly in a car accident on January 4th, 1960………

  13. ChampionOfTheWorld Says:

    When’s the last time you won the World Series, 1954
    Drink some champagne now, fall to the floor

  14. heyberto Says:

    Any chance of additional entries Matthew? You now have another whole album to interpret for us!!!

  15. Allen Says:

    Any chance you will cover Accelerate and Collapse now that it’s been released?

  16. 4trak Says:

    Apparently there are no plans for a tour this year; Matthew might suddenly get ambushed with a third outstanding (i.e. to-be-written-about) album if that’s the case.

  17. Wesley Mead Says:

    http://www.fluxblog.org/2011/03/every-day-is-yours-to-win

    “I have loose plans to do a Kickstarter project in the future for a book version of Pop Songs that will include revised versions of several song reviews, as well as reviews of everything from Accelerate and Collapse Into Now.”


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