page_title: Monster (R.E.M. album)
section_title: Recording
hierarchical_section_title: Monster (R.E.M. album) / Recording
caption_attribution_description: Miami, Florida: Criteria Studios
context_page_description: Monster is the ninth studio album by American rock band R.E.M., released on September 27, 1994 by Warner Bros. Records. Produced by the band and Scott Litt and recorded at four studios, the album was an intentional stylistic shift from R.E.M.'s previous two albums Out of Time and Automatic for the People, with loud, distorted guitar tones and simple arrangements. Michael Stipe's lyrics at times deal with the nature of celebrity, and some are sung from the viewpoint of a character.
  Led by the successful single "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", Monster debuted at number one in the United States and at least seven other countries, and received generally positive reviews. Four more singles were released from the album, including the UK top-20 hits "Bang and Blame", "Strange Currencies", and "Tongue". That year, the band promoted the album with their first concert tour since 1989; although the tour was commercially successful, band members suffered several health problems. The album's follow-up New Adventures in Hi-Fi was primarily recorded during the tour.
context_section_description: Early in 1993, R.E.M. convened a four-day meeting in Acapulco to plan their next two years. The group agreed on a plan for 1994 through 1996, which included recording a new album and touring to promote it. Drummer Bill Berry was particularly eager to tour (which the band had not done since 1989), and insisted that the album "rock". The band agreed that after Out of Time and Automatic for the People, they did not want to record another slow-paced album.
  Later that year, R.E.M. began recording their ninth album. Pre-production took place at Kingsway Studio in New Orleans under the supervision of Mark Howard, who had worked on Automatic for the People. Guitarist Peter Buck said that the band wrote 45 songs, including "a whole album's worth of acoustic stuff" which they demoed. According to Howard, the sessions were experimental: "The bass had a tremolo sound on it. It was a more inventive session for them." The studio did not have a control room, so Howard recorded Michael Stipe singing lyrical ideas while lying on a couch: "Being able to put those vocals down helped him write the lyrics to a lot of songs on Monster." When the sessions were finished Howard played the recordings to co-producer Scott Litt, who had worked with the band since their fifth album (Document, 1987).
  In February 1994, the band moved to Crossover Soundstage in Atlanta, Georgia. At Crossover, most of the album's basic tracks were recorded live as if the band were playing in concert. Litt said, "I thought since they hadn't toured in a while, it would be good for them to get into that mind-set—you know, monitors, PA, standing up". The sessions were hampered by several events, including Berry and bassist Mike Mills falling ill on separate occasions, Buck and Stipe leaving to visit family members and the deaths of Stipe's friends, actor River Phoenix and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. The band wrote and recorded "Let Me In" in tribute to Cobain and dedicated the album to Phoenix, whose sister Rain provided background vocals on "Bang and Blame".
  In late April 1994 the band relocated to Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, but recording was interrupted because Stipe had an abscessed tooth. Unlike previous album sessions, by the time production moved to Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles the band was behind schedule. Litt attributed the delay to recording live at Crossover, which lengthened the mixing process; he told Rolling Stone, "We're trying to figure out how raw to leave it and how much to studiofy it." Stipe was still writing songs when the band was supposed to be mixing the album. Tensions arose among the band members, who were staying in different locations in Los Angeles and would rarely be in the studio at the same time. The situation came to a head when the group was recording at Louie's Clubhouse (Litt's home studio in Los Angeles); years later, Stipe recalled, "We broke up ... We reached the point where none of us could speak to each other, and we were in a small room, and we just said 'Fuck off' and that was it." The group met to resolve their issues; Mills told Rolling Stone, "We have to begin working as a unit again, which we haven't been doing very well lately."
caption: Part of Monster was recorded at Criteria Studios.
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