Cheap R.E.M. - Parallel (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of R.E.M. - Parallel

First we have "Drive". This was filmed in black and white with about 300 extras (I've read that they were fan club members) that Michael Stipe body-surfs over like a giant mosh pit. At some point everyone, including Peter, Mike and Bill, is sprayed with a fire hose to add an extra element of chaos and rebellion to the image. Watch for Peter's wry smile.

"Man On The Moon" is shot in black and white again, with Michael walking through deserts and highways dressed in a white shirt, black jeans, and a black cowboy hat. He does his now famous Elvis move just before he hops a big rig driven by Bill Berry. He is let off at a country bar and diner where Peter takes his order for a big basket of french fries and Mike is playing some billiards while sporting another black cowboy hat and fake steer skull tattoos on his forearms. The next thing you know, all the patrons in the place are lip-synching along.

"The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite"'s video is as unusual as the song. It is basically a colorful performance video with Michael looking enticing and shabby at the same time, with baggy clothes and a bare (and shaved) chest. Watch for some very come-hither facial expressions from Michael as he plays to the camera. Another interesting thing is the blurry effect (probably created by smearing Vaseline on the camera lens) that we see on the shots where Michael is fidgeting with some flowers.

"Everybody Hurts" is a riveting visual and my favorite clip on the tape. It shows the band dressed in black suits and looking like they've just come from a funeral as they drive down the interstate in a big black vintage car. They immediately come into a massive traffic jam and we see the first few lines of the song appear at the bottom of the screen in textual form like subtitles. Then we see other people stuck inside their cars in this agonizing situation and the subtitles change from lyrics to the distressed and melancholy inner thoughts of the commuters. At one point Michael climbs from the car and begins walking along the median. After a while, the commuters (along with the rest of the band) take a cue from Michael and emerge from their vehicles and begin walking away, metaphorically leaving everything behind.

The "Nightswimming" video is the reason behind the "C" (for clean) and "D" (for dirty) versions of the Parallel home video. While there's nothing dirty about this beautiful video, the nudity was apparently reason enough for Warner Bros. to want to release a censored version. The first half of the video is some teens talking about and preparing for some skinny dipping at night. Next we see a middle aged businessman (perhaps one of the skinny dippers twenty years on) check into a motel and strip down to take a dip in the pool, and it's at this point in the video that the song actually kicks in. After a couple of verses or so, the song is interrupted by underwater footage of the nightswimmers set only to the sounds of the water, and then the music resumes.

"Find The River" combines footage of the band performing the song in their rehearsal studio and footage of an elderly man and his dog walking along the beach and coming upon a burned-to-the-ground house where they sift through its remains, then return to the beach and fall asleep side by side. Filmed in black and white, the video creates a simultaneous sense of optimism and melancholy.

"What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" was the world's first look at a different R.E.M., one with a louder sound and a newly bald frontman. In this colorful video, we see the band performing in an abandoned warehouse with Michael dancing around like it's 1999 and sporting his now legendary star t-shirt (which is now probably just about as legendary as the green horizontally-striped sweater worn by Kurt Cobain in the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video). Between the strobe lighting and Michael's erratic dance style, there is a lot to hold your attention.

"Bang And Blame" is a black and white video that combines footage of the individual band members performing against a completely white background and footage shot from the point of view of someone driving a winding dirt road and rummaging through someone's bedroom. At multiple points throughout the video, the screen is split three ways and the shots of the band members are spliced together for a very cool effect.

"Star 69" is just straight, very homemade looking black and white footage of the band performing the song at one of the final stops on the Monster tour. The camera is often positioned at a 90 degree angle to provide sideways shots of the band. The guys are really in top form here, turning their Monster tour rock star posturing up to 11.

"Strange Currencies" is another black and white clip alternating between shots of the band performing on a street on a rainy night and the band driving around searching for a beautiful girl, suggestive of the song's obsession theme. The effect is both desperate and unsettling, just like the song.

Finally, the "Crush With Eyeliner" video is unique in that the band are barely in it at all. It's a group of Japanese teenagers doing sort of a karaoke performance of the song and just horsing around together on the subway and other places. The band are seen at the very end in blink-and-you'll-miss-it fashion, taking in the show at the karaoke club.

All of the clips are tied together with tiny snippets of the films that were projected behind the band on the Monster tour.

great REM videos
REM is one of my favorite groups of all time and it's nice to have a collection of their videos. REM is one of those groups who put a lot of great thought behind their videos so the videos actually add to the depth of the songs. This collection covers their videos from automatic for the people and out of time which are the albums that really helped them to enter the mainstream. In the end, Parallel really shows why REM became as large as they did.

Creativity and REM
Although the musical styles between Automatic for the People and Monster are quite different, a certain flow is found between the various videos. REM's creativity at the peak! I liked the use of nonassociated clips between the various music videos. Great songs like Find the River, Night Swimming, and Strange Currencies, somewhat hidden in radio airplay have great videos. The end of the DVD includes a rehearsal for Star Me Kitten, in which you can actually hear the lyrics. Of course,with the subtitle feature on those hard to discern REM lyrics come to light, with some surprises.