Via Stereogum, a web site that I wish I was writing/had written. My friend ANP of ATL could write it, and has, at various points in his life, waxed quite poetically about our favorite band.

To wit:

I think the downward slope began with New Adventures
in Hi-Fi, which in retrospect is a pretty darn good
album (except for "Leave").

I didn't really care for Up, haven't listened to it in
years and have no really desire to listen to it again.

I liked Reveal quite a bit when it came out. But I
listened to it again a couple of weeks ago, and it
didn't do much for me this most-recent time.

I thought "Bad Day" was kind of fun and I've listened
to it a few times, but it didn't knock my socks off. I
thought "Animal" was hideous and I've only listened to
it twice.

I know you have experienced a renaissance of sorts in
the past year or so with R.E.M., and I wish I could
experience something similar. But they just don't work
for me right now.

Don't get the idea that pop music in general doesn't
work for me right now, because it does. Just not
R.E.M.

I don't dislike them, I just feel nonplussed by them.
Which I think is better than outright disliking them,
in spite of what the Holy Bible tells us about it
being better to hate God than to be lukewarm about
Him.

(I don't believe in the Holy Bible; that analogy just
seemed to fit)

I used to love Liz Phair, now she really rubs me the
wrong way. But this is because she made a conscious
decision to try to appeal to the masses and be a
slicked-up sex goddess with photo spreads in Vogue and
in ads for Calvin Klein. Which on the surface seems
not so different from the pissed-but-charming sex
addict she portrayed on Exile in Guyville. But it is,
I just can't explain why right now.

REM have not taken the path of Liz Phair, but they
haven't done anything to interest me in a while
either. Maybe I shouldn't lump REM and Liz together,
but they are two recording artists (how do you like my
use of that term?) that have fallen in recent years
from once-high pedestals in my esteem