Monster is twelve original songs from R.E.M., their first new album since 1992's international breakthrough Automatic For The People (eight million worldwide and counting), and a stunning stylistic change of pace, even for a band that has never done the same thing twice.

"We wanted to make a really foxy record, raw and sexy, just spit it out," is how Michael Stipe explains the Monster approach. "We were ready to throw out the rule book."

"I played guitar really loud," is Peter Buck's terse tactical overview. "It was a little like Spinal Tap... you know, crank it up to eleven."

And while, as Stipe explains, "there's nothing more boring than reacting to yourself," it's clear that the impetus for this highly charged new music was hatched during the extensive, often painstaking studio crafting that went into both Automatic For the People and it predecessor, Out Of Time.

"The loud guitar approach was one we wanted to take on the last album," explains Mike Mills. "But the material didn't lead us in that direction. This one was written on electric guitar. I t never had a chance to be acoustic."

Another key factor in what Mills refers to as Monster's "in your face attitude," was the band's decision, after a five-year hiatus from the road, to begin touring again. "The decision to play live helped to shape the album," is how Bill Berry explains it. "We wanted to be able to do this stuff on stage." R.E.M. will certainly have the opportunity: beginning next January in Australia, they will embark on a year-long tour that will take them around the world, playing for an audience that has truly grown to global proportions.

The result of all the urges, instincts and abandon that went into to making Monster may shock those familiar with the evocative complexities of R.E.M.'s output in the '90's--form Green onwards, the band has fully explored and expanded the expressive range of the studio setting. Monster should, however, ring some bells for those familiar with the band's roots, stretching back fourteen years to the wellspring of what has since become known as Alternative Rock. "In those days, we used to write songs during sound check and play them that night at the show," recounts Berry. "We wanted to get a little of that feel across on this record."

Its echoes from the past notwithstanding, Monster is an album notable for its complete lack of backward glances. "We've never sounded anything like this before," Buck asserts. "We were kids when we started out, and the distance we've come is reflected in these songs." "We're not trying to reproduce anything," agrees Mills, "there's too much going on right now. What remains consistent is the songwriting. That, and the fun of making loud noise."

Monster is indeed loud. Even at discreet volume, the ferocious energy of the music leaps out and lands in your lap with an intensity and immediacy that can't be denied. From the album's explosive opener and debut single "What's The Frequency Kenneth?" through such instant R.E.M. classics as "King Of Comedy," "Bang And Blame," "Circus Envy" and "You," it's obvious that the songwriting has indeed remained consistent... consistently amazing. "We set out to make a rock and roll records without heavy metal or grunge," explains Buck. "When it comes to this kind of hard rock, the only influence we're really got is ourselves."

That influence is aptly demonstrated in the songwriting process that began with Monster. "We took a couple of months off after Automatic For The People," reveals Berry, "and then got right back into it. Each of us wrote separately and then we all came together to present what we had. It took about two months and we treated it like a real job, working eight hours a day to pull together the best songs."

The yield included some forty new tunes in various stages of development, serving as a springboard for the next step--a sojourn at Daniel Lanois' reputedly haunted Kingsway Studios in New Orleans, where the group had recorded much of Automatic For The People. It was here that Stipe began assembling the album's lyrical components. "A lot of it came quickly," he says. "Songs like 'I Took Your Name' and 'You' just fell into place. Others had been lying around for awhile, waiting for place to go. this time around, the music gave me the opportunity to bring out a lot of different characters from song to song. At the same time, I was discovering new aspects of my singing... different voices that meshed with the material."

The band next moved to Atlanta where the stylistic intent was given full sway. "We rented a soundstage," explains Mills, "and we moved in a monitor and a PA. We were originally scheduled to rehearse about a week, but what we were coming up with felt so good, we ended up staying for three."

"It was a very casual atmosphere," continues Buck. "There were people wandering in and out all the time. We'd finish a song and whoever was around would clap. We experimented a lot. At one point, I took a Sparklett's bottle, drilled some holes and played into that. We tried to keep it loose and open while, at the same time, honing in on what it really sounded like when it was just the four of us playing together."

"We used a lot of different mikes and weird effects," says Stipe. "The vocals on 'I Took Your Name' were recorded through a Walkman. Some of the backing tracks were sung into a telephone."

The Atlanta sessions continued through late spring of this year with producer and creative coconspirator Scott Litt on hand. "When we realized we were getting the sound we were after, we moved in a twenty-four tack board and started recording," says Mills. "The bulk of the album was cut in Atlanta, with a few more tracks put together at Criteria Studios in Miami."

"Most of the songs were cut in two or three takes, with on overdubs," Buck continues. "On some, we ended up using the scratch vocals on a few, you can hear the mistakes in the playing. But it was the feeling that counted."

Mixing was begun in Los Angeles, in the early summer and continued for two months. "A lot of time we'd have four different ideas about where to go with a song, but we all agreed that what we didn't want was to embellish," explains Berry. "In fact, in the mixing process we sort of worked backwards, taking the existing elements and trying to whack them out."

"What's surprising about what we ended up with is the diversity from song to song," adds Mills. "Each one of these tracks is like its own separate world."

With Monster completed, the group turned their attention to a long-delayed and much anticipated tour. "This album is a great way to get back into playing live," enthuses Stipe. "I can't think of anything more boring than playing al that music from the last three years, although I'm sure we'll do some of it. We've got big plans."

Those plans include stopovers in territories that have, since the extraordinary success of Automatic For The People, become veritable R.E.M. hotbeds. "The last time we toured internationally in 1989, we weren't that well known," explains Buck. "We were playing arenas in the US and theaters and clubs in Europe. This time out I'm really looking forward to going places we've never been before, like Greece, Sicily and Israel."

"We've always loved to play live," asserts Mills. "It's an integral part of what we do, which is part of why we recorded Monster as a quasi-live setting. Now we've got a chance to do the real thing."

With an album that establishes, all over again, their preeminent place in contemporary music, and afar flung tour that will take that music to virtually every continent in the world, R.E.M. is about to make Monster a self-fulfilling prophecy.