I have this same feeling about REM, though I'm sure others may (violently) disagree. REM was the first real band I listened to and fell in love with; they were my first concert as well. An older neighbor kid took me and a friend to see them right after their first album came out in a very tiny venue in Cleveland--I was like in eighth grade. I had no idea how special it was at the time. And I kept on buying their CDs, and playing them to death, right up until the one that had "Losing My Religion" on it, whatever that one was. I love that song, but at that point I started to get annoyed by Michael Stipe as a lyricist, and I've been kind of off and on again about REM ever since.

Again, just my opinion, but I think Michael Stipe makes a mistake that many student writers make, and lots of bad poets make--he confuses obscurity for profundity. In other words, he writes strange and confusing lyrics, which might mean something to him, but not much to the rest of us, and because they're hard to understand we all assume they're deep, and we ponder them and think he's a genius. I pondered his lyrics for a long time, and eventually started to wonder if the lyrics weren't really all that deep--maybe they were just confusing and silly--i.e, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (and I know the back story behind this song--I still don't think much of it lyrically, though I love the music).

It doesn't help for me that he likes to play the beatnik, and seems to cultivate this image--the beret, etc. So while I still love their music, and they were a huge influence on lots of bands, and were a real source of good music during a time when lots of bad music was being played on the radio--well, despite all that, I don't listen to them much anymore.