rem.IX could actually have been good. The world's most unconventional stadium rock band could've handed the guts of their most recent album over to some talented remixers to make REM sound like something happened in the past 30 years of music.

You get what you pay for - and since this free and downloadable from their website, it's worth what you pay for it. Nothing.

"rem:IX" is still an enormous improvement upon the source material - their last dud album, "Reveal" was the biggest of crimes really that any band can commit - an average album to a tried and tested formula. This then is an improvement, seen as the rest of REM are inaudible.

However, rem.IX, is hardly a success. It stutters and plods across a nonsensical tracklisting and a tedious amount of repetition : by the tenth remix of a dull LP track, rooted in a decade-old style, a handful of half-hearted dated rhythms (especially the clunking, predictable trip-hop take on “Summer Turns To High”), its simply boring. rem:Ix is a 51 minute snoozefest.

Mixing one of the great vocalists with cutting edge electronic artists is a great idea. rem:IX isn't. If you suffer from insomnia, put it on. You'll be cured. It's that greatest of crimes any music can be : boring.