Danny Boy
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Thanks. Just set my DVR. There is football to be watched.
Have you listened to much other R.E.M.? I think Automatic is the album most similar in tone to Country Feedback - Drive is pretty much a dirge, and about half of that album is similarly emotionally heavy. (Country Feedback is a god damned masterpiece, though - the version on Road Movie even shows that that song can work in large arenas, which is surprising.)
The other albums I've heard are Automatic for the People and Accelerate. Automatic doesn't really do much for me at all, although it's really good towards the end. Find the River's quite nice, Nightswimming is beautiful and Man on the Moon's just a great rock/pop song. Accelerate's got a handful of pretty good songs but I haven't listened to it since it came out. I've also got the In Time bestof.
I also own (but have never played) Lifes Rich Pageant, might listen to that later in the week and report back.
According to a biography I have, apparently the band recorded the music in an afternoon, and then Stipe came in, and sung a single take over it, and it was done. It's incredible how he uses words in that song, in such a powerful way, knowing that it was one take, probably improvised.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, this is a pretty good (albeit old) blog about R.E.M. song meanings, that includes a neat little Q&A with Stipe. https://popsongs.wordpress.com/
Alright. I'm not really a post-Berry fan, and while I really like Automatic (and I agree that it has an amazing ending) it's an album that really grows, and leaves a poor first impression, I think.
Pageant is good! It's the album where Stipe stopped mumbling so much and actually began to sing, and the rest of the band began to rock, instead of jangle, but it's still got some weird stuff on there, so it's a good point to get into the band, I think.
It's all largely jangle pop, which surprised me a bit, I didn't have R.E.M. pegged as a band like that.
And Green still rewards your patience with Orange Crush, so it's not all bad there either.
What the fuck, Cobbler! REM are one of the seminal jangle pop bands. Their first three albums are all jangle pop classics and helped define the genre.
There are days when I think Fall On Me is their best song, and there are days when I think Country Feedback is their best song. And on other days I hold personal exorcisms to settle the matter.
You have to be exorcised from Michael Stipe himself, since those two are his favourite R.E.M. tracks.
Green is far from all bad; I'm just not sure how serious they were about it all or what headspace they were in.
I mean you've got World Leader Pretend, Orange Crush, Turn You Inside Out, Hairshirt...
and then you've got Stand. And some other stuff.
I dunno, I have some fond feelings for the album despite its bubblegum thing.
Lifes Rich Pageant (my personal favorite)