Life After R.E.M.: Discussion Thread

[monkeyskin]

Out of Time definitely has a bad rep on here, doesn't help that both sides kick off with a divisive pop song. But I've grown to love it in recent years, it's a great mood album for an evening. Taken by themselves, there's only a handful of great songs that would make for an all-time EP, but in the right setting it all comes together to form a cohesive whole.

Not to overstate the comparison, but it's similar to Bowie's Low in that the bulk of the tracks don't sound great out of context, but together they add up to more than the sum of their parts.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Plus it has Country Feedback on it. It has Half A World Away and Texarkana on it. And, overplayed or not, it has frigging Losing My Religion on it. I've got all the time in the world for Out Of Time, despite whatever shortcomings it has.

And as noted previously, a consistency of production/instrumentation/vocals (I guess?) that makes it hang together. It all sounds like it belongs together. It doesn't sound like some other, different, REM album.

Green, now there's a mixed bag (although I like it for nostalgic reasons, and come on, its got a great second half).

 

[cobl04]

Country Feedback

 

[LemonMelon]

Out of Time is...OK. I recently gave it another shot and came to the usual conclusion that it's got about 6 really good songs and the rest I can take or leave. For any other band, that's great, but for an all-timer in their heyday, it's disappointing.

Better than Green though.

 

[lazarus]

Green, now there's a mixed bag (although I like it for nostalgic reasons, and come on, its got a great second half).

The Wrong Child is garbage. Hairshirt is average.

Out of Time is...OK. I recently gave it another shot and came to the usual conclusion that it's got about 6 really good songs and the rest I can take or leave. For any other band, that's great, but for an all-timer in their heyday, it's disappointing.

Better than Green though.

I actually enjoy the diversions like Low and Belong. They're not noteworthy "songs" per se but the band is stretching into abstract territory in a way they really hadn't before.

It's hard to argue with Automatic being the more "important" release. As I've already said it ain't perfect (and IMO further marred by the track order), but Sidewinder is a perfect pop song, Sweetness Follows packs a whallop, and those final three are as good of a run as any band has ever cut to tape.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I'd count The Wrong Child as the end of the first half (at least it was in the cassette days), and do actually like Hairshirt quite a bit.

 

[lazarus]

My bad. For some reason I thought it was in the middle of Side 2.

But yes, the second half is a major improvement over the first. Stand, Get Up, and Pop Song 89 are all disposable, regardless of how much fun they are.

 

[corianderstem]

Texarkana is awesome.

 

[U2inUtah]

Peter, Mike and Bill + James Mercer doing "You Are The Everything" last night.



and Mike and Peter doing "Texarkana"




Benefit concert for former touring band member Scott McCaughey who recently had a stroke.

 

[prbiker15]

and Mike and Peter doing "Texarkana"

That bassline, though.

 

[Mac_Fly]

Automatic is great, but I've always held Out Of Time above it. For me, that's R.E.M.'s high water mark.

It's a good one.

My favorite REM, a sentimental favorite to be sure, is Life's Rich Pageant.

 

[Axver]

Fables of the Reconstruction or nothing.

 

[Gzusfrk]

Fables of the Reconstruction or nothing.

Fables is amazing, so underrated! My first REM album. I know Bill Berry said it sucked, but it's one of those where the cover matches the beautifully murky music. I learned half this album when I started playing guitar!

 

[lazarus]

My favorite REM, a sentimental favorite to be sure, is Life's Rich Pageant.

Don't qualify it! I know a handful of REM fans who feel the same way (including myself), it's a legitimately great album.

Also, wow at getting Bill Berry to show up.

And speaking of those two things, how cool was this:

 

[HeartlandGirl]

That bassline, though.

Love that bassline. Texarkana might be in my top 10 R.E.M. tracks. I used to listen to it on repeat, which was hard to do with cassette tapes.

 

[The Panther]

The following are the R.E.M. songs that I adore, roughly divided by eras:

Radio Free Europe
Sitting Still
Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
All the Right Friends

Perfect Circle
Talk about the Passion
(Don't Go Back to) Rockville
So. Central Rain

Driver 8
Fall On Me
Cuyahoga
The Flowers of Guatemala
I Believe
Superman (cover)

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Pop Song 89
Get Up
The One I Love
You Are the Everything
Stand
Orange Crush
I Remember California

Radio Song
Losing My Religion
Shiny Happy People
Belong
Try Not to Breathe
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Everybody Hurts
New Orleans Instrumental No.1
Sweetness Follows
Man on the Moon
Nightswimming
Find the River

What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
Bang and Blame
Strange Currencies
E-bow the Letter
Electrolite
New Test Leper

At My Most Beautiful
Daysleeper
The Great Beyond
I've Been High
Bad Day (yes, I prefer the 2003 re-do)


I'm not fond of what I've heard from Around the Sun, and to be honest I still haven't listened to the last two LPs. I would like to do so, soon.


I quite like all their stuff in the Bill Berry era. Nothing was poor, although the Monster-thing seemed a little self-conscious (like recent U2) in that they were trying to wear a hat that didn't really fit them. I actually enjoy their more 'pop' stuff, as you can see from my list -- for example, I think 'Stand' and 'Shiny Happy People' are great! The only R.E.M.-sound I didn't like was the electronic-sound they jumped to in the immediate post-Berry stuff, such as on Reveal and Around the Sun, although there were still a few exceptionally good songs.

By the way, Tony Fletcher is a really good writer (R.E.M. even loved him, and got him to write some sleeve notes for them) and his updated, Perfect Circle, is the best book about R.E.M. and is really well done:

 

[Hewson]

Such a great song live, always loved this duet:

 

[Mac_Fly]

Don't qualify it! I know a handful of REM fans who feel the same way (including myself), it's a legitimately great album.

Pretty cool.

Not that I intended to appear apologetic with my "fav" REM album, but sometimes I know that my choice in a given thing isn't technically the superior choice.

I'm not a big fan of ranking things. But here it is off the top of my head:

1) Life's Rich Pageant
2) Fables Of The Reconstruction
3) Monster
4) Out Of Time
5) Document
6) Automatic For The People
7) Green
8) Murmur
9) New Adventures In Hi-Fi
10) Reckoning

11) . . .who cares

(can the departure of a drummer really shift a bands dynamic that much? I guess so!)

Now there is a thin line separating each ranking so the reality is that I like one REM album almost as much as the next depending on mood, in most instances. So I could rearrange that list on any given day.

Except for Pageant. If I had to pick one and only one to listen to, that would the be one.

 

[cobl04]

So after years of owning it I finally been giving Lifes Rich Pageant a spin. REM are a band I find fascinating and sometimes quite good but I don't think they're ever gonna be favourites of mine. Just really don't connect that much with their music, outside of Country Feedback.

Anyway, this shit threw me for a loop, what the fuck is up with the tracklist on the back missing like two songs and also being in massively the wrong order?! WTF is the story there.

I think my favourites are Cuyahoga (just love the slow, obviously deliberate verse music, Stipe's delivery, and then the more uplifting chorus) Hyena (LOVE the guitar parts just after the choruses), Flowers of Guatemala is quite moving. Swan Swan Hummingbird gets stuck in your head a bit. The other tracks just sort of are there for me, not really doing too much for me. Superman's pretty cool too, even if it's ridiculously out of place, kinda sounds like early 90s Lips.

 

[cobl04]

nothing??

 

[HeartlandGirl]

I’m realizing I’ve never listened to that record.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Ok, here's something (just saw this thread again).

Life's Rich Pageant is easily my favourite REM album. Cuyahoga and Fall On Me in particular are simply epic, perfecting a sort of timeless sound that taps into some kind of folk memory or some shit... seriously, those songs could have been written any time in the last seventy years.

Also, Superman is the perfect fuck-you of a closer. I know it's seen as a joke (and maybe it is), but it's a band cooking with gas, and I'm happy to roll with them.

 

[david]

I found it interesting that they chose the producer for John Mellencamp for this album.

 

[Axver]

Fall on Me, Cuyahoga, The Flowers of Guatemala, and Finest Worksong are absolute classics. But I absolutely never listen beyond The Flowers of Guatemala. It's been so long that I don't recall the songs themselves, just that I didn't enjoy any of them.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Shit, I forgot Finest Worksong was on it.


Probably because it wasn't.

 

[lazarus]

Yeah, Axver is wrong on that one. But it does have Begin the Begin, which is arguably even better (both are in my R.E.M. Top 5).

The second half may have a couple filler tracks like Just a Touch and What If We Give It Away, but the drop isnt as much as it is with Document. It also has I Believe, also in my R.E.M. Top 5. Damn what an amazing track. And of course Swan Swan H, a closer I don't think the band topped until Find the River. I always viewed Superman as a coda/bonus track; it's an odd note to end the album on a cover but damn is it infectious. Fun fact: the band who originally performed the song is, ironically, The Clique.

And how anyone go without mentioning These Days? Another killer track. Of course, Cobbler singles out the disposable Hyena instead.

As for why the track order doesn't match the back cover, they're fucking with people, I guess. They did a lot of weird shit back then.

 

[Axver]

Hah. Finest Worksong and Begin the Begin are back-to-back on my custom REM playlist that I use way more than any individual album, so, there's the origin of that mistake.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I still have a cassette copy of Green, where track 4, on the back is listed as track 'R' ('Stand'). R for revolting, perhaps.

 

[intedomine]

These Days is fabulous, and from the live versions I've heard/seen, even more stunning in performance.

There really is a timelessness to this album. It's a wonderful ride, probably on par with Document for me.

 

[lazarus]

I still have a cassette copy of Green, where track 4, on the back is listed as track 'R' ('Stand'). R for revolting, perhaps.

That's on the back of the CD as well.

And, depending on which copy you have, the R in "GREEN" on the front cover has a reflective overlay of a 4 that you can see when you turn it in the light.

Why? Who cares, it was fun to stumble upon weird shit like that. Pavement used to have bizarre things written on their album artwork that gave me a lot of pleasure trying to decipher.

Agreed on Stand being awful. I've never been a big fan of Green, though its high points are very high.