Lancemc
Blue Crack Addict
I'm really amazed every time I go to put on some R.E.M. I look at my now complete R.E.M. collection, and it always takes me at least 5 minutes to decide what I should play. So I really thought about it, and realized that EVERY album from their debut "Murmur" up to and including their 11TH album "Up" is a completely enjoyable, and often breathtaking album. I'd be hard pressed to pick 10 songs from all 11 of those album that I even come close to disliking. But on top of that, each and every one of those album is at least AS good as the best efforts from a lot of other bands I tend to listen to. That's fucking insane. For example, my least favorite R.E.M. album pre-Reveal is probably "Fables of the Reconstruction".
R.E.M. fans now say "WHAT OMG!!1, that's an amazinG ALBUM!!!!LOL" I fucking know! I absolutely adore Fables of the Reconstruction. But that's what makes this thing so damn amazing! As much as I love Fables, I love Murmur, Reckoning, Life's Rich Pageant, Document, Green, Out of Time, Automatic, Monster, Hi-Fi, and Up EVEN MORE!
Let's take my least favorite pre-Reveal album, the good old Fables. That amazing third album with gems such as "Feeling Gravity's Pull", "Life And How To Live It", "Driver 8" and "Maps and Legends", yeah that one. And let's compare it to the BEST efforts from a couple other bands. Let's take Arcade Fire's "Funeral", The White Stripes' "Elephant", and Modest Mouse's "The Moon and Antarctica". Those are all modern classics by any right. And you know what? If I were to listen to them beside "Fables of the Reconstruction" I'd probably have a hard time deciding which is the better album. So mayyybe I'd pick those other albums over Fables. Funeral probably. But that's pitting those bands FINEST works to date against what I'd consider R.E.M.'s WEAKEST album from over 17 years worth of the band's music...a prolific band at that.
I think you get my point here. But take those three albums I mentioned and compare them to one of R.E.M.'s BEST albums, like "Life's Rich Pageant" or "Out of Time" or "Automatic For The People". No chance. Those three albums would smoke almost any competition. Of course this is all my R.E.M.-fanboyishness, but it would seriously be hard for anyone to deny the utter strength of their catalogue.
Here, I'll spell it out for those not familiar with R.E.M.'s entire catalogue:
1983 - Murmur (One of the strongest indie debuts in history; "Radio Free Europe", "Talk About The Passion")
1984 - Reckoning (Destroying the myth of the sophomore slump; "So. Central Rain", "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" )
1985 - Fable of the Reconstruction (Moody, esoteric southern masterpiece; "Maps and Legends", "Life And How To Live It")
1986 - Life's Rich Pageant (The band's indie masterpiece. Seriously as strong as such musical legends as Zeppelin IV, Tommy, Let It Bleed, etc. Features "Fall On Me", "Begin The Begin" and "I Believe")
1987 - Document (Their first mainstream success, one of the strongest rock albums of the decade; "It's The End of The World As We Know It", "One I Love")
1988 - Green (Major label debut, featuring beautiful obcured ballad and scathing rockers with a green thumb; "World Leader Pretend", "Orange Crush", "Get Up")
1991 - Out of Time (My personal favorite R.E.M. album. It gave us "Losing My Religion" among 10 other breathtaking works which include my ALL TIME favorite song by any artist: "Country Feedback")
1992 - Automatic For The People (Major label masterpiece. Many consider the defining album of the decade; "Find The River", "Man On The Moon", "Nightswimming")
1994 - Monster (Built solely to melt faces as stadium concerts. It has "What's The Frequency Kenneth", "Strange Currencies" and "Let Me In". That's all you need to know"
1995 - New Adventures in Hi - Fi (Proof That R.E.M. could one-up U2's Achtung Baby and beat Radiohead to the punch. Includes "E-Bow (The Letter)", "Leave" and "Electrolite")
1997 - Up (Direct inspiration for Radiohead's "Kid A". Some days THIS is my favorite R.E.M. album. It's long, moody, difficult, and utterly mesmerizing. Includes "Walk Unafraid", "Daysleeper", and "At My Most Beautiful")
2001 - Reveal (Perhaps the band's first misstep. Though it's still a strong album by all accounts. Includes "Imitation of Life", "All The Way To Reno", "Beat A Drum")
2004 - Around The Sun (Easily the band's weakest album. Sad. Still some decent work on here regardless, like "Leaving New York", "The Ascent of Man" and the title track)
R.E.M. fans now say "WHAT OMG!!1, that's an amazinG ALBUM!!!!LOL" I fucking know! I absolutely adore Fables of the Reconstruction. But that's what makes this thing so damn amazing! As much as I love Fables, I love Murmur, Reckoning, Life's Rich Pageant, Document, Green, Out of Time, Automatic, Monster, Hi-Fi, and Up EVEN MORE!
Let's take my least favorite pre-Reveal album, the good old Fables. That amazing third album with gems such as "Feeling Gravity's Pull", "Life And How To Live It", "Driver 8" and "Maps and Legends", yeah that one. And let's compare it to the BEST efforts from a couple other bands. Let's take Arcade Fire's "Funeral", The White Stripes' "Elephant", and Modest Mouse's "The Moon and Antarctica". Those are all modern classics by any right. And you know what? If I were to listen to them beside "Fables of the Reconstruction" I'd probably have a hard time deciding which is the better album. So mayyybe I'd pick those other albums over Fables. Funeral probably. But that's pitting those bands FINEST works to date against what I'd consider R.E.M.'s WEAKEST album from over 17 years worth of the band's music...a prolific band at that.
I think you get my point here. But take those three albums I mentioned and compare them to one of R.E.M.'s BEST albums, like "Life's Rich Pageant" or "Out of Time" or "Automatic For The People". No chance. Those three albums would smoke almost any competition. Of course this is all my R.E.M.-fanboyishness, but it would seriously be hard for anyone to deny the utter strength of their catalogue.
Here, I'll spell it out for those not familiar with R.E.M.'s entire catalogue:
1983 - Murmur (One of the strongest indie debuts in history; "Radio Free Europe", "Talk About The Passion")
1984 - Reckoning (Destroying the myth of the sophomore slump; "So. Central Rain", "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" )
1985 - Fable of the Reconstruction (Moody, esoteric southern masterpiece; "Maps and Legends", "Life And How To Live It")
1986 - Life's Rich Pageant (The band's indie masterpiece. Seriously as strong as such musical legends as Zeppelin IV, Tommy, Let It Bleed, etc. Features "Fall On Me", "Begin The Begin" and "I Believe")
1987 - Document (Their first mainstream success, one of the strongest rock albums of the decade; "It's The End of The World As We Know It", "One I Love")
1988 - Green (Major label debut, featuring beautiful obcured ballad and scathing rockers with a green thumb; "World Leader Pretend", "Orange Crush", "Get Up")
1991 - Out of Time (My personal favorite R.E.M. album. It gave us "Losing My Religion" among 10 other breathtaking works which include my ALL TIME favorite song by any artist: "Country Feedback")
1992 - Automatic For The People (Major label masterpiece. Many consider the defining album of the decade; "Find The River", "Man On The Moon", "Nightswimming")
1994 - Monster (Built solely to melt faces as stadium concerts. It has "What's The Frequency Kenneth", "Strange Currencies" and "Let Me In". That's all you need to know"
1995 - New Adventures in Hi - Fi (Proof That R.E.M. could one-up U2's Achtung Baby and beat Radiohead to the punch. Includes "E-Bow (The Letter)", "Leave" and "Electrolite")
1997 - Up (Direct inspiration for Radiohead's "Kid A". Some days THIS is my favorite R.E.M. album. It's long, moody, difficult, and utterly mesmerizing. Includes "Walk Unafraid", "Daysleeper", and "At My Most Beautiful")
2001 - Reveal (Perhaps the band's first misstep. Though it's still a strong album by all accounts. Includes "Imitation of Life", "All The Way To Reno", "Beat A Drum")
2004 - Around The Sun (Easily the band's weakest album. Sad. Still some decent work on here regardless, like "Leaving New York", "The Ascent of Man" and the title track)
I just call it like I hear it...
REM!! Excellent post Lancemc. I like a lot of Up as well. Lotus is probably my favorite off the album. Watch the video, so sexy: 
So true! I just like watching Michael Stipe roll around shirtless 
