Rate R.E.M.'s albums

[lazarus]

I enjoyed the first four, but I took Reveal to the second-hand CD store during one of my collection purges. I found it really frustrating because many songs would start promisingly and then just wouldn't go anywhere.

Good idea.

To me the faster/harder songs were ruined with strings & other embellishments, and the slower songs had too many bleeps and bloops.

Imitation of Life is a great single, but I don't get the love for crap like All the Way to Reno. "You know you are/you're gonna be a star". Are you fucking kidding me? Has he been taking writing lessons from Bono?

I think Stipe's lyrics were better when they weren't printed in the insert, though I do think that's a coincidence.

 

[coemgen]

Reveal wasn't that bad!

1. New Adventures
2. Up
3. Reveal
4. Monster

These are all I know. I don't like their other stuff much.

 

[Zoots]

The reason I rate the other albums so high, Monster through Up, might have to do more with the memories associated with these albums than the actual quality of music. Each of these albums takes me to a specific time in my life, and looking back now, they seem like some of the happiest.

Anyways, I love how large and diverse the REM catalog is.

I believe that the music you listen to in high school sticks with you forever! That's why I'm extremely nostalgic about albums that came out in the early to mid 90s and forever place them at the top of my lists. Even though there may be better stuff that came out in the 80s or 00s, that nostalgia factor pushes it up high.

 

[lazarus]

I don't know, I barely listen to anything I listened to in high school, and like you, prefer the stuff from the 90's, which I think is the greatest decade in music after the 70's.

 

[Zoots]

the 90's, which I think is the greatest decade in music after the 70's.

Amen brotha... AMEN!

 

[greenlight7-11]

1. Automatic For The People
2. New Adventures In Hi-Fi
3. Lifes Rich Pageant
4. Out of Time
5. Monster
6. Murmur
7. Green
8. Up
9. Reckoning
10. Document
11. Fables of The Reconstruction
12. Around The Sun
13. Reveal

 

[lazarus]

I'm suprised Document has rated low on several lists. Even without the 1-2 punch of The One I Love and It's The End of the World As We Know It (which are overplayed but great songs), the first four cuts on the album rival any other R.E.M. album's opening:

Finest Worksong (easily in the band's Top 5 songs)
Welcome to the Occupation
Exhuming McCarthy
Disturbance at the Heron House

I'll agree, the second half of the album isn't as good as the first, with Lightning Hopkins and Fireplace serving as some serious filler, but King of Birds? Beautiful. And Oddfellows Local 151 is one of their stranger tracks, and a pretty unique album closer (in the vein of Monster's You). I think it's less all-over-the-place than Lifes Rich Pageant, and possibly a better "album" even if the songs are a notch below. Lifes is still my favorite though, followed by the equally all-over-the-place Hi-Fi.

 

[Zoots]

Document is an odd one. Odd fellow. I absolutely love Welcome To The Occupation, Disturbance... and King Of Birds. One I Love and End are great but wayyy overplayed so I listen to the above 3 a lot more. And then there's weird stuff like Oddfellows Local and Fireplace. I like Finest Worksong but don't love it. It's too busy for me. The album is a mixed bag IMO. Pageant is better!

 

[LemonMelon]

Finest Worksong

I like Document

 

[lazarus]

Too busy?! Are you thinking of the remix with the horn section? Because all I'm hearing on the album verison is that killer, BLISTERING guitar!

And the Mike Mills backing vocals--yes!

Can I get a witness?

 

[LemonMelon]

Which is more awesome:

Begin The Begin or Finest Worksong?

 

[Lancemc]

Guitars can...oh nevermind.

 

[lazarus]

Finest, by a nose.

But damn, this band is good at opening songs:

Radio Free Europe
Harborcoat
Feeling Gravity's Pull
Begin the Begin
Finest Worksong

...and the quality picks up again briefly with:

What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
How the West Was Won

 

[Zoots]

Too busy?! Are you thinking of the remix with the horn section? Because all I'm hearing on the album verison is that killer, BLISTERING guitar!

And the Mike Mills backing vocals--yes!

Actually I was probably thinking about the Horn Mix too when I said busy. But even the album version, it's I don't know.. too loud or something. I like it but don't love it.

Begin The Begin is awesome!

 

[Zoots]

Airportman is terrible. Although, the title is cool.

Okay.. not terrible but not excellent either.

 

[Lancemc]

Airport Man rocks.

 

[lazarus]

Rocks? It's cool, but it doesn't exactly grab you by the throat like the others.

Not that Lotus should have opened the album.

Maybe Hope?

 

[LemonMelon]

Guitars can...oh nevermind.

whinewhinewhinehisss
scratchykeyboardfeedback
screeeeeeeeeeeechwhinehiss
You want to go out Friday
(catfightsoundsonkeyboard)
And you want to go forever
(whinescratchhisswhine)
You know that sounds childish
(cheeseykeyboardsounds>life)
That you've dreamt of alligators
(whinescreaaaaaaaam)
You hope that we are with you
(kindofmelodicbutnotreally)
And you hope you're recognized
(plzskipplzskipplzskip)
You want to go forever
(screeeeeeeechwhinepretention)
You see it in my eyes
(whinehissscreeeeeech)_syntax_error




Seriously, it's OK, but not album-opening material.

 

[Zoots]

Maybe Walk Unafraid should have opened that album.

 

[Zoots]

whinewhinewhinehisss
scratchykeyboardfeedback
screeeeeeeeeeeechwhinehiss
You want to go out Friday
(catfightsoundsonkeyboard)
And you want to go forever
(whinescratchhisswhine)
You know that sounds childish
(cheeseykeyboardsounds>life)
That you've dreamt of alligators
(whinescreaaaaaaaam)
You hope that we are with you
(kindofmelodicbutnotreally)
And you hope you're recognized
(plzskipplzskipplzskip)
You want to go forever
(screeeeeeeechwhinepretention)
You see it in my eyes
(whinehissscreeeeeech)_syntax_error

syntax error!

Hope was I think one of my very first favorites on Up.. along with Daysleeper.

You're looking for salvation
And you're looking for deliverance
You're looking like an idiot
And you no longer care...

 

[LemonMelon]

Airportman should have been cut much shorter (maybe to a minute) and tacked to the beginning of Lotus. Why have it (Lotus) as a second track?

 

[Lancemc]

Hearing Walk Unafraid at my first R.E.M. concert (first concert ever) was one of the greatest moments on my life.

 

[Zoots]

Hearing Walk Unafraid at my first R.E.M. concert (first concert ever) was one of the greatest moments on my life.

I think they played it at my first show too. Not sure though. At MSG right after Bush won re-election, ugh!

As the sun comes up, as the moon goes down...

Good opening, eh?

 

[lazarus]

I'm sorry that your first R.E.M. show was Bill Berry-less.

I saw them first on the Monster tour, 15th row.

I remember loving Undertow before I even knew what it was, as they were playing Hi-Fi stuff on that whole tour.

And why the fuck wasn't Revolution put on Hi-Fi?

Also, Hope does seem a little weird, but it builds nicely. Those bass synths at the end are Radiohead-worthy. (bum bum...badum-bump)

 

[LemonMelon]

My first REM show will probably be next year. Not only post-Bill Berry, but post-Up. How sad is that?

 

[Zoots]

Those bass synths at the end are Radiohead-worthy. (bum bum...badum-bump)

Good point! Think Hope segueing into Cuttooth.

My first REM show will probably be next year. Not only post-Bill Berry, but post-Up. How sad is that?

Mine was post Up too. But what a great show it was! Think about it this way.. you're lucky if you catch your fav band on tour even once! Loads of fans around the world prolly end up not even seeing them a single time just cos they didn't tour close to where they lived!

 

[LemonMelon]

Mine was post Up too. But what a great show it was! Think about it this way.. you're lucky if you catch your fav band on tour even once! Loads of fans around the world prolly end up not even seeing them a single time just cos they didn't tour close to where they lived!

Yes, you're right. I should be grateful that I live within 5 hours of 4 major cities (Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia) making seeing my favorite bands pretty easy.

Plus, Radiohead and REM in the same year would be .

 

[lazarus]

My first REM show will probably be next year. Not only post-Bill Berry, but post-Up. How sad is that?

My suggestion: wait to hear the next album first.

And you don't want to build the post-Berry live experience up too much. It's like the girl at school you've been dreaming of for years, and when you finally get her in bed you realize that she has an artificial arm, bad breath, and is maybe actually a man.

 

[u2popmofo]

For some reason I'm a huge fan of 'Falls to Climb' from Up. That's easily my favorite track from the album, and probably one of my favorite REM songs in general. Love singing along to that one.

 

[Zoots]

For some reason I'm a huge fan of 'Falls to Climb' from Up. That's easily my favorite track from the album, and probably one of my favorite REM songs in general. Love singing along to that one.

The ending is fantastic! Why not meeeeee? I am freeeeeeeee