soup soup soup soup soooooooooperman, yeahhhh
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 15 December 2008 01:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Cuyahoga narrowly beats Fall On Me.
This is the best REM album.
― Matt DC, Monday, 15 December 2008 01:54 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^^^^TRUTH BOMB INCOMING^^^^
― Beehive Reptile (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Monday, 15 December 2008 01:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Holy shit @ that Pac "Superman" cover.
― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 15 December 2008 02:00 (fifteen years ago) link
I still love Murmur the most, but oh God this is tough -
What Matt DC said.
― 2for25, Monday, 15 December 2008 02:46 (fifteen years ago) link
As far as I'm concerned, "Begin the Begin" and "These Days" are just one long song, because I'm incapable of playing one without playing the other.
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 15 December 2008 03:07 (fifteen years ago) link
"Fall On Me" duh.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 15 December 2008 12:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Their best 80s album apart from the first two.
Begin the Begin, but all 3 opening tracks really. incredible start to an album.
i agree that this is the best REM album.
― Millennium Ducats (Roberto Spiralli), Monday, 15 December 2008 13:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Love this album, as Dr. Casino mentioned, for the rockers, but voted for "Swan Swan H," which circa 1990 I used to pore over trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Still love that song and this whole album.
― deusner, Monday, 15 December 2008 14:34 (fifteen years ago) link
"The Flowers of Guatemala" over "Begin The Begin". It's REM's first power ballad! And an honest to goodness guitar solo! With bells! The title suggests something political, probably about US military involvement in Central America, but the lyric seems to be about poisonous mushrooms. Is this love or is it confusion? Never mind. I still don't really get the politics, but the mystery is typically REM. It's one of my five favorite REM songs.
― Euler, Monday, 15 December 2008 16:09 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.jcu.edu/chemistry/naosmm/2007/11031952Fire.jpg
― Passenger 57 (rogermexico.), Monday, 15 December 2008 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Begin the Begin
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 15 December 2008 17:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Hahahaha (xpost)
"Superman" for me
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 15 December 2008 18:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Wait, Doctor Casino, you only like the rockers on this, and therefore your list of favorites goes SEVEN LONG without including "These Days?"
― nabisco, Monday, 15 December 2008 18:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Just never really stuck with me.
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 15 December 2008 18:47 (fifteen years ago) link
The guitar solo on the Flowers of Guatemala is really something special.
― Matt DC, Monday, 15 December 2008 18:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Voted for "I Believe" but really I could vote for anyone of these
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Monday, 15 December 2008 19:03 (fifteen years ago) link
I really do hate "Swan Swan H," though.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 15 December 2008 19:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Listening to this record right now, turned UP, and the rockers really just kill, every one of them. "These Days" is way better than I think of it as being, and "I Believe" is sharp as a tack. This is like Stipe's Wise Indian album -
When I was young and full of graceAnd spirited - a rattlesnakeWhen I was young and fever felledMy spirit, I will not tellYou're on your honor not to tell
I believe in coyotes...
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 23:51 (fifteen years ago) link
And man, from the opening bars I'm wondering if I should have voted for "Superman," which, cover or not, is one of the most sublime pop songs they ever put out. This must have brought the house down back in the day. God bless Mills.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 23:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Please do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLLPlease do the CHRONIC TOWN POLL
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than Your MIDNITE POWERTOOLS (Bimble), Saturday, 20 December 2008 22:19 (fifteen years ago) link
I heard Cuyahoga in my head this morning. Getting impatient for the results of this one...
― With Oatmeal Sauce (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Monday, 29 December 2008 17:02 (fifteen years ago) link
voted Cuyahoga. I was singing it the other day, too.
― landfill spectre (wanko ergo sum), Monday, 29 December 2008 17:24 (fifteen years ago) link
"fall on me" ftw, but i voted "these days" because it may be underloved. (and i think part of what makes "fall on me" work is the clamorous lead-in of "these days.")
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 29 December 2008 17:42 (fifteen years ago) link
(this is undoubtedly the r.e.m. album i have listened to the most over the years.)
Am also impatient for the results, may start shortening these to a week and a half. It's just nice to catch the stragglers and lurkers. Will launch the next, highly-anticipated poll hot on the heels of these results tho!
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 29 December 2008 18:00 (fifteen years ago) link
poll hothot pollpoll hothot poll
― With Oatmeal Sauce (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Monday, 29 December 2008 18:03 (fifteen years ago) link
this
but still cuyahoga... intro was the first thing I played on a bass lol
― butt-rock miyagi (rogermexico.), Monday, 29 December 2008 19:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 30 December 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 31 December 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Woohoo! Great poll, guys. New one will be up in a few minutes and the next one, one week from today...
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 31 December 2008 00:09 (fifteen years ago) link
This is the best REM album.― Matt DC, Sunday, December 14, 2008 5:54
― Matt DC, Sunday, December 14, 2008 5:54
You know what? OTMFM.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 8 June 2010 06:55 (fourteen years ago) link
can't argue http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/30/rem-lifes-rich-pageant-review
The band has teamed with Capitol/I.R.S. for the July 12 release of an expanded 25th Anniversary 2CD and digital edition of Lifes Rich Pageant. The new edition features the digitally remastered original album, plus 19 previously unreleased demo recordings cut prior to the album's studio sessions. The commemorative release also adds new liner notes by music journalist and author Parke Puterbaugh, with the 2CD package presented in a lift-top box with a poster and four postcards.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jtkWVhyyL._SL500_AA500_.jpg
― piscesx, Friday, 1 July 2011 01:36 (twelve years ago) link
"For years, the overwhelming emotion provoked by their ongoing career seems to have been disappointment."
I don't know about this at all. When R.E.M. were posting things on Facebook when the new album was coming out, I'd look at the comments and see people all around the world saying, "I love this! I love R.E.M.! Can't wait for the new album!" etc. They have A LOT of fans.
― timellison, Friday, 1 July 2011 03:06 (twelve years ago) link
what is this - loads, if not most REM fans have reservations over LRP - second side is not great IMO. First side is great.
If they overcome with great material as Petri says why didn't it replace crap like 'What If We Give It Away' or 1980 knockoffs like Just A Touch
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 1 July 2011 03:09 (twelve years ago) link
They have a lot of fans, they also have a lot of long term (quite fanatical, murmurs.com members, and so on) fans who are genuinely not bothered anymore.
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 1 July 2011 03:13 (twelve years ago) link
That's probably true, but I think there's a tendency to see that demographic as defining their audience more than it does.
― timellison, Friday, 1 July 2011 03:17 (twelve years ago) link
One of the best examples of a band who have fanatical followers of very distinct periods, and almost equally scathing of others, whilst remaining loosely 'fans'
This is way beyond Reveal, this is going back to Out of Time, the Warners thing and even when the vocal and drums got louder. At least 3 or 4 very distinct periods.
The one area most people seem to agree is that the songwriting has gone downhill.
― Master of Treacle, Saturday, 2 July 2011 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I still question that. You do encounter that opinion a lot in reading reviews.
― timellison, Saturday, 2 July 2011 21:38 (twelve years ago) link
Or not even there, really, with the last two albums. A lot of reviewers mention something negative about Around the Sun.
― timellison, Saturday, 2 July 2011 21:55 (twelve years ago) link
would be surprised to learn that the majority of REM's fans, even their younger fans, genuinely prefer the last 3 or 4 albums. would not, by way of contrast, be shocked to learn that this was true of U2. but anything's possible, i suppose, and getting most of your data points from critics can certainly tend to skew your view of things...
― Looking for that #Swagu? (contenderizer), Saturday, 2 July 2011 21:58 (twelve years ago) link
Preferring other albums is different than stating that "for years, the overwhelming emotion provoked by their ongoing career seems to have been disappointment."
― timellison, Saturday, 2 July 2011 22:06 (twelve years ago) link
The problem is or was that, from an early stage, REM was very 'of the canon' with Murmur and so on. And they've been that way more of less until this last decade.
Add to that, despite a few 80s fan getting off the boat (only realising this in retrospect JUST HOW MANY re. various 'fansites', it certainly wasn't millions) with the early 90s stuff, I and many others of a similar age got on the wagon and most music fans of a similar bent LOVED the supposed Q-magazine fodder, multi-platinum stuff. It was only with the commercial decline that all kind of criticisms seemed to come out, some new, some old.
― Master of Treacle, Sunday, 3 July 2011 03:31 (twelve years ago) link
My question is, who's actually buying newly released REM albums? I mean, I am! But at the same time I'm firmly in the "love Chronic Town through Out of Time, occasionally listen to Monster + New Adventures" camp, and I buy mostly out of a sense of loyalty (though certainly I thought Accelerate and Collapse Into Now had more to offer than the three before that.)
As for the new release: looks like some of these are pre-Chronic Town songs, long available at the "Live at Tyrones" tape -- are these those recordings, or did they record versions of these in the LRP sessions? "Wait," in particular, is superb, kind of REM does Buddy Holly. Also, "Bad Day" is a great song; why they never recorded it and then cannibalized it for "End of the World As We Know It" I'll never understand. Rereleasing it is just good sense, not desperation.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 3 July 2011 16:16 (twelve years ago) link
Remaster streaming here:
http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-album-rems-lifes-rich-pageant
― timellison, Thursday, 7 July 2011 23:45 (twelve years ago) link
Sounds nice, but I've at least listened to clips of the other remasters and this is the first one where I didn't feel like there was some kind of substantial sonic revelation to it.
Did give me a renewed appreciation for Side Two, though. The stretch of three songs that ends the album is really using album space in a creative way, and a way they hadn't before.
― timellison, Friday, 8 July 2011 00:44 (twelve years ago) link
OK, I'm totally wrong! Listening to the clips of the old version on iTunes and yeah, the new one is definitely fuller sounding.
Wow, big difference.
― timellison, Friday, 8 July 2011 01:21 (twelve years ago) link
Still, I think the thing with the remasters of Murmur and Reckoning was not just that they were fuller sounding but the improved clarity and definition. And the Fables one made the guitars sound so good!
― timellison, Saturday, 9 July 2011 03:47 (twelve years ago) link
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15625-lifes-rich-pageant-25th-anniversary-edition/
― piscesx, Thursday, 14 July 2011 03:40 (twelve years ago) link
This is like Stipe's Wise Indian album
This was a very stupid comment by me, sorry y'all.
― this honking's on a bobo (Doctor Casino), Monday, 22 March 2021 20:00 (three years ago) link
lol
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 22 March 2021 20:03 (three years ago) link
i love this album so much. i have the best vinyl copy of it and i am blasting it right now. i wish you could hear how good it sounds. it fills me with joy. also probably my fave stipe lyrics of any rem album. my kinda surreal americana. wish more people did that. fuck with the desert. but maybe not like jim morrison. no offense to jim.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 27 February 2024 15:35 (three months ago) link
second. still my fave of theirs, even though i was a teen chronic town snob. i remember walking into strawberries at like, downtown crossing in boston the day it dropped and getting it.
― a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 05:14 (three months ago) link
Many of their gnarliest riffs, and a blast to listen to.
― assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 05:37 (three months ago) link
fly to carry each his burden
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 18:11 (three months ago) link
can we get some love for Flowers of Guatemala? i have always really loved that song and probably posted the same thing upthread but i feel like it deserves more votes than 2!! tough competition i guess.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 18:45 (three months ago) link
americana
"Night wings her hair chainsHere's your wooden greenback singWooden beams and dovetail sweepI struck that picture ninety timesI walked that path a hundred ninetyLong, low time ago, people talk to me"
on paper at least, this is legit the closest thing to Syd Barrett anyone has done
― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 20:01 (three months ago) link
No votes for Hyena makes me sad, the urgency in the verses in that tune.
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 28 February 2024 20:21 (three months ago) link
"Flowers" is so Velvet-y. And I love that simple guitar solo.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 20:22 (three months ago) link
nights unfurl at the opening, in the final act of the beginning of time
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 21:29 (three months ago) link
"some bone chains and tooth...picks" kills me every time.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:25 (three months ago) link
Trust in your calling, make sure your calling's trueThink of others, the others think of youSilly rule golden words makePractice, practice makes perfectPerfect is a fault and fault lines change
― scott seward, Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:26 (three months ago) link
Swan Swan Hummingbird is the one here that still gives me chills, great album
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:27 (three months ago) link
we are all free now
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:28 (three months ago) link
i don't even actually know all the words. i sing along anyway. i just love how they sound. and "begin the begin" is one of the all time great opening tracks. its amazing.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:28 (three months ago) link
pretty sure they used "what noisy cats are we"on a t-shirt design back in the day
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:29 (three months ago) link
and "Superman" my god
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:30 (three months ago) link
SWAHN SWAHN HUMMINGBIIIIIRD is the only track I don't get :/
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 22:36 (three months ago) link