Don't POLL On Meeee (It's Gonna POLL): REM's "Lifes Rich Pageant"

Yeah, I still question that. You do encounter that opinion a lot in reading reviews.

Or not even there, really, with the last two albums. A lot of reviewers mention something negative about Around the Sun.

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...

Preferring other albums is different than stating that "for years, the overwhelming emotion provoked by their ongoing career seems to have been disappointment."

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.

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.

Remaster streaming here:

http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-album-rems-lifes-rich-pageant

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.

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.

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!

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15625-lifes-rich-pageant-25th-anniversary-edition/

This is like Stipe's Wise Indian album

This was a very stupid comment by me, sorry y'all.

lol

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.

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.

Many of their gnarliest riffs, and a blast to listen to.

fly to carry each his burden

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.

americana

"Night wings her hair chains
Here's your wooden greenback sing
Wooden beams and dovetail sweep
I struck that picture ninety times
I walked that path a hundred ninety
Long, low time ago, people talk to me"

on paper at least, this is legit the closest thing to Syd Barrett anyone has done

No votes for Hyena makes me sad, the urgency in the verses in that tune.

"Flowers" is so Velvet-y. And I love that simple guitar solo.

nights unfurl at the opening, in the final act of the beginning of time

"some bone chains and tooth...picks" kills me every time.

Trust in your calling, make sure your calling's true
Think of others, the others think of you
Silly rule golden words make
Practice, practice makes perfect
Perfect is a fault and fault lines change

Swan Swan Hummingbird is the one here that still gives me chills, great album

we are all free now

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.

pretty sure they used "what noisy cats are we"on a t-shirt design back in the day

and "Superman" my god

SWAHN SWAHN HUMMINGBIIIIIRD is the only track I don't get :/