The World Is POLLapsing Around Our Ears: REM's "Out of Time"

And, at Pop Songs:

Matthew Perpetua: I’m doing a big one today — “Country Feedback”

marathonpacks: Whoa

Matthew Perpetua: Or wait…
is it “Country Feedbag”?

marathonpacks: I think it’s “Country Feedbag”

Matthew Perpetua: I am pretty sure that Michael Stipe wrote it about the closing of a beloved all-you-can-eat country buffet
“it’s crazy what you could’ve had — ribs, chicken, greens!”

"Losing My Religion" is a skipper??? I admit it's kinda hard to hear after overexposure. But I've never ever wanted to skip it. Anyhoo, this is my favorite album of theirs. I went for "Me In Honey" for the best singing of Stipe's career (his microtonal gulps in "That's a part of me" are peerless).

between "near wild heaven" and "texarkana" for me

re: Losing My Religion - overexposure and it's just kind of louder and clangier than the rest of the album (aside from Radio Song, which also sticks out like a sore thumb). There's an even-ness to the other cuts that brings them together for me.

"Me In Honey" is so far and away the best song on here that I really feel obliged to vote for one of the other very, very good songs, mainly "Country Feedback" or "Half A World Away" or just the chorus of "Belong."

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo

That's a pretty strong album, though I don't remember the two side-closers at all. Country Feedback wins, I think. 'Belong' seemed hilarious to me and my pals at the time for some reason - probably Stipe's reportage-vocals. With REM, you have to take your laughs where you find them

"Endgame" is the "yaddy dadda da da da" one. Nice, part of the fabric of the album - would be interested if someone picked it as the best!

"Me In Honey" has Kate Pierson, pregnancy theme, bouncy but anxious guitar figure, drums kick in hard for the chorus: "Left me to loooove... what it's doin' to me-e-eeee!"

Would really vote for "Endgame", but "Losing My Religion" is just too strong not to vote for even though it's a boring pick.

I checked those out xp, both very nice. Half A World Away isn't quite as good as I remembered it (a little too repetitive), but the singing is committed and passionate and I think I'll vote for it instead. The songwriting is so strong on this album, and the sound of it is great - really rich and still quite unlike anything else I've heard. I do like to slag REM off for being too earnest and clever-clever, but these are very much strengths in the context of this album

Near Wild Heaven

I keep reading this thread title as "the world is prolapsing around our ears"

best r.e.m. album. first 3 track are great. voted "Radio Song." why? because it look interesting.

lol best REM album bollocks. "Near Wild Heaven" by fucking miles

it was a different time then. Bollocks is truly undeniable tho, sure.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i43/CaliforniaTeacherGuy/laughter.jpg

nice likeness. better watch them sweets tho, dude.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/gina_mckee_gallery_1.jpg

mrs. vague ain't too happy about your appearance either, eh? understandable (poor girl).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/fuzzdance.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/_41281854_orla_guerin.jpg

nice. (hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool.)

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one more time...

low low low
low low low

no Kate Pierson no credibility

Their worst Bill Berry-era album. Buncha great songs but way too much filler. Any R.E.M. instrumental = filler, even if it has vocals of a sort (Endgame, Belong). "Low" feels unfinished, but I like the video. "Half a World Away" is OK for a not-remotely-as-good rewrite of "You Are the Everything." Sacrilege: I've never liked "Country Feedback." (Sacrilegier: I like "Radio Song.")

It's hard to prefer the studio "Country Feedback" after having heard various live versions, which are usually much, much better. I like this album, but I tend to skip almost half the songs (Radio Song, Endgame, Shiny Happy People, Belong, Half a World Away, if you were wondering), which isn't the case with most of their other albums. The songs that are left are great though.

"Country Feedback" for me.

"Me In Honey," Stipe minimalism at its most successful. Actually, "Me In Honey," "Low," and "Belong" might be the three most successful songs of this kind in their whole catalog.

It was hard not to vote for the vastly underappreciated "Shiny Happy People," but on an album with "Me In Honey" and "Belong" I can't justify putting it at the top. The other big pop numbers here -- LmR, "Near Wild Heaven," "Half a World Away," don't seem nearly as interesting as they did in the time -- they are the "Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" and "Man in the Moon" of this record.

Never, ever got the hate directed at "Shiny Happy People." I was indifferent to this album for years despite loving "Low," "Me in Honey," and "Country Feedback," but returning to it at the beginning of the decade I was struck by how beautifully the strings are arranged, how warm Stipe and the band sound, and how the songs are more concrete than ever without losing their mystery. Christgau nailed it:

Hiding political tics behind faux-formalist boilerplate, pop aesthetes accused them of imposing Solidarity and Agent Orange on their musical material, but in fact such subjects signaled an other-directedness as healthy as Michael Stipe's newfound elocution. Admittedly, with this one beginning "The world is collapsing around our ears," I wondered briefly whether "Losing My Religion" was about music itself, but when Stipe says they thought about calling it Love Songs, he's not just mumbling "Dixie." Being R.E.M., they mean to capture moods or limn relationships rather than describe feelings or, God knows, incidents, and while some will find the music too pleasing, it matches the words hurt for hurt and surge for surge. The Kate Pierson cameos, the cellos, and Mark Bingham's organic string arrangements are Murmur without walls--beauty worthy of DeBarge, of the sweetest soukous, of a massed choir singing "I Want To Know What Love Is."

Jawbox's cover of "Low" redeemed that song for me.

Nonetheless, I voted for "Texarkana".

Near Wild Heaven

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I'm going with "Near Wild Heaven," but this is where I got off the R.E.M. bus. At this moment they irrevocably turned the corner. The sound of a band that enjoyed playing together completely vanished, replaced by the sound of utter indifference, a complete lack of tension and excitement, and absolutely everything that made them special gone forever.

I mean, for me their peak was Reckoning and their too-fast-for-the-rails live shows around that time. When touring ground down their resolve, that listlessness transferred over to their studio work in the worst way(s).

wow how did I miss this poll? I've been on the road a lot lately I guess.

I absolutely love this album, have since the day it came out. I voted for "Endgame" over "Near Wild Heaven", for the gorgeous arrangement and the feel: I spend about 30% of my life feeling like this song. Is that a flugelhorn? I dare not say anything else for risk of making a fool of myself.

these clothes don't fit us right

I still think it's "Losing My Religion," although I really wouldn't mind if I never listen to it again.

which button means the whole album is terrible?

"Country Feedback" for how evocative the line "these clothes don't fit us right" is...

swear I wrote that without seeing mookie's post.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Nice spread of results! Thanks for participating everybody.

How many people's second choice was "Belong"?

I would have voted for "Belong" third.

Today is the kind of day where all I want to hear is the chorus of "Belong," over and over. Clear open blue sky, her breath, this song...Belong. OOOOoooooooOOoOooOOOOO

Ha, "Radio Song" got lots of love, relatively speaking, and it's not just one of the worst R.E.M. songs, but one of the worst songs from a major act, ever.

This album and "Green" always surprise me when I put them on. "Document," too, to an extent. One third great, one third not, and one third songs I forgot were on there but which I'm happy to hear again once in a while.

favourite deep cut on this is probably Texarkana

The storm it came up strong
And shook the trees
And blew away our fear

^ what i would've voted

half a world away
losing my religion
near wild heaven
country feedback
texarkana
me in honey
shiny happy people
endgame
belong
radio song
low

It would have been between 'Half A World Away' and 'Near Wild Heaven' for me. Unsure which one I would have went for.

Their worst Bill Berry-era album

I'm going to keep posting this bit of rongness

OK, how about "Stipe's worst Bill Berry-era album, rescued by Mills"?

I think you meant to say "Green."

Well OK, Green plus Monster would complete the trilogy-of-the-lessers, but at least Stipe showed up for the whole album on those two.

"worst Bill Berry-era album" works for me

no "Hairshirt"s or "I Remember California"s or "The Wrong Child" on OOT though.

There are some good songs on OOT but probably not any I love as much as my favorites on most of their other albums, and I just hate the sound of it, almost as much as some of those anemic later albums. Automatic mines the same basic sonic territory in a way that manages to be both plainer and much, much richer.

At the time I certainly would have agreed with you. Automatic is the only good Scott Litt-era REM thing I never listen to (I wouldn't skip, say, "Monty Got a Raw Deal" if I heard it on someone's mix though).

i'd really like to know what someone in 2012 who had no sense of REM would make of this album

it probably would sound like the world collapsing around his ears

i mean berry-era REM is just so youth-defining that it feels surreal to picture hearing it for the first time already having a sense of musical history, but this album in particular is like Led Zep dipped in dork sauce with a dash of KRS-1.

for an album of strings, bass runs and mandolins kicked off by lite rap-funk it really wound up aptly named

tbh I have no idea how REM will play to "millennials."

I gotta ask students what if anything REM mean to them: maybe this irreconcilable combo of obscure and earnest

Not just earnestness, though. I think there's real human content in R.E.M.

Am I the only person who thinks there's a salvagably decent song inside "Radio Song"? The breakdown with Stipe singing the "everything to show/everything to hide" part over JPJ's immaculately-arranged strings really is beautiful.

I do. The only song I'm meh about is "Belong." Right now, that is.

I think "Radio Song" is great, always have.

can any of you hardcore heads help me make a playlist of every REM song with slap bass?

"Finest Worksong" comes to mind.

yeah i think Document through "Ignoreland" is the halcyon era of fonky REM

all day long

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL6Gsm1AOmY

never understood the appeal of hearing one of the band's most plodding songs done in a big muff alt-rock style

I think the question about millennials would have to do with the stylistic context of the album, but I don't think it goes deeper. Are people hearing it for the first time going to understand the historical context of '91 and R.E.M.'s own trajectory? Because there's a richness to R.E.M.'s thing; there's a richness to their roots and what they were trying to do with this album. That's in danger of being lost in too much fretting over their "dorkiness" or whatever.

REM's context is kind of lost to time, especially since now remembrances of 80s college rock and 90s alt-rock are so explicitly tied to bands that were only part of one or the other (and U2 left a bit bigger of a footprint that they don't have the same problem)

People will have to explore it to understand the context, but you hear slap bass and mandolins and you wonder why they would. I have to remind myself that someone will hear "Me in Honey" and they've got their reason to explore it right there.

Hahaha. The song I woulda voted for got zero votes.

I can't listen to this album anymore but thought about 3/4 of it was pretty good at the time (last time I thought that of an REM album, too.)

It's certainly no FABLES.

I don't know about worst Bill Berry-era REM album, but it's definitely somewhere down in the bottom half of the pile for me!

I love "Radio Song", Stipey "rap" & all.

I didn't see this thread yesterday but weirdly I was thinking then about "Losing My Religion" & how it was an odd megahit, & then I remembered its outro & sighed.

I still think this is my favorite REM album, after all these years.

4 years ago I might have blindly voted "Country Feedback" based on memories alone but after hearing this album in it's entirety today at an event (in the bg), I was struck most by "Half A World Away".

think i need to put this on. i consider it a favourite but just looking at the tracks in the result there...there's not a lot to it, track by track.

Country Feedback is a great song but I have trouble listening to the album version since I first heard the slower live version. The album version feels like the club is closing in 4 minutes so they had to speed up the song to fit it in or something.

i've heard losing my religion a million times but it still strikes me as an astonishly perfect song.

bloody terrible album this and i say that as a one-time teenage REM nutcase. the LPs either side were both incredible imo but this was just.. i mean what happened??

the cover art was pretty bad

Naming your record after the immediate deadline you've got for naming your record is never a good sign.

did you see what i did there.

Half A World Away 4 votes, WTF. That's crazy.

One thing I never got, good song as it is, was Country Feedback's choice for live fan favourite for much of the late 90s/00s (ie when you actually hear OOT songs live) - it got a crazy amount of requests from websites etc. It is a very unexciting live song to me. It would always contain extended Buck soloing, and Peter Buck is not a good soloist IMO.

Completely overexposed and I'm never always in the mood to listen to it but from purely a songwriting POV Losing My Religion is perfect.

I dislike all three songs on this album Kate Pierson's on, and guess what, I really don't mind Kate Pierson.

How can you not like "Me In Honey"?! That's crazy talk! You're crazy!

I don't really rate 'Me In Honey' either, fwiw. I don't hate it, but it's not one of my favourites either.

Hnnnnnnnngggggggh, hnnnnnngggggh-hnnnngggghhh.

It's not horrible, but c'mon.

One thing I never got, good song as it is, was Country Feedback's choice for live fan favourite for much of the late 90s/00s (ie when you actually hear OOT songs live) - it got a crazy amount of requests from websites etc.

I think this is because Stipe was frequently quoted in interviews as saying it was his favorite.

But "Me In Honey" was, is, and always will be the best song on Out of Time. Though "Belong" has grown on me with time.

And I see "Losing My Religion" as a reprise of "World Leader Pretend."

Think I voted for Low, and I'll stand by that.

'belong' was my first favorite rem song, but i'm pretty sure i voted for 'country feedback' or 'half a world'. side 2 ftw, anyway

I voted for none of them, this band sounds like if sheep got instruments and didn't learn to play them but still recorded an album anyway and the album was recorded whil e the sheep were being seared

i mean sheared

mmm lamb chops

So it turns out this looks to be the actual most politically influential album ever, at least in American history:

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/longbox/?curator=MediaREDEF

that's kind of cool

Meanwhile while you've read that starving deer are nibbling at plastic longbox cases for Bon Jovi's New Jersey located in closed and toxic landfills.

I would have voted for "Endgame", fucking lovely stuff.

I always used to forget about this song but now it's one of my all time favorites. Just stunning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWiBIrPMEWk

Ah, that one's always been a favourite of mine. I always liked the fact that the first verse has a different chord progression to all the other verses.

That was my favourite when I used to be a big REM fan.

It's maybe my favorite Stipe performance. "Ha-aaaaaaaaaaaaaphh a world away!"

Oddly enough I mis-remembered it as being on Automatic For The People. Would have fit right in there.

Today is the kind of day where all I want to hear is the chorus of "Belong," over and over. Clear open blue sky, her breath, this song...Belong. OOOOoooooooOOoOooOOOOO

― Doctor Casino, Friday, April 1, 2011 2:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is such a good album.

otm

'Radio Song', 'Low' and 'Me In Honey' can gtfo but the rest is gold.

I keep reading this thread title as "the world is prolapsing around our ears"

― snoball, Saturday, 11 October 2008 09:57 (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same :(

someday everyone else will have left ilx and it'll just be me, euler, and doctor casino talking about which rem songs we like

I'm proud to say I still listen to R.E.M. - it's now been a few years since they split up and it seems like their stock is quite low at the moment, like people haven't really started to miss them yet. One day it'll happen.

Yeah no one my age (late 20s) is a REM fan. It is kinda crazy. My choice for this poll would be Texarkana.

Agree their stock is a little lower now, but it's pretty good relative to other college rock/alternative rock bands of their era. There just isn't as much interest in that stuff right now, but that'll change. That they ended on a high note (with two pretty decent albums) and have carried on with such a low key, unpretentious post-band projects should help their legacy, too. They're poised to be one of the most respected/fondly remembered bands of their era

Yeah, I find it admirable that the members have all been low-key since the split, this whole thinking of "R.E.M. is done now, so let's relax and have fun now that the pressure is off, because we can" ... I like that.

Fwiw, my kids listen to R.E.M., and it's not because I shoved it down their throats either. Ages 18 & 16.

that Unplugged show they did for this album though.

This is my favourite REM album. A lot of their music makes me think of travelling, but listening to this on road trips as a teenager means I can't think of landscape whizzing by every time I hear it

eephus otm

regardless of the rest of "Shiny Happy People" (I'm a fan but I get the hate), the transition from "Endgame" to the intro is marvelous.

dog latin - same here, 100%, and i probably listened to this on one, maybe two road trips maximum. it just has that feel to it.

I need to hear both "Belong" and "Half a World Away" pretty frequently. Can hear "Radio Song" once a year, "Losing my Religion" maybe once every two years.

listening to this record rn at my desk and getting too emotional.

It's been awhile, but I had just gotten a tape of this album in 1991 when I went into the hospital for major surgery vs my ulcerative colitis, I don't think I even had a chance to listen to Out of Time until I was in there recovering; was in the hospital almost two weeks (pretty huge abdominal incision) and listened to this album so many times in there. The surgery turned my health around but also turned my accustomed invalid world upside down and so in a sense this is an open road album for me too, suddenly I had the option of doing all these wide open things I couldn't feasibly do before but also I was out of my mind. Did indeed do a LOT of long distance driving the rest of that year.

(the other piece of media most associated with that hospital stay was the Hyperion novels by Dan Simmons; curiously, those bear a negative taint for me to this day as a result, not so with OoT).

That's a great story - thanks for sharing.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi is the R.E.M. LP most suitable for long distance travelling for me... for obvious reasons.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi > Automatic For The People >Green > Monster > Out of Time

Uh oh country feedback just brought on the waterworks

Fuck I also forget how chills-giving I find the closing track on this

like it's kind of a nothing piece of songwriting but in its place as album closer it's just brilliant

stipe's quaver on 'that's a part of meeeeeee' super affecting to me

I wish 'Country Feedback' was the closing track - it still remains breathtaking from begining to end and anything would sound inferior following it, but 'Me In Honey' particularly does for me - it's a bit R.E.M.-on-autopilot for me.

Everything most people feel about "Country Feedback" is how I feel about "Me in Honey"

It's the choice of chords and the use of Kate Pierson that puts it over.

you could almost make a list of top kate pierson guest vox. the neko case of her day...

There's only two chords in it!

yeah they're two great chords

i love "me in honey"

Yeah, it was a surprise reading back over this thread that anybody dislikes "Me In Honey" - I think it's fantastic, everything about it... band is super tight, lyric is evocative and affecting, and every time the chorus comes around it just soars to this higher level. Actually a very good counterpart to "Country Feedback" as the vocal is surely one of Stipe's most countrified performances.

Another thing I like about "Me In Honey" is the way Buck plays guitar in almost the antipodal opposite of his characteristic "jangle" style. I don't think his hand comes off the chord to arpeggiate once in the whole song, does it?

but there is something I never noticed before that I'd probably change if I could, which is the little "shooka-shooka-shook-shook" sound on the chorus

yeah they're two great chords

i love "me in honey"

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, May 31, 2017 4:57 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Probably the two most used chords in R.E.M.'s entire discography that aren't Em or Am, and does nothing interesting woth them.

*with.

thank u for your input, there is also really excellent vocal stuff in that song

The best thing I can really say about 'Me In Honey' is that it's not something truly awful, like 'Radio Song', but the rest of the album easily towers over it. Stipe delivers a neat vocal, but that's par for the course with early '90s R.E.M.

knowing when to stfu is a skill that can be worked on and improved over time

i know this has already been mentioned and you've already ignored it, but the kate pierson harmonies alone

knowing when to stfu is a skill that can be worked on and improved over time

― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, May 31, 2017 6:15 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Cool, and it's great to see you're making headway with this! :)

i know this has already been mentioned and you've already ignored it, but the kate pierson harmonies alone

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, May 31, 2017 6:15 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've "ignored" it (read: haven't talked about it) because I don't particularly find it worth anything more than a shrug. Yeah, it's there and I know it's there but... *shrugs*

cool man good discussion

'Half The World Away' and 'Country Feedback', though... fuck! Talk about two songs that would immediately make a playlist of my favourite ever R.E.M. songs with zero hesitation or doubt... Stipe's singing on both is hairs-stand-up-on-end fantastic, and there's some great chord changes and an interesting structure to the former. Then there's the perfect pop on 'Near Wild Heaven' with its sublime harmonies and vocal arrangement... 'Endgame', too, has that neat chord change and is a lovely piece of music that could easily have had lyrics, but I don't know if it would have been any better with them.

'Losing My Religion' and 'Shiny Happy People' I've undoubtedly heard too many times by now, but I know they're both excellent songs... the latter getting unfairly shat on by R.E.M. themselves even though it's a pop confection of the type that many can only dream of writing.

'Low' isn't a favourite, but at least it has the "you and me, we know about TIME" section ... 'Belong' and 'Texarkana' have great, full, thick meaty bass... not necessarily Mike Mills' best parts in a technical sense, but incredibly integral to those songs. 'Belong' in particular does a hell of a lot with so little, and the wordless chorus is a neat idea, if one they kinda used before on 'Orange Crush' ...

I like "Shiny Happy People." It was never overplayed here and I didn't have MTV.

this is weirdly fanfic-y of me but i always thought of "low" as a r.e.m. song that kurt cobain probably liked a lot

I love "Me In Honey" so much. "what about meeeeee?" It's about a pregnancy no, from a guy's point of view?

I know I'm out of the usual on here but I can take or leave "Country Feedback". Their rare dirges don't do it for me, "Drive" the exception.

Yeah, I could see Cobain liking 'Low' ... the choice of chords and the palm-muted way in which they're played.

"Low" as something in common with "You" and "You" was Stipe's attempt to write a song Cobain would have liked so I agree

Ha, funnily enough when Euler posted above about "their rare dirges don't do it for me", 'You' was the first track that popped into my head... I think it's a great song, but one which took its time to grow on me. I think it would have been better served by a cleaner recording and some soaring strings (real or synthetic) on the chorus.

When it comes down to it, I don't think 'You' is too far removed from stuff like 'Oddfellows Local 151', really

I was thinking more of "Camera" and "E-Bow". "You" is more a grind than a dirge (and I love it).

I revisited this LP for the first time in years when I reviewed the reissue, and I was kind of floored by how much better it was than my memories of it. I largely remembered it as a couple great songs padded with filler and outright failures. But it's so much less uneven than I remembered it being, and even the fillers and failures are pretty incredible. Such a lush, gorgeous, ambitious record. Not their best but a generous work from a band working at their peak.

She's only on three songs but I can't even imagine this album without Kate Pierson

i think of it as one of their most experimental records, along with new adventures

yep

Yeah, it was definitely an experimental record for them as much as it was a natural progression from Green - trying a few things out they'd never tried before, doing a few things that (at that point) were unexpected of them (working with KRS One, for example) and trying to shake things up a bit by swapping instruments and bringing more outside musicians into the sessions. Not all of the experiments work, but when it does work it's great. It was their biggest record to date and one of their oddest.

I still find it funny that this and Automatic For The People were their two most successful LP's worldwide and they didn't tour either of 'em.

i was at a french-immersion program in quebec in the summer of 91 and we pretty much listened to this and de la soul is dead every single day

we also heard jean leloup's '1990' one way or another most days, and crystal waters' 'gypsy woman' slightly less frequently

these were all good things

"belong" got robbed. michael's wordless keening, his voice cracking, is all-time

I love so many things about "Belong," but right now I am just going to single out the bass fill before the chorus. Took me a long time to realize that it is simply a descending G major scale. Deceptively simple, slightly syncopated, tasty in the extreme.

I like that they performed "Endgame" live, on that Unplugged where Michael wears a stupid hat with snaps on the side. Someone more completist than I am will quickly correct me, but I am not aware of them doing other instrumentals live.

They used to do "Ghost Riders in the Sky."

I've been going through old videotapes lately. Got this one where I'm just filming from my dorm window a big evening thunderstorm, lightning and students running in from the parking lot.

Classic rock station on in the background. Final seconds of "Losing My Religion" providing the soundtrack. That was just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream. Dream. Peter Buck's mandolin trails off.

Then it's KCMQ Q-96 followed right by ... "Enter Sandman" by Metallica.

1992 was such a different place.

They totally did "White Tornado" live I think

I love so many things about "Belong," but right now I am just going to single out the bass fill before the chorus. Took me a long time to realize that it is simply a descending G major scale. Deceptively simple, slightly syncopated, tasty in the extreme.

YES! That part, for me, is actually one of the hooks of the song!

I've been going through old videotapes lately. Got this one where I'm just filming from my dorm window a big evening thunderstorm, lightning and students running in from the parking lot.

Classic rock station on in the background. Final seconds of "Losing My Religion" providing the soundtrack. That was just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream. Dream. Peter Buck's mandolin trails off.

Then it's KCMQ Q-96 followed right by ... "Enter Sandman" by Metallica.

1992 was such a different place.

― pplains, Thursday, June 1, 2017 5:20 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

put that on youtube

yeah that bass fill on belong is so great. i worked it out on keyboard at some point for a totally unfinished and shitty cover version, and ever since it's been something i'll hum to myself independently in the shower or whatever. doot-doot, dee doo doo doo, doot doot doot

w-w-whaaat? Can't believe "Near Wild Heaven" polled this high! Worst song on the album for me.

No one will ever agree like we did in 1991 that "Radio Song" was the first.

As a fan Mills’ vocal is affecting; I can see why others would sneer.

also whatever happened to Ismael Klata, that was a good poster

Country Feedback, Half a World Away, and LMR are the three keepers for me.

I am also surprised that NWH is that high. But Deadbeat Club is my favorite B52s song and it kind of has the same vibe so I guess I can see it now.

Just looked up where they filmed it and never realized it was at Spring Lounge in nyc.

belong was the first track that grabbed me back then, but i'm sure i ended up voting for country feedback

I really really like "Radio Song" including the KRS-One part, don't know why I haven't mentioned that in this thread

I love Near Wild Heaven. Sounds like how I imagine the Beach Boys could have sounded in 1991 if they'd all still been around and functioning.

I like Belong too

When I first heard this album I was still quite young and new to alternative rock music, so I didn't know much about what REM looked like. In my head I imagined Michael Stipe looked like Robin Williams. I still think of Robin Williams when I hear 'Endgame' somehow

I also like “Radio Song” à lot, all of it, and have probably said so way too many times on this message board.

Dammit, if I had seen this thread in time I would have voted for Near Wild Heaven and thus pushed it over the top as unchallenged number one.

I never took to Radio Song. I get that they liked rap at the time and wanted to tip their hat to the genre in some way, but it makes about as much sense as Stipe turning up on a hip-hop track. It just doesn't work, and at the very least it certainly shouldn't have been the opening track. (The cascading jangly riff on the chorus is good though.)

Haven't heard it in years but "Out of Time" was my first-ever cd I got (I was 11 when it came out). Strangely, it was on Top 40 radio as well as "alternative" radio programs. The same thing happened later when "Nevermind" came out. Rather than picking separate songs it's the overall production and baroque sounds/arrangements that make it a highlight of their career. I wonder what the poll results would have been with "Fretless" being an album track. I remember Buck saying it should have been on the album.

surprised Low polled as poorly as it did.

losing my religion towers so many miles above the rest of the album that overexposure can't do it any harm. and i was so much in love with an rem fan at the time that it hurt.

It's crazy what you could have had if you had 5 more voters, but as it was, you were not near enough.

Yeah LMR is a very special track for me too, in a coming of age way. It was so ubiquitous during the summer of 91 and I still feel emotional when I listen to it (rarely though).
That said, there are other great tracks on the album.

that Unplugged where Michael wears a stupid hat with snaps on the side.

1991-core... barn jacket & shorts, perched on that stool... doing those weird little hand flick motions he was into at this time... luv it

every time At 10:35 on an early summer's morning, John Lanchester sat down at his study desk, switched on his new Dell computer, opened up the word processing programme that the computer had come with and began reappears in sna, i think

those creatures jumped the barricades and headed for the sea
sea

so many of my weirdo friends skipped school to buy this on release day that one of the principals thought something was going down and we all had to talk to the counselor and have our mental health confirmed

Yer old.

tempus fugit dept.: released 30 years ago today. a rare song in that I can recall exactly where & how I first heard it (my freshman dorm room; on WFNX) & what I first thought ("that's pretty good--wonder if it'll be a hit, there's a lot of mandolin on it") pic.twitter.com/ejEksBvfGm

— Bowiesongs (@bowiesongs) February 19, 2021

Pitchfork Mark, in the replies, wants to make sure the world knows he's lukewarm on the song.

30th for the album

ffs

I am listening to this album in full for the first time ever right now. “Radio Song” and “Shiny Happy People” are universally reviled as the band’s nadir when “Endgame” and “Belong” are RIGHT THERE?!

Fucking hell is “Me in Honey” a great song.

I like Me In Honey as a closer, there are two or three more obvious choices but they made the right decision

"Belong" rules

otm

“Radio Song” and “Shiny Happy People” are universally reviled as the band’s nadir

Is this true? “Endgame” is kinda weak as a “song,” but I guess it sounded ok at the time, as some texture…

i like endgame, would like it better if it had been arranged/produced in the style of pretty much any other era of good REM though, and if it lost the "lead" vocal

I haven't listened to radio song on purpose in years, but I heard it on the radio, and I kind of thought, eh, if it had no KRS One it might be okay.

"Belong," "Shiny Happy People," and "Radio Song" are all better than "Losing My Religion"

(none of these are as great as "Me In Honey" obviously, I'm not a madman)

Oh I just realized I have already said all this in this thread again and again over the years, sorry

I like "Half a World Away" and could do without every other song on this. R.E.M.'s weakest record.

Texarkana -> Country Feedback -> Me in Honey

greatest 3 song run in their catalog imo

The top two are correct. In fact I might even go so far as to say they're all time top 5 REM for me

I think I like every song on here. Even Radio Song I really don't mind. I can give or take LMR though

Give or take? Take or leave

Went looking for Spitting Image's 'Whiny Crappy People' parody but it's not on Youtube. I recall it had Mike Mills as the lead vocalist, playing double bass like in the SHP video. Why?

Texarkana -> Country Feedback -> Me in Honey

greatest 3 song run in their catalog imo

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, F