r.e.m.green.poll

Air and Metal sides iirc

This is the only REM album I ever cared about. I think it was largely a matter of timing.

Orange Crush.

Yeah timing is pretty key. At this point I'd already heard some REM (mainly Fables), but didn't own anything. For me, Green and Out of Time together represent a rare situation, where a band's commercial peak coincides with a creative high point.

Note: not saying that was both their commercial AND creative peak - merely a fortuitous time when they were making great music that a large audience was ready to hear.

we are agents of the free

The lyrics of "stand" crack me up

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

You are the Everything or Untitled. I am so happy people made AftP comparisons above. Because I think Automatic is really overrated and the crazy accolades during the anniversary really surprised me because the album has serious duds.

Actually, on any given day I could vote for any of the first 4 songs.

dont understand too much about why this album is often maligned when compared to many of the others - It was my first REM album too and I like most of it -can't be bothered trying to figure out if thats nostalgia talking or objectivity

can't remember what i voted for first time we polled this. (putting quotation marks around the album titles made the polls invisible to the ILX search - oops.) i still don't like this album very much - the songwriting feels thinner, with more songs repeating whole sections or just not having very many lyrics, especially the singles. feels slight, despite the booming, loud production which i still struggle to hear as an "arena" take on their sound though i know that's what it is. voting "you are the everything" for having the nicest melody and a very well-chosen arrangement, setting the template for several of the best cuts on the next two LPs.

xpost It's maligned because it was the first Warner Bros. release.

I finally voted for Get Up, but I have no idea iuf that's right. There's too many good, but not amazing songs on this album.

Polls, they complicate mylife.

never 4get Luke Perry as Dylan, to the accompaniment of "You Are the Everything," curling up barefoot and cute-like on the couch as he remembered how his father used to splash him on the shoreline.

gah, and did they break up or do it to "losing my religion"?

Incredible album, it would be my favorite, but then Fables of the Reconstruction exists.

Could vote for 4 tracks but Get Up takes it, goosebumps the whole way thru.

Like many of the best albums, my favorite song changed every few months the longer I lived with it. Interestingly, it was "Tourfilm" that made me realize how good "Turn You Inside Out" and especially "World Leader Pretend" are.

gah, and did they break up or do it to "losing my religion"?

― Yerac, Wednesday, April 18, 2018

break up!

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

Wow, decisive.

Looks like a bit of love for most of the tracks - glad to see Untitled as not forgotten

teh corny lurker is real

The Wrong Child is on my short list for worst song of all time.

The songs are not as inspired as they are on Lifes Rich Pageant, but I think it's still very good and R.E.M. were just a fun band to follow. It was interesting to see how they evolved and how they made the transition to Warner Brothers on this one. I think the album has a very nice sound.

Sounded good on the original vinyl.

Surprised to not see this mentioned, but the team behind U Talkin U2 2 Me? have turned their attention to REM...

http://www.earwolf.com/episode/green-with-lance-bangs/

http://www.earwolf.com/episode/green-with-lance-bangs-2/

Not a U2 or REM fan, but, the U Talkin U2 2 Me? eps were probably my favorite entertainment of the decade (the one with Todd Glass is perfection). The REM ones have been dope too. They even actually talk about the music sometimes!

"You Are The Everything" is an interesting winner, a very pretty song that pointed in the direction they would go on subsequent albums, more personal and emotional, greater clarity. "World Leader Pretend" is one of my least favorite tracks on Green, it's a bit too heavy-handed for my taste.

Missed this but would’ve gone with the winner.

Every song got a vote!

Not a big fan of this album even though it's the only one I own on vinyl. I find it strange that people cite Out Of Time as a 'drop-off' album when really their careers were consistent with Green being the only real dip until after Up. World Leader Pretend is astonishing though. I'd put it on any best of mix.

Wrong Child (also think it's their worst song), World Leader and Turn you Inside Out have too many votes on this.

Hmm. Realistically, they dipped no less than three times in the Bill Berry years, even if these dips are only slight. Firstly, with Fables of the Reconstruction (which is slightly less good than the two before and after it), then with Out of Time (big album for them commercially, but quality-wise a huge gulf between the best and worst tracks) and then Monster. The biggest dip would come after Berry left, with Around the Sun.

'The Wrong Child' is great!

where did this thought come from

how is monster a dip (i’m aware of its reputation, its reputation is wrong)

also why are we using the word dip like this

i have a lot of questions!

I'm one of the You Are the Everything voters but am mad now that Stand, Pop Song, and Get Up came so low

Also why was this not called "Sometimes I feel like I can't even POLL"

I was about to vote for You are the Everything, but then I wanted to stan for Stand.

No accident that the mandolin-led tunes are so polarising between best and worst

Monster is underrated

I should have stanned in the place where I live

lol

Turn You Inside Out is great, wtf

on The Wrong Child, Stipe does things w his voice that he’d not done before, maybe you think he shouldn’t have done them at all but it’s very affecting to me

I just relistened. I think the imagery with that arrangement has always felt creepy to me. The melody is fine.

Green's one of my favourites actually, probably second fave right after New Adventures In Hi-Fi.

That whole run from Green to Hi-Fi is the golden age of R.E.M. for me. I certainly like what came before. Up's got great stuff as well - I especially love final track Falls To Climb - but overall I do like it less than the preceding five.
I agree that Monster is underrated/undeserving of (as it seems to me) a bad rep, IMO it's just the least good of that Green - Hi-Fi run, but it's still good.

Reveal's okay. Around The Sun is the only one that I find pretty bad. I do think pretty highly again of the final two albums.

get up 6
pop song '89 5
stand 5

rockists!

I love the audible mistake on The Wrong Child which they never bothered to fix; Stipe coming in early not once but twice on
"Hey those kids...".

eephus, why not POLL in the place where you live?

That whole run from Green to Hi-Fi is the golden age of R.E.M. for me

Now this I can't relate to at all. The IRS albums are so much better.

Agreed but Green and Out of Time made a bunch of people go backwards into the catalog to hear Fables and Murmur and DLO etc. They were gateway drugs (if you will allow me that metaphor on April 20 of all days).

My friends and I had heard Fables first, so when newcomers were bopping along to Stand or Orange Crush or Shiny Happy People on the radio, people like me could be the worst kind of assholes and go "huh, welcome to the party, N0000bz. I was into REM before they were popular." I cringe to think of it now, but it felt like a fresh take if you were in ninth grade.

New Adventures is the one I've never been able to connect with. I'm mystified by the love it gets here.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Friday, April 20, 2018 5:21 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My favourite album of theirs without a doubt.