r.e.m.green.poll

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.

I'll admit, I got into them very late, I think shortly before their breakup even (never got to see them live), and I started with their middle stuff: exactly those albums I named 'my golden age of R.E.M.. I'm probably the kind of fan that fans from the early days could easily hate.

I certainly enjoy those IRS albums a lot and there are many highlights on those - These Days from Life's Rich Pageant is a particular favourite of mine - but looking at those albums in their entirety I've never been able to get into them as much as with the albums following Green.

Anyway, I would really only think of Around The Sun as a fairly bad album, the rest are all good to great IMO.

I started with Out of Time when I was 13 and they became my favorite band right away. I bought one older album a week until I had them all. I greatly prefer the IRS years.

I prefer lo-fi jangly. It's a style thing.

If it weren't for "It's the End of the World" I might never have heard "Seven Chinese Brothers."

I can equally imagine people for whom if it weren't for "Losing My Religion" they might never have heard "So Central Rain."

In the opposite direction (forward through time) I can imagine some grizzled indie-old-timer who clings to a rare import 7" of "Camera" being suddenly struck by how great the oboe solo in "Nightswimming" is.

I embrace and celebrate all the paths.

i wanna karaoke Rockville tonite

did you never call?

looking at your watch, good time, standing in a station?

I made a short road trip once to Rockville when I was in college. It was super boring, we never got out of the car.

Don't go back there then.

(It does have the graves of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald tho)

Monster is underrated

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Friday, April 20, 2018 1:15 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree, and I came around to it eventually - the LP's that came directly before and after it are stronger, though. Automatic For The People is a stronger collection of songs and a stone cold classic, and New Adventures In Hi-Fi benefits from more variety in the guitar sounds, not to mention it's a better document of R.E.M. in rock mode than Monster is during the moments it does rock.

I feel like Monster gets a bad lookback because we all have memories of it being a permanent resident in the used album bin.

A lot of people had jumped on board with Out of Time and Automatic for the People and were expecting more of the same for the follow-up. They weren't expecting Monster, or the change in image that went with it. Hardcore fans were probably more kinder to the record, though.

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

I was a pretty hardcore fan, but I hated Monster then and can't imagine I'd have much love for it now (not that I've heard it in the last 20 years). Part of the turn-off was how the band talked it up - "this is our punk record" etc. I found the rock poses wholly unconvincing, either interpreted as genuine or "ironic". Most of the tunes didn't do much for me, and the production was off-putting too - there's something harsh and flat about it I can't bear.

With New Adventures my expectations were low and I was surprised how much I liked it.

Monster also had that huge arena tour. It was just a weird phase in general.

I was trying to pinpoint when exactly Stipe started appearing out with a shaved head but then I got distracted and started looking at eyeliner instead.

The Monster era was the first appearance of out-and-proud baldy Stipe. He started to go bald after Green and hid it under a hat during 1990-1993.

I Remember California is great and should have had more votes imo.

I would've put I Remember CA ahead of World Leader, Orange Crush and Turn You.

I was trying to pinpoint when exactly Stipe started appearing out with a shaved head but then I got distracted and started looking at eyeliner instead.

― Yerac, Friday, April 20, 2018 10:29 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf so did he