Best of the platinum R.E.M. albums

I like "Superman" and I am always surprised to learn it was a considerable college hit in '86.

this is perfection in every way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcP7TxLnd9M

So is "Endgame."

The abrupt stop of "Begin the Begin" -- you take a breath, just still in the process of realizing the song is really over -- and then the guitar of "These Days" just fucking HITS

I like the trivia factoid that the original "Superman" by The Clique was based off a riff from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The REM version obscures this relation so that most people wouldn't notice it.

Re-listening to those opening tracks of LRP, I guess I hear them as early (and somewhat clumsy) attempts to write/record the kind of rock anthems that they eventually perfected on Green.

I do really like "I Believe," forgot about that one... though I feel like it could have been recorded better, something about the album's sound is just flat & dull.

there aren't many r.e.m. b-sides that are fully fleshed-out songs so i'm always a little blown away that out of time has two and they're two of the best r.e.m. songs ever, "fretless" and "it's a free world baby"

My college station played "Fretless" a lot thanks to the UTEOTW soundtrack.

Near Wild Heaven is the best R.E.M. song

And one of my 20 favourite singles by anyone ever

It's an extremely good song but "Half a World Away" is up there too.

Pretty much every album has at least one miraculous gemlike song.

Every once in a while I pick up a mandolin and wonder why "You Are the Everything" isn't more popular

"eviscerate" is not a word common to big hits

Re-listening to those opening tracks of LRP, I guess I hear them as early (and somewhat clumsy) attempts to write/record the kind of rock anthems that they eventually perfected on Green.

what rock anthems they perfected on "green"? "orange crush" is great but that's it.

Toss Ignoreland and put in Fretless on AFTP

xp Well I think they're all great. "Get Up" is probably my favorite R.E.M. single

...and as far as slow songs go, no other R.E.M. songs have the specific magic (for me) of "Hairshirt," "The Wrong Child," "You Are the Everything"... they're such incredible & affecting feats of songwriting & performance (even the final, untitled track is so special). I think the band was just at the peak of their powers.

Qualmsley

Word(s) that only ever appeared in one (hit) song, ever.

the KRS-One vocal is great

Thank you I have often felt I am the only person on ILX who likes this vocal or "Radio Song" in general

no other R.E.M. songs have the specific magic

Was this maybe the first-contact effect?

(the first one I heard was Eponymous, which was released earlier that same year, and Green was a minor letdown to me after that. I still can't really bring myself to listen past Document)

It very well could be! I remember lying in my bed, on hot summer nights, with the tape playing in the dark, from a boombox perched on a nearby chair.

That said, it has retained the magic, whereas some of the other albums I loved as a preteen/teen have not.

THEY AIRBRUSHED MY FACE

https://i.discogs.com/wh9J-w3PMQJmDWzqf4VuxWOKX3Wvcuzrfc2-cW9VKvo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY1Mzkw/OS0xNTExNTg5OTg3/LTMzNDguanBlZw.jpeg

Oh damn, I had the cassette version, so I never saw that before.

The reason I relistened to the IRS albums was really just prep to see if my mind would be changed about Green but if anything I just feel more insane while listening to it. After “Pop Song 89” (which I like) I can’t think of any album that has me begging for each song to end, wishing it was over, feeling like my affection for the band is evaporating so quickly; and by the time I get to “The Wrong Child” another feeling overtakes me, a similar feeling to listening to The Shaggs, that I’m compelled to listen to such a car crash, lyrical clunker after clunker piling up. I cannot think of another classic album whose classic status leaves me feeling so confused, this is truly nightmare music

Interesting! What are the clunkers for you? How do you feel about the records after Green?

Well, I just listened to Out Of Time and I have never enjoyed it more! I don’t even like “Radio Song” but it was such a relief to hear it after Green.

The best thing about Out Of Time is “Me In Honey” tucked away at the end, what a great track. The only surprise really was realizing that “Shiny Happy People” isn’t the corniest song on the album, it isn’t even corny at all, it just rules in every way, the way the three vocal parts coruscate through the chorus is so delicious, I don’t think I ever realized how beautiful that song is.

“Belong”, on the other hand, what a lol! Sounds like a song a born-again creepy teen would put on a mix CD

I can’t quote any clunkers from “Green”, just “World Leader Pretend” and “You Are Everything” and “The Wrong Child” and “I Remember California” made me grimace increasingly with every line, every lyric Stipe repeats had me saying “oh you’re gonna sing that one again?” Ugh. Green joins Wild At Heart and James’ Gold Mother as “awful things from around 1990 made by artists I otherwise adore”

Well, I just listened to Out Of Time and I have never enjoyed it more! I don’t even like “Radio Song” but it was such a relief to hear it after Green.

The best thing about Out Of Time is “Me In Honey” tucked away at the end, what a great track. The only surprise really was realizing that “Shiny Happy People” isn’t the corniest song on the album, it isn’t even corny at all, it just rules in every way, the way the three vocal parts coruscate through the chorus is so delicious, I don’t think I ever realized how beautiful that song is.

“Belong”, on the other hand, what a lol! Sounds like a song a born-again creepy teen would put on a mix CD

I can’t quote any clunkers from “Green”, just “World Leader Pretend” and “You Are Everything” and “The Wrong Child” and “I Remember California” made me grimace increasingly with every line, every lyric Stipe repeats had me saying “oh you’re gonna sing that one again?” Ugh. Green joins Wild At Heart and James’ Gold Mother as “awful things from around 1990 made by artists I otherwise adore”

Green joins Wild At Heart and James’ Gold Mother as “awful things from around 1990 made by artists I otherwise adore”

These controps jumped the barricade and headed for the sea

The sea

Ooooooooooooooooooooh ohooooooooooh

i like that stipe reused a bit of the "radio song" chorus melody for "nightswimming", a much better song. whenever they tried to be funky it always turned out really goofy, idk why they could never quite pull it off.

"shiny happy people" is so odd and ridiculous that it kinda transcends being corny. it's still very goofy but it's one of their best in that goofy upbeat pop mode.

Me in Honey really is "tucked away" - when I was young I thought it was a bit of a boring throwaway, and now I love it as relief after "Country Feedback".

Stipe is best when he's got backing vocals (Mills, or Pierson, or whoever) swirling around him - that's part of what I don't like about the later records. Mills the vocalist really seems to disappear from Monster to Around the Sun.

xpost Funky REM never really gets worse than "Lotus"

OOT's dark horse is Texarkana I think - it was the last one that I loved and now its one of my favs on the whole record

actually similar to I Remember California being the penultimate song on Green for me to love and these days do I ever

i think "lotus" is relatively successful there lol. it's just an understated groove instead of this big goofy thing

Stipe is best when he's got backing vocals (Mills, or Pierson, or whoever) swirling around him - that's part of what I don't like about the later records. Mills the vocalist really seems to disappear from Monster to Around the Sun.

yeah the vocal arrangements are their very best thing about them as a band. there's still some of it on new adventures and up but nowhere near as much as there once was

I just listened to Automatic and wow, this classic masterpiece album is impossible to underrate

It is shocking to hear Stipe transform overnight into “the best singer in the world”. “Sidewinder” may have just knocked out “Harborcoat” as my favourite-ever REM song. I am maybe the dumbest bitch on the planet for this but I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of “Everybody Hurts” even after I’ve killfiled all the other “Hey Jude”s of the world.

“Nightswimming” has always struck me as so weird, that piano performance is so rhythmically square and every note is equally heavy velocity, it sounds so fake and strange, and yet I can’t imagine the song working with a more sensitive performance. This album is so good I listened to it twice

Easily Out Of Time, likely followed up by New Adventures. Monster/Automatic on level pegging. Don't like Green very much other than a song or two. Not heard Document enough to have an emotional connection to it - I should fix that

I like World Leader Pretend. That's the Green keeper

Ufo

i like that stipe reused a bit of the "radio song" chorus melody for "nightswimming"

I don't think I ever noticed that! Good callout.

Given the length and variety of their career I find it easy to forgive them for recycling. The most obvious example being "Electrolite," a good song that got used more than once.

And which itself has Nightswimming as an antecedent

Good point upthread about Mills' backing vocals taking a backseat for quite a long time. I do lament that a bit.

Does it ever happen when you’re driving and listening to music that you think about what would happen if you were to crash, and spend the final 20 minutes of your life gored in an upended car while the stereo plays out the rest of the album you’re currently listening to?

Anyway I have also been listening to everything Jim O’Rourke has ever recorded and when the endless back half of “Happy Days” was playing out and I was forcing myself to endure it I was driving so so fastidiously

I know this is the wrong thread for this post but anyway

i love "sidewinder" but it can't dethrone "harborcoat" as #1. it's probably top 5 though at the very least. "everybody hurts" is absolutely in the too corny basket for me. i think i'd be more sympathetic to it if it didn't just revolve around that guitar arpeggio, that's just too simple.

i love the weird stilted piano on "nightswimming", i wonder if the intention was to make it sound like a player piano? it fits well with how circular the part is

xp

I do think about that!

I believe the Tang version of Spacemen 3's Perfect Prescription had liner notes that mentioned a car wreck and getting the cassette out of the car in an impound lot later? I don't have it anymore, so I could be remembering that wrong. But I think that's what put it in my head.

I usually think about it when I'm listening to something goofy and how I would feel stupid pinned in a car with They Might Be Giants or Tiny Tim blaring.

I wrote off our 18-yo Ford Focus a few weeks ago in an incredibly minor no-other-vehicle-involved accident with Sun Ra's Sea Of Sounds off Space Is The Place on the stereo. It made a very stressful situation much, much worse.

The most obvious example being "Electrolite," a good song that got used more than once.

when did they recycle that?

Ufo I am pretty certain that the music for "Electrolite" was used for a different set of lyrics hut can't recall right now, and my bass player who told me that is currently still asleep so I can't ask him.

Anyway Re Nightswimming can I just say that I feel like there is a dearth of dope-ass oboe solos?

Sure, Mozart and Correlli wrote some sick AF oboe riffs, but for pop/rock/indie/alt music, you get... "Nightswimming." "Crazy for You." What else?

(And before anybody says "Life in a Northern Town," pretty sure that is a cor anglais, fool.)

"Twist in My Sobriety"

dreams they complicate my life