Best of the platinum R.E.M. albums

… and then suddenly “Sing For The Submarine” started and I was grinning wildly, what is this? And it just ramped up harder and faster

I just listened to (half of this song)… He name-checks other R.E.M. songs in the lyrics(!) Surely you, fgti, must find that to be corny…

Make an album as strong as Automatic For the People from post-Automatic tracks.

I made a similar playlist - "make Rumours out of Tusk." I'll give this a shot, trying to match style and pacing, and every one of these replacement songs I prefer to the ones on Automatic.

Side one

"Drive" – Boy in the Well
"Try Not to Breathe" – New Test Leper
"The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" – Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
"Everybody Hurts" – Strange Currencies or Be Mine if you prefer
"New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" – Zither (if an instrumental is not required here, then Star 69)
"Sweetness Follows" – Around the Sun

Side two

"Monty Got a Raw Deal" – difficult, let's say Diminished
"Ignoreland" – Accelerate
"Star Me Kitten" – Suspicion
"Man on the Moon" – Bittersweet Me
"Nightswimming" – Parakeet
"Find the River" – Electrolite

(hmm - nothing from Reveal, it's too distant sonically)

Houston is a better match for Monty I’d say.

Uberlin is more upbeat but it's a clear descendent of Drive

I've made the Tusk/E-Bow comparison before. Tusk definitely set up the model for 'that' sort of lead single as lengthier album cycles were becoming a thing.

Houston is a better match for Monty I’d say.

You're right, I just find it musically undistinguished.

Uberlin is more upbeat but it's a clear descendent of Drive

That would be a good first track for a contemplative yet serene R.E.M. playlist. I liked the idea of starting with a dramatic dirge.

so i proposed this then didn't even bother to answer my own question beyond generalities. so after some thought, and of the ones i know well enough to rank...

airportman
harborcoat
drive
how the west was won...
feeling gravity's pull
radio free europe
pop song 89
kenneth
finest worksong
begin the begin
radio song
leaving ny
the lifting

Many xxxp, but to respond to morrisp’s q about self-reference in “Singing To The Submarine”; I only vaguely caught the references in listening, and in relistening w lyrics, I love it. Self-reference good, using place names and celebrity names generally bad.

The song itself seems to be more a comment on Stipe’s occasional tendency toward automatic writing for his lyrics— “Singing To The Submarine” = “Singing My Subconcious”

I generally am allergic to when songwriters claim/admit to having used a “stream of consciousness” approach in their writing— particularly Bowie when he does so, or reorganizes phrases or words on slips of paper. “Stream of consciousness” is just brainstorming, guys, it’s the first step in your songwriting process, not the last. If you want to make a name for yourself as a freestyle poet then there are outlets for that.

Self-reference on the other hand, rules. I can’t remember when it happens on Nebraska, but there’s a moment when one Springsteen character sings the same stanza as another Springsteen character from another song, and it gives me the impression that Springsteen sees these underclass characters as birch trees, individuals who are connected via the same underground subconscious. I love that shit

There are times tho when arbitrarily writing in a bunch of place names/celebrity names really works, in REM’s case it works when it feels goofy/funny rather than weighty/serious: “Hollywood is under me / I'm Martin Sheen / I'm Steve McQueen / I'm Jimmy Dean”

Fair enough… it struck me like, “We told you ‘bout the Seether before….”

That's both self-reference and a pastiche of "Glass Onion".

The Walrus was Louise Post?

Oh man, I never saw those Beatles lyrics… yikes!

Steve Miller also does the "I told you about" thing.

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

I'm Martin Sheen / I'm Steve McQueen / I'm Jimmy Dean

In my house we riff on this all the time. I'm Mister Bean / I'm Paula Deen / I'm Rachel Levine / I'm Ellery Queen / I'm a soup tureen / I'm Norma Jean / I'm Mean Joe Green / I'm David Lean

"Sing for the Submarine" is a cool deep cut that kind of flew past me back then. It's the one longer track on that album that seems like it's still in the New Adventures mode, although the chorus is a waltz. Mills' playing is nice on that.

life's rich pageant
murmur
automatic for the people
fables of the reconstruction
reckoning
chronic town
new adventures in hi-fi
document
dead letter office
up
green
reveal
out of time
monster
accelerate
collapse into now

around the sun

r.e.m. trivia (that i don't know the answer to): do the titles of r.e.m. lps appear in any of the songs? chronic town / 'carnival of sorts (boxcar)', but are there any others? i know i'm probably missing some obvious examples but none come to mind.

accelerate is a terrible album title!!

hi, zach!

the r.e.m. room is always nice and cozy, hi alfred <3

“begin the begin” comes close with “life’s rich demand”

“have i missed the big reveal” is in “i’ve been high”

i think that’s it

“Circus Envy” says “make way for monster jealousy”

as a kid i always misheard 'i never understood' on kenneth as 'i (something) monster'

suspicion has 'order UP another drink'. there may be others on that album but i'm stopping there.

ivy and morrisp immediately providing the knowledge, thank you :)

suspicion has 'order UP another drink'. there may be others on that album but i'm stopping there.

it does, but...up is also a bad album title

i can say this because i love r.e.m.

(I always assumed the bear on the cover of Monster further referred to “Circus Envy” and its “animal”…)

“Circus Envy” says “make way for monster jealousy”

― This field is required (morrisp), Sunday, November 26, 2023 8:19 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i am so bad at parsing the lyrics to “circus envy” so i don’t think i ever knew this, thank you!!!

oh and stipe says “collapse into now” several times in “blue”

"i believe" is a top 10 r.e.m. song

Kenneth does mention Green, which has a song that mentions Up in the name. They're on some XTC jumbled title drops trip.

I think “I wore a shirt of Violent Green” references some Seattle band of that name (fwiw)

“monster” is mentioned TWICE in “circus envy” (“this monster in me makes me retch”)

monster is a great album title, maybe one of the greatest

“monster” is mentioned TWICE in “circus envy” (“this monster in me makes me retch”)

feels suitable somehow that it's on the song with the lowest mixed vocals on possibly any album

It’s hard to express how Monster made R.E.M. feel cool and almost “sinister” when it came out (particularly “Circus Envy,” and the “Bang and Blame” bassline); and how unexpected that was after the mellowness of AFTP).

up is also a bad album title

More appropriate for Peter Gabriel and Shania Twain?

and Right Said Fred

what are you thinking for the title?

i don't know, maybe...down?

*record label exec* hey i know...what about up?

*everyone in room high fives*

*guy who hasn't talked until now says 'forward'*

*crickets*

It’s hard to express how Monster made R.E.M. feel cool and almost “sinister” when it came out (particularly “Circus Envy,” and the “Bang and Blame” bassline); and how unexpected that was after the mellowness of AFTP).

― This field is required (morrisp), Monday, 27 November 2023 01:59 (fifty-three minutes ago) link

i hadn't listened to it in probably 20 years and my first thought was "oh, they tried to make their version of a sonic youth record." could totally have seen kim singing "crush with eyeliner."

“The Apologist” also has the line “I've skirted all my differences / But now I'm facing up”

“monster” is mentioned TWICE in “circus envy” (“this monster in me makes me retch”)

monster is a great album title, maybe one of the greatest

― ivy., Monday, 27 November 2023 01:36 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'd always passively assumed the title was used as a noun, however I think going forward I shall choose to believe it was intended to be read as a verb.

could totally have seen kim singing "crush with eyeliner."

Thurston Moore is already playing and singing on it!

Gonna listen to Monster again brb

i’m straight i’m queer i’m bi

xxp xp well that's one for the "things you were shockingly old when you learned" thread

my intro to Monster, and REM for that matter, was when I was 12 and invited to a birthday party at a mini-golf course by a classmate I'm sure I was trying to impress. Having no money, my mom took whatever suggestion I'd said - my best guess is a coded "A CD by a band because I'd heard this band called The Offspring sing curse words at the playground so that must be cool." So she came back saying she'd asked the person behind the music section at the local K-Mart for any "age appropriate" (i.e. NO SWEARING) and that's what she was recommended.

that classmate could not have been less impressed when he unwrapped it at the birthday party. I swore off the band despite never having heard a note of their music.

"REM? Who invited that kid?"

i've watched the children come and go!

my feelings are fluid, but today

fables of the reconstruction (they may hate it but i dig the joe boyd production on one of the finest set of songs i've ever heard, front to back)
murmur (this is maybe the greatest debut album in english-speaking rock history)
life's rich pageant (this has their best songs)
"chronic town" (if this were an album with another five songs this good it would be their best)
new adventures in hi-fi (rivals the cure's disintegration as an all-time awe-inspiring 'how are they still this awesome this long into it?' album)
green (the first one i heard in real time, too young to have a problem with anything i liked)
out of time (this has some of my favorite songs not on any of the aforementioned)
reckoning (this is still better than most bands' best album)
automatic for the people (the last two songs stick the landing the best in a canon full of amazing album closers)
document (despite it being this low i still love this album -- side 2 continues to grow on me however many years after first feeling disappointed by it)
monster (this is still better than most bands' best album)

the post-bill years remain elusive, but i still think it's me, not them

One of the things I like about the last two albums is that, when they go back to more rock per se, it's not the rooted in the '70s hard rock of Monster/NAiHF. It's something smaller, and while it's not really confined to whatever parameters define garage rock, it's kind of more in that ballpark. And that's what they were originally, too. It's a good use of Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin.

The thing about that "Do it one more time/Show the kids how to do it fine" bit criticized above in "All The Best" is that, when he's singing that, he's singing it over fucking "The One I Love."

"Every Day Is Yours to Win" - last Velvets style jam