http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/fuzzdance.jpg
― Poll Wall (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 October 2008 11:17 (fifteen years ago) link
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/_41281854_orla_guerin.jpg
― Poll Wall (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 October 2008 11:18 (fifteen years ago) link
nice. (hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool.)
― "I'ma lose my religion and go secular on you, boy" (Ioannis), Saturday, 11 October 2008 11:21 (fifteen years ago) link
hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool. hey, i didn't know that Gina Mckee was born the same year as me. cool.
― Poll Wall (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 October 2008 11:25 (fifteen years ago) link
one more time...
― "I'ma lose my religion and go secular on you, boy" (Ioannis), Saturday, 11 October 2008 11:28 (fifteen years ago) link
low low lowlow low low
― Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (get bent), Saturday, 11 October 2008 15:47 (fifteen years ago) link
no Kate Pierson no credibility
― Steve (Not Stevie) (Stevie D), Saturday, 11 October 2008 17:35 (fifteen years ago) link
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.")
― Hideous Lump, Saturday, 11 October 2008 19:39 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― z "R" s (Z S), Saturday, 11 October 2008 19:49 (fifteen years ago) link
"Country Feedback" for me.
― Lostandfound, Saturday, 11 October 2008 21:21 (fifteen years ago) link
"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.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 12 October 2008 18:13 (fifteen years ago) link
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."
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 12 October 2008 18:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Jawbox's cover of "Low" redeemed that song for me.
Nonetheless, I voted for "Texarkana".
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Sunday, 12 October 2008 18:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Near Wild Heaven
― stfumato (wanko ergo sum), Sunday, 12 October 2008 19:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 27 October 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
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).
― Sara Sara Sara, Monday, 27 October 2008 01:09 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Euler, Monday, 27 October 2008 03:26 (fifteen years ago) link
these clothes don't fit us right
― mookieproof, Monday, 27 October 2008 03:31 (fifteen years ago) link
I still think it's "Losing My Religion," although I really wouldn't mind if I never listen to it again.
― daavid, Monday, 27 October 2008 05:26 (fifteen years ago) link
which button means the whole album is terrible?
― Jack Cole (Reginald Mantle), Monday, 27 October 2008 05:41 (fifteen years ago) link
"Country Feedback" for how evocative the line "these clothes don't fit us right" is...
swear I wrote that without seeing mookie's post.
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 27 October 2008 06:41 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Nice spread of results! Thanks for participating everybody.
How many people's second choice was "Belong"?
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 02:22 (fifteen years ago) link
I would have voted for "Belong" third.
― Euler, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 20:50 (fifteen years ago) link
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, 1 April 2011 18:59 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 1 April 2011 19:34 (thirteen years ago) link
favourite deep cut on this is probably Texarkana
― drugnet (Drugs A. Money), Friday, 1 April 2011 19:37 (thirteen years ago) link
The storm it came up strongAnd shook the treesAnd blew away our fear
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 3 June 2012 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
^ what i would've voted
― balls, Sunday, 3 June 2012 18:50 (twelve years ago) link
half a world awaylosing my religionnear wild heavencountry feedbacktexarkaname in honeyshiny happy peopleendgamebelongradio songlow
― balls, Sunday, 3 June 2012 18:54 (twelve years ago) link
It would have been between 'Half A World Away' and 'Near Wild Heaven' for me. Unsure which one I would have went for.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Sunday, 3 June 2012 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
Their worst Bill Berry-era album
I'm going to keep posting this bit of rongness
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2012 20:46 (twelve years ago) link
OK, how about "Stipe's worst Bill Berry-era album, rescued by Mills"?
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
I think you meant to say "Green."
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:03 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:26 (twelve years ago) link
"worst Bill Berry-era album" works for me
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago) link
no "Hairshirt"s or "I Remember California"s or "The Wrong Child" on OOT though.
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:38 (twelve years ago) link
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).
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
i'd really like to know what someone in 2012 who had no sense of REM would make of this album
― da croupier, Sunday, 3 June 2012 23:42 (twelve years ago) link
it probably would sound like the world collapsing around his ears
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2012 23:45 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― da croupier, Sunday, 3 June 2012 23:47 (twelve years ago) link
for an album of strings, bass runs and mandolins kicked off by lite rap-funk it really wound up aptly named
― da croupier, Sunday, 3 June 2012 23:49 (twelve years ago) link
tbh I have no idea how REM will play to "millennials."
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2012 23:53 (twelve years ago) link
I gotta ask students what if anything REM mean to them: maybe this irreconcilable combo of obscure and earnest
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 June 2012 23:55 (twelve years ago) link
Not just earnestness, though. I think there's real human content in R.E.M.
― timellison, Monday, 4 June 2012 00:14 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Brony! Broni! Broné! (Phil D.), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:19 (twelve years ago) link
I do. The only song I'm meh about is "Belong." Right now, that is.
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:20 (twelve years ago) link
I think "Radio Song" is great, always have.
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:22 (twelve years ago) link
can any of you hardcore heads help me make a playlist of every REM song with slap bass?
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:23 (twelve years ago) link
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 seasea
― mookieproof, Thursday, 24 September 2020 16:03 (three years ago) link
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
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Thursday, 24 September 2020 16:14 (three years ago) link
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
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 19 February 2021 20:35 (three years ago) link
Pitchfork Mark, in the replies, wants to make sure the world knows he's lukewarm on the song.
― stuck in the version layer (morrisp), Friday, 19 February 2021 20:38 (three years ago) link
30th for the album
ffs
― mookieproof, Saturday, 13 March 2021 04:11 (three years ago) link
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.
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 12 November 2021 15:57 (two years ago) link
I like Me In Honey as a closer, there are two or three more obvious choices but they made the right decision
― PaulTMA, Friday, 12 November 2021 16:27 (two years ago) link
"Belong" rules
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Friday, 12 November 2021 20:34 (two years ago) link
otm
― mookieproof, Friday, 12 November 2021 22:32 (two years ago) link
“Radio Song” and “Shiny Happy People” are universally reviled as the band’s nadirIs this true? “Endgame” is kinda weak as a “song,” but I guess it sounded ok at the time, as some texture…
― You Suffer (10 Minute Version) (morrisp), Friday, 12 November 2021 22:43 (two years ago) link
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
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 12 November 2021 23:48 (two years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 13 November 2021 00:38 (two years ago) link
"Belong," "Shiny Happy People," and "Radio Song" are all better than "Losing My Religion"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 13 November 2021 01:44 (two years ago) link
(none of these are as great as "Me In Honey" obviously, I'm not a madman)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 13 November 2021 01:45 (two years ago) link
Oh I just realized I have already said all this in this thread again and again over the years, sorry
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 13 November 2021 01:47 (two years ago) link
I like "Half a World Away" and could do without every other song on this. R.E.M.'s weakest record.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 13 November 2021 02:06 (two years ago) link
Texarkana -> Country Feedback -> Me in Honey
greatest 3 song run in their catalog imo
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Saturday, 13 November 2021 03:40 (two years ago) link
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
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Sunday, 14 November 2021 23:42 (two years ago) link
I think I like every song on here. Even Radio Song I really don't mind. I can give or take LMR though
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Sunday, 14 November 2021 23:44 (two years ago) link
Give or take? Take or leave
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 15 November 2021 00:09 (two years ago) link
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?
― PaulTMA, Monday, 15 November 2021 00:18 (two years ago) link
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, F
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 November 2021 00:28 (two years ago) link
ba-ba-ba-ba ba ba
― mookieproof, Monday, 2 September 2024 01:53 (three weeks ago) link
The first song I ever played on radio
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 2 September 2024 02:20 (three weeks ago) link
I mean I couldn't play Radio Song could I
everyone's first song on radio should be 'station to station'
but this is great too
― mookieproof, Monday, 2 September 2024 02:44 (three weeks ago) link
Or Monty Python's "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio" just to prove you obey nobody's rules.
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 2 September 2024 02:59 (three weeks ago) link
video killed the radio star obv
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 2 September 2024 03:01 (three weeks ago) link
name a better side two than that of this album
― mookieproof, Monday, 2 September 2024 03:08 (three weeks ago) link
I usually once or twice a year watch their Bridge School Benefit concert performance of “Country Feedback.” Imagine being Michael Stipe and announcing this is your favorite song of yours and then Neil Young just tears into it with you.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Monday, 2 September 2024 05:41 (three weeks ago) link
Ah a few weeks ago, after their « reunion » interview/performance, I was listening to this album walking around the Luxembourg garden in Paris and suddenly looking up I found myself face to face with… Michael Stipe ! I was so surprised I had to tell him I was listening to him and showed him which song (« half a world away ») which he said he liked a lot. Then I thanked him and wished him a nice day. He was very nice and friendly. Fond memories !
― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 2 September 2024 09:39 (three weeks ago) link
AIREM from Paris
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 2 September 2024 10:10 (three weeks ago) link