TS: R.E.M.'s "Life's Rich Pageant" vs "Document"

I've been let down by those comparisons before ("New Adventures in Hi-Fi is a throwback to the early R.E.M. sound!").

Congratulations to REM on reaching the Best Album Since Blood On The Tracks stage of their career (aka winning at rock'n'roll).

Yes! Let their Dylan-esqe late stage career revival begin now.

YIKES, that new song is truly awful.

Congratulations to REM on reaching the Best Album Since Blood On The Tracks stage of their career (aka winning at rock'n'roll).

I say they've reached their "Shaquelle O'Neal 2008" stage of their career (aka anything decent we get from them at this point is a bonus).

That was true until Fables of the Mumble-Mumble; then it became clear that Mr Stipe needed either speech lessons or emergency surgery to remove the giant kudzu stuck in his throat.

It was the label. IRS figured the only thing keeping R.E.M. from mainstream success was Stipe's mumbling, so they insisted he start enunciating.

major label correct non-shockah

S'gotta be LRP - classic mid-early-late vintage material! The one thing i can add about the Document-era releases is that they finally starting putting out those live acoustic versions of tunes like "The One I Love" that exposes the seething underbellied truth of an otherwise sing-songy Top 40 hit. These proto-Unplugged tracks might reference the Dylan-esque penchant for reinterpretation, but my hindsight sees a crew running out of spunk.

Daniel Esq notes the loss of the "Southern Gothic rock sound" and while i don't necessarily identify with the terminology, the Farmer's Almanac brand of black magic that they wielded became only a waning influence after they began mainlining their sound & image. Moving to the city (if only in sprit) was certainly a measure of it's time and maybe even a fashionable construct - nonetheless, it was most certainly a world away from the backwoods shacks and headlight-lit two-tracks that inspired their inception. Too bad, tracks like "King of Birds" packs the full weight of their skill and hints at something that could have been a truly foreboding and ominous (if not completely inaccessible) force.

For whatever reason, Document is the one I listened to least of everything through Monster. I mostly know it from it just playing in the background at parties in college (I wish I had gone to better parties), even though I've had it for a long time. So Lifes Rich by a long ways.

They played something from Document on the radio today and I just kinda rolled my eyes "oh man they were so past their prime by then". Lifes Rich Pageant is still a fantastic album, but I admit the production hasn't aged very well.

I'm sure there's a couple of decent tunes on Document, at least that's the way I recall it, but I really feel like to sit through that entire record again would be a waste of my time.

I say they've reached their "Shaquelle O'Neal 2008" stage of their career (aka anything decent we get from them at this point is a bonus).

AND WE'RE TRADING O'NEAL! If only R.E.M. could be traded for something more vital, as well.

Document was always my least favorite of the classik R.E.M. albums -- it's the only one I never even bothered to buy on CD, even at the height of my high-school fandom (I just made do with the cassette) -- but I've found myself compelled to listen to it lately. It sounds oddly good to me now, fsr. (I still think there are some whiffs on side 2; I'm not into R.E.M. gettin' funk-ay, etc.)

I like it better now than I did at the peak of my R.E.M. fandom. Sure, it's frontloaded and drops in quality a bit after 'The One I Love', but I'll take things like 'Fireplace' over lesser tracks from the post-Berry albums.

I'd take any other 80s R.E.M. album over Life's Rich Pageant. Easily the "worst" of their classic run.

Yeah I don't think "LRP" has aged particularly well... Neither has "Fables," IMO (though it has a few key trax).

Fables is my go-to R.E.M. album. Far and away the best thing they ever did.

!

I've went in the other direction with Lifes Rich Pageant in that I don't feel the need to listen to it these days, but that's because I've played the shit out of it. Lifes Rich Pageant is frontloaded too, but manages to not make the drop-off as obvious. The only track that I don't have much time for on it is 'What If We Give It Away?' ('Underneath the Bunker' doesn't count!) ...

New Adventures in Hi-Fi is the best album they ever made!

While it is a very good album, no.

Yes.

IRS run

"chronic town"
fables
murmur
pageant
reckoning
document

Reckoning near the bottom? Interesting - that's probably my favourite of all the IRS albums. Chronic Town still sounds incredibly fresh to my ears too.

Surprised you guys rate Fables so highly... It sounds really uneven to me now.

30+ years later I suppose it doesn't matter so much, but I distinctly remember there being a half-baked feel at the time with 2 key tracks (Hyena and Just a Touch) regularly appearing in setlists, an instrumental, cover, etc.
doesn't really matter much now, the album coheres in a way that didn't seem as evident upon release.

probably worth noting to the comment above about how much LRP gave way to the sellout chorus: Dead Letter Office was widely loved at the time and I think part of that may have been the self-deprecating tone.

still, I'm in the vocal minority of fans that thinks Side 2 of Document is one of the weirdest, best and most pure (last?) distillations of the IRS-era band.

xp (I do think "Life and How to Live" it is one of their greatest/underappreciated tracks)

Surprised you guys rate Fables so highly... It sounds really uneven to me now.

― i’m still stanning (morrisp)

Their worst of the first decade, i.e. mushiest and least distinguished

I like Fables... a lot, but it's nowhere near my Top 5 R.E.M. albums overall.

No album that leads off with 'Feeling Gravity's Pull' can justifiably be classified as the "least distinguished" of a band's output.

still, I'm in the vocal minority of fans that thinks Side 2 of Document is one of the weirdest, best and most pure (last?) distillations of the IRS-era band

i respect what you're saying but to me green (major label debut notwithstanding) is the last stand of that band, with callbacks and everything ("i can turn you inside out" <-- "finest worksong"), and "strange" is one of my least favorite of their covers (except for the "michael's nervous and the lights are bright" update)

No album that leads off with 'Feeling Gravity's Pull' can justifiably be classified as the "least distinguished" of a band's output.

― (V) (°,,,,°) (V) (Austin)

Depends what you think of a man who sings "It's a Man Ray kind of sky" srsly

The opening line of that song is v good, tho

Depends what you think of a man who sings "It's a Man Ray kind of sky" srsly

And yet, you remembered it.

I can't remember any of the lyrics from Life's Rich Pageant.

but I'll take things like 'Fireplace' over lesser tracks

lol i will definitely be belting out "fireplace!" from here on out when listening to this album in the car.

And yet, you remembered it.

So? I remember Dubya speeches and the names of old boyfriends too.

but I'll take things like 'Fireplace' over lesser tracks

lol i will definitely be belting out "fireplace!" from here on out when listening to this album in the car.

my memory failed me and turns out i'm not funny at all and am totally wrong. i'm turning in my True Distiple card and bowing out.

Austin, gah. Fall on Me, Swan Swan Hummingbird, Superman... and nothing memorable in there, lyrically speaking? Okay.

Personally I love all these records like children; I'm not gonna be tempted to take any sides any time soon. Document, Fables, Pageant, Murmur, Reckoning: all of a piece for me and all necessary. Then a transitional mid-period. not sure whether Green or Out of Time is the correct hinge point, but Automatic is definitely mid. Then what I would classify as their late career (Up and beyond) when I lose the plot and mostly stop caring.

Yeah they're all quite rad in their own ways though I think the sonic chemistry of the Easter/Dixon records they did at Reflection (Murmur and Reckoning) was stratospheric.

I like Man Ray kind of sky Alfred...

That song was one of the ones where you knew that even if the production on their records was changing, they were still growing and getting better. They were like completely different on that tour!

turning in my True Distiple card

lol Andrew

Document" is my least fsvorite and "Pageant" my most favorite of the IRS years. But in reality my most played REM over the last decade or so is "Dead Letter Office"! Such fun, that one...

Fables is my favorite REM LP too.

"Man Ray kind of sky" may be corny, but it just sounds good and Stipe seemed to value that over anything

still, I'm in the vocal minority of fans that thinks Side 2 of Document is one of the weirdest, best and most pure (last?) distillations of the IRS-era band

idk about best/pure, but i like it a lot and it is indeed pretty weird

With hindsight I dont really understand why they needed to release an album every year?

Capitalising on momentum is one thing but not quite the same when you're short of original material

the custody battle over these albums is going to be complicated. a lot of claims out there.

i love LRP. there are plenty of lyrical moments that grab me on it, and plenty to beguile, as well. within the first few seconds of the album, he's already referencing the apostrophe-less title of the album, sort of, and cole porter's 'begin the beguine'

Austin, gah. Fall on Me, Swan Swan Hummingbird, Superman... and nothing memorable in there, lyrically speaking? Okay.

fuckin "cuyahoga" and "these days" too

when you're short of original material

not seeing it

It is remarkable how they released all those classic albums, one per year, from ‘83 – ‘88.

Sax solo on “Fireplace” is so good.

Document is a slight dip on the preceding 4 for me, and Fables is probly still my default favourite, but on the whole i think they're all great records that have a couple of duff tracks each maybe but people can't agree on which tracks those are