"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 (eleven years ago) link
^ what i would've voted
― balls, Sunday, 3 June 2012 18:50 (eleven years ago) link
half a world awaylosing my religionnear wild heavencountry feedbacktexarkaname in honeyshiny happy peopleendgamebelongradio songlow
― balls, Sunday, 3 June 2012 18:54 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven years ago) link
OK, how about "Stipe's worst Bill Berry-era album, rescued by Mills"?
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:02 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven years ago) link
"worst Bill Berry-era album" works for me
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Sunday, 3 June 2012 21:29 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven 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 (eleven years ago) link
I think "Radio Song" is great, always have.
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:22 (eleven 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 (eleven years ago) link
"Finest Worksong" comes to mind.
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:24 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i think Document through "Ignoreland" is the halcyon era of fonky REM
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:26 (eleven years ago) link
all day long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL6Gsm1AOmY
― pplains, Monday, 4 June 2012 00:32 (eleven years ago) link
never understood the appeal of hearing one of the band's most plodding songs done in a big muff alt-rock style
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:42 (eleven years ago) link
I think the question about millennials would have to do with the stylistic context of the album, but I don't think it goes deeper. Are people hearing it for the first time going to understand the historical context of '91 and R.E.M.'s own trajectory? Because there's a richness to R.E.M.'s thing; there's a richness to their roots and what they were trying to do with this album. That's in danger of being lost in too much fretting over their "dorkiness" or whatever.
― timellison, Monday, 4 June 2012 00:45 (eleven years ago) link
REM's context is kind of lost to time, especially since now remembrances of 80s college rock and 90s alt-rock are so explicitly tied to bands that were only part of one or the other (and U2 left a bit bigger of a footprint that they don't have the same problem)
― kel ler/pharmacists (some dude), Monday, 4 June 2012 00:55 (eleven years ago) link
People will have to explore it to understand the context, but you hear slap bass and mandolins and you wonder why they would. I have to remind myself that someone will hear "Me in Honey" and they've got their reason to explore it right there.
― timellison, Monday, 4 June 2012 01:00 (eleven years ago) link
Hahaha. The song I woulda voted for got zero votes.
I can't listen to this album anymore but thought about 3/4 of it was pretty good at the time (last time I thought that of an REM album, too.)
It's certainly no FABLES.
― Matt M., Monday, 4 June 2012 05:20 (eleven years ago) link
I don't know about worst Bill Berry-era REM album, but it's definitely somewhere down in the bottom half of the pile for me!
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Monday, 4 June 2012 05:58 (eleven years ago) link
I love "Radio Song", Stipey "rap" & all.
I didn't see this thread yesterday but weirdly I was thinking then about "Losing My Religion" & how it was an odd megahit, & then I remembered its outro & sighed.
I still think this is my favorite REM album, after all these years.
― Euler, Monday, 4 June 2012 10:28 (eleven years ago) link
4 years ago I might have blindly voted "Country Feedback" based on memories alone but after hearing this album in it's entirety today at an event (in the bg), I was struck most by "Half A World Away".
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
think i need to put this on. i consider it a favourite but just looking at the tracks in the result there...there's not a lot to it, track by track.
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 20:24 (ten years ago) link
Country Feedback is a great song but I have trouble listening to the album version since I first heard the slower live version. The album version feels like the club is closing in 4 minutes so they had to speed up the song to fit it in or something.
i've heard losing my religion a million times but it still strikes me as an astonishly perfect song.
― Z S, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 20:38 (ten years ago) link
bloody terrible album this and i say that as a one-time teenage REM nutcase. the LPs either side were both incredible imo but this was just.. i mean what happened??
― piscesx, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 20:44 (ten years ago) link
the cover art was pretty bad
― akm, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 20:50 (ten years ago) link
Naming your record after the immediate deadline you've got for naming your record is never a good sign.
did you see what i did there.
― pplains, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 21:05 (ten years ago) link
Half A World Away 4 votes, WTF. That's crazy.
One thing I never got, good song as it is, was Country Feedback's choice for live fan favourite for much of the late 90s/00s (ie when you actually hear OOT songs live) - it got a crazy amount of requests from websites etc. It is a very unexciting live song to me. It would always contain extended Buck soloing, and Peter Buck is not a good soloist IMO.
― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 23:38 (ten years ago) link
Completely overexposed and I'm never always in the mood to listen to it but from purely a songwriting POV Losing My Religion is perfect.
― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 23:41 (ten years ago) link
I dislike all three songs on this album Kate Pierson's on, and guess what, I really don't mind Kate Pierson.
― pplains, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 23:43 (ten years ago) link
How can you not like "Me In Honey"?! That's crazy talk! You're crazy!
― it itches like a porky pine sitting on your dick (Phil D.), Thursday, 25 July 2013 00:54 (ten 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