Feeling Gravity's POLL: REM's "Fables of the Reconstruction"

Does the reissue sound better than the thin, shitty-sounding original version? Or are the differences negligible, as is often the case with these sorts of thing?

If it's better, totally buying this soon.

This is exactly how Stipe's vocals should be mixed, but Bill Berry's drums sound pretty terrible.

Still way in the back, huh?

I've only listened to the clips on iTunes, but have to say that I think they sound AWESOME. I always thought that I didn't like the production on this album so much, but I know a lot was often lost in record mastering. Totally recommend checking it out.

Yeah, the reissues sound terrific, with Mills and Berry being the real beneficiaries here, both in terms of mixing/mastering their instruments and the backing vocals. Also, the rawness of the demos on the extra CD is fantastic.

Yeah, I wasn't talking about the reissues above, just the album in general. It is a weird mix, which give it a very specific vibe.

haven't heard the remasters, but it's been years since i last listened to fables of the reconstruction. REM were my favorite band circa 1985, and i bought the album on cassette, within a few days of its release, en route to my 1st semester of college. i bought it again on vinyl once i'd settled in. i dug it, though never with the intensity i'd reserved for reckoning and especially murmur. the songwriting is wonderful, and the album's best songs are at least as strong as anything they'd recorded previously, but i struggled with the fact that they were outgrowing the sound i'd initially fallen in love with, experimenting with writing, arrangement and production. "can't get there from here" is the most obvious example of this, but you also get strings on "feeling gravity's pull", choirlike backing vocals on "maps & legends", explicit byrds pastiche on "green grow the rushes", and so on.

i'm surprised but somewhat gratified to hear so many complaints about the album's sound, because, for better or worse, it was at the time REM's biggest, cleanest and punchiest production. sharp vocals way out in front so you could easily tell what stipe was singing about, with plenty of room reserved for guitars, bass and drums on each track. these qualities helped the record reach a broader audience, but something about it always kept me at a slight distance. it lacks easter & dixon's fanatical attention to sonic detail, and the production seems to favor "the tune" (its melodic and harmonic elements, especially buck's guitars) over rhythm and texture, reducing the importance of bass & drums in relation to the overall sound. it's big-sounding but a bit generic, and maybe that helps explain why i had trouble warming to it.

Wow, I hear this a lot differently. I think Reckoning sounds way "bigger" than this esp. re drums, and Stipe's vocals are pretty low here as well. To me it sounds like you are describing Life's Rich Pageant.

I mean, check these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjDt9oOTPLo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW6d0uv1pW0

I still retain a lot of goodwill towards this album, even though I'm sure some of the songs don't hold up that well (haven't checked). I play "Driver 8" now and again, so I know that still sounds great. It came out just before I started writing for a monthly music paper--the issue before I started had a big article where a writer accompanied them on the road for a few days--and they were one of my two or three favourite bands in the world at the time, so all of that mixes together to give Fables a lot of nostalgic value.

Just speaking for myself, but they still seemed really special or significant or something when Fables came out. If you weren't there (or if you were there and hated them), that will sound laughable. Twenty-five years later, I'll admit that something Christgau wrote about Devo was probably part of their appeal at the time (a small part, but there): "the thrill of being in a cult that could attract millions and still seem like a cult."

To me it sounds like you are describing Life's Rich Pageant.

yeah, i'd agree that life's rich pageant was an even bigger step towards an accessible, radio-friendly sound, but i never thought of reckoning as a "big" sounding album on any level. should really pull all these out and relisten as a set, as it's been ages, probably 15 years since i last heard fables and LRP.

Seriously, you guys, check out the remaster. This album has a great production that just ended up thin sounding in its original mastering.

are the demos on the bonus disc worthwhile?

This album has a great production that just ended up thin sounding in its original mastering.

being inexpert in these areas, i'm never sure what to make of claims about mastering and remastering. do you mean only that the original CD mastering was poor, or were there similar problems with the vinyl mastering? and when albums are "remastered" and rereleased in this manner, is it really just the mastering that's been adjusted? in some cases, i get the impression that the mix has been subtly tweaked, which seems a different issue.

I assume that if they're saying "remaster," they just did a new mastering from the finished, mixed master tape and did not go back and do a new mix.

The mastering process is mysterious to me, too, and I don't know how they seem to have brought this album to life so much. Just sounds really crisp and full, with great definition.

this remaster does sound excellent. ultimately i think i prefer the sound of either reckoning or lifes rich pageant, but this one feels stuck halfway in between those two poles (big/clean, murky/grimy) in an interesting way.

i hate it and L O V E the 2 albums either side of it like my own family. i've never understood that at all but i've tried many times with it. is it the songs?
Green Grow.. is just.. half finished. no better than a band in a pub doodling.

Although I no longer think "Can't Get There..." is a horror, the album is still their weakest pre-Document. "Wendell Gee" is pretty but they've done obscure Southern gothic better. I'd keep "Driver 8," "Feeling Gravity's Pull," and "Green Grow the Rushes."

I only got a copy of this album this year (yeah yeah) but I would have voted for 'Life and How to Live It.'
I really like this video for it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJJwjE2TG6Q

yeah, "life and how to live it" is the underrated gem here. as great as anything on the surrounding couple of albums (which, as noted, i prefer)

i suppose it's not really "underrated" when it's received several effusive mentions ITT. still! amazing song.

Best. Wish that when they decided they needed to "rock" later in their career they listened to this song.

Remaster sounds best in headphones, I think. That's where I'm really hearing the separation I'd never heard before. (Was amazed to hear the harmonica in "Driver 8," which I don't think I ever even noticed?)

this album is all about the bass

OTM! Especially on 'Driver 8', that's a great bassline. I'm a huge fan of Mike Mills' playing on those early albums, although Murmur and Reckoning are so trebly that it's easy to overlook his playing sometimes. 'Radio Free Europe' is a great bassline.

It punches through really clearly on the Murmur remaster

'Belong' on Out Of Time too, the bass makes that song in my humble opinion. As a piece of music there's very little there, but the bass gives the track melody and is the glue that holds the whole thing together!

Adore the "Belong" bassline - secret key to the chorus working as well as it does.

I haven't checked out the recent reissues with demos on the bonus discs. Are they anything more than curiosities?

demo of Hyena makes it sound like a Reckoning track; it's.. weird. also some pretty interesting other demo bits on Fables' 2nd disc. they're all on Spotify (in the UK at least).

Just learned that Stipe's first choice to produce Fables was Van Dyke Parks, and when that didn't pan out, Elliot Mazer. Either of those could have been very interesting.... (but I love Joe Boyd's production here and elsewhere nonetheless)

I spent a lot of time playing "Driver 8" on my acoustic guitar as a teenager. Pre-internet, Stipe's mumble of the "power lines" line made it impossible to transcribe. I rewound the cassette *so* many times, only found it out from a piece of sheet music several years later.

I want to vote for "Driver 8," but it's like the mid-80s suburban "Layla" -- EVERY fucking high-school-age band was playing it.

This can't possibly have been true, can it?

I loved this album when I was a teenager. I think I voted for "Feeling Gravity's Pull"?

Hyena was a Reckoning-era track. It shows up frequently on bootlegs of the era.

Yeah, there's quite a few songs from Life Rich Pageant that came from the Reckoning era and even earlier. Pageant was a bit of a backlog-clearing exercise in a way.

What If We Give It Away goes right back to the beginning of the band iirc

"Just a Touch" as well

Yeah, definitely 'Hyena', 'Just A Touch' and 'What If We Give It Away?' had been around for a few years. I think 'I Believe' was a leftover from Fables although it's possible they may have had it earlier in some form or another.

Wow, I love how sloppy and fucked-up that "Hyena" is. I mean, I love it on the record for the tightness of the riff wiring its way around the beat, but between the two versions you can really triangulate the drunk party band on the bootlegs, the hypnotic post-punk band on Chronic Town band, and the sunny propulsive rock band on Reckoning through Life's Rich Pageant. All the same dudes playing songs that really weren't that different, just a few minor adjustments. It's like the Cavern Club vs. Revolver.

one of the songs (Throw These Trolls Away) seems to have some of the I Believe lyrics in it.

After all this time, what I remember was it was a very pretty record but I had a roommate at the time who was poisoned with inexplicable hatred for R.E.M. For making a pretty record. Or something.

If I remember, Fables Of The Reconstruction was the last of the IRS-era records I heard, and I never could fathom why the band themselves were so down on it or why it was treated as if it was some kind of "crisis" album. I mean, sure, the band sound like they had a terrible time making it, but why I listen to 'Driver 8', 'Maps and Legends', 'Life and How To Live It', 'Green Grow The Rushes', it's just as good as any stuff they'd done up to then. I think the band have changed their mind about the record in recent years and I'm glad about that.

Yeah, I was disappointed to read that. It has such a strong sense of nature and geography, whereas other R.E.M. records address that stuff more directly. With this one, the sense of place is in the music.

It's got that Americana vibe, like Wichita Lineman.

Pulled out the album again on Friday to absorb to and from work. For the love of god I don't hear what you guys do: retreads, murk, bleh.

Relistening to Life and How to Live It, I'm struck by how much it sounds like Makoto Kawabata nicked the opening for Pink Lady Lemonade

Love this record. Their last really great record IMO (he writes, ducking).

And EveningStar, it is totally true that Driver 8 was covered by everyone, even by bands for whom it was their one "indie" song (also Radio Free Europe). But the Buck lick is the one song everyone with an acoustic guitar knew. (Even though Boxcar was a little cooler.)

read just about every paragraph

the sky is open armed
when the light is mine

Surprising poll results; these are some of the best songs on there:

"Maps and Legends" – 3:10 3
"Good Advices" – 3:30 2
"Old Man Kensey" – 4:08 0