REM: Classic or dud?

"1. Radio Song - I love the 'world is collapsing around our ears' parts, but the rest of the track does nothing for me. I find the rap at the end a bit embarrassing too."

no offense against krs1 but the acoustic 'unplugged' rendition rescues this song somewhat. still, REM's careerism (hey DJs you suck, your same sing song makes me sad (if you don't play my songs)) is not why i love these guys

"Near Wild Heaven" always sounded like the Moody Blues to me.

"maybe they should have had 'Country Feedback' as the final track"

not a bad idea! (just as long as "me in honey" is somewhere on there)

"i remember california" (dirge) --> "untitled" (uptempo) > "country feedback" (dirge) --> "me in honey" (uptempo)

another reason why 'out of time' seems a little tired to me after 'green.' not that each of those songs don't rule individually. but 'out of time' winning hosannas after 'green' seemed a little to my like russell crowe winning the oscar for 'gladiator' after 'inside job'

no offense against krs1 but the acoustic 'unplugged' rendition rescues this song somewhat. still, REM's careerism (hey DJs you suck, your same sing song makes me sad (if you don't play my songs)) is not why i love these guys

Oh, no offence against KRS-One from my side as well. I just don't think it was a brilliant idea to have him on a REM track! Haven't seen that MTV Unplugged thing since the mid '90s at the very least (although I watched their second 'Unplugged' set quite recently) - going to check that out on Youtube now...

"i remember california" (dirge) --> "untitled" (uptempo) > "country feedback" (dirge) --> "me in honey" (uptempo)

another reason why 'out of time' seems a little tired to me after 'green.' not that each of those songs don't rule individually. but 'out of time' winning hosannas after 'green' seemed a little to my like russell crowe winning the oscar for 'gladiator' after 'inside job'

Yes, I definitely agree with this. The whole 'Country Feedback' -> 'Me In Honey' sequence is kinda a replication of the 'California' -> 'Untitled' thing from 'Green', but I feel it worked well on 'Green', not least because 'I Remember California' is much, much less emotionally heavy than 'Country Feedback'.

Funnily enough, whenever I read bickering about how REM became a different band when they signed their Warner Bros. contracts, I always feel like saying 'well not really, because 'I Remember California' is pretty much cut from the same cloth as 'Oddfellows Local 151', and probably would have fitted snugly on Fables...'

Best part of "Shiny Happy People" is Buck's expression in the video.

First REM show was this:

11 November 1983 - Beverly Theater, Los Angeles, CA
support: The Neats, Let's Active
set: Gardening At Night / 9-9 / Windout / Burning Down / Talk About The Passion / Pilgrimage / Seven Chinese Brothers / So. Central Rain / Wolves, Lower / Harborcoat / Sitting Still / Pretty Persuasion / Catapult / Just A Touch / West Of The Fields / Second Guessing / Radio Free Europe
encore 1: Moral Kiosk / Camera / Pale Blue Eyes / We Walk / 1,000,000
encore 2: 20th Century Boy / Crazy / Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars) / Skank

The Chronic: A

lol. rem's lost west-coast gangsta-rap album.

My only REM show:

6 April 1989 - Richfield Coliseum, Cleveland, OH
support: Indigo Girls
set: Pop Song 89 / Exhuming McCarthy / Welcome To The Occupation / Disturbance At The Heron House / Turn You Inside-Out / Driver 8 / Cuyahoga / Feeling Gravitys Pull / The One I Love / Orange Crush / World Leader Pretend / Begin The Begin / Pretty Persuasion / I Believe / Get Up / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
encore 1: Stand / I Remember California / You Are The Everything
encore 2: Finest Worksong / King Of Birds / See No Evil
encore 3: Crazy / Perfect Circle / After Hours

So has anyone's grade slate spelled out "ABACAB" yet?

• Chronic Town: A+
• Murmur: A+
• Reckoning: A
• Fables: A+
• Pageant: A
• Dead Letter Office: B
• Document: B+
• Green: B
• OOT: B-
• Automatic: A-
• Monster: B
• Hi-Fi: B
• Up: C

My first R.E.M. show:

8 May 1985 - McGaw Memorial Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
support: The Neats
set: Feeling Gravitys Pull / Harborcoat / Kohoutek / Driver 8 / Seven Chinese Brothers / Can't Get There From Here / Maps And Legends / So. Central Rain / Green Grow The Rushes / Hyena / Talk About The Passion / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Old Man Kensey / Pretty Persuasion / Life And How To Live It / Little America
encore 1: Second Guessing / (Don't Go Back To) Rockville / Just A Touch
encore 2: Theme From Two Steps Onward / Laughing / Tired Of Singing Trouble / Gardening At Night / 9-9 / Unknown / Windout
encore 3: We Walk / Sitting Still

My second (and last) R.E.M. show:

4 November 1987 - Circle Pavillion, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
support: The dB's
set: Finest Worksong / These Days / Harborcoat / Disturbance At The Heron House / Fall On Me / Exhuming McCarthy / Orange Crush / Feeling Gravitys Pull / King Of Birds / White Tornado / Cuyahoga / Tired Of Singing Trouble / I Believe / Maps And Legends / Superman / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Oddfellows Local 151 / It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) / Begin The Begin
encore 1: Strange / Wolves, Lower / Driver 8 / Just A Touch
encore 2: The One I Love / Pop Song 89 / See No Evil
encore 3: Harpers / Crazy / After Hours

Have no memory whatsoever of "Pop Song 89" or "See No Evil." Definitely remember "After Hours," though.

Man I wish Northwestern would bother to host cool bands again.

My recollection is that R.E.M. was far-and-away the coolest band they hosted in the 80s (the other bands being General Public, Simple Minds, and Santana).

Yeah, I know its never really been a hotbed for concerts, but since I live so close now it would be great.

Gah, i'd love to have seen Let's Active live. 'Crazy, Perfect Circle, After Hours' = ideal REM encore.

chronic town - A+
murmur - A+
reckoning - A
fables - B-
lifes rich paegaent - B+
document - B+
green - B
out of time - B
automatic - A
monster - B-
new adventures - A-
up - C-
reveal - D
around the sun - F
accelerate - D+
collapse into now - D+

You know, I've got 'Accelerate' on now, and in a kind of way I wish they'd brought back Scott Litt to produce it... I really like a lot of the material on the record, and I definitely think Jacknife Lee hindered the record rather than helped it.

anyone ever own/ see a copy of this?

http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2011/07/rem-radio-free-europe-1981-cover.jpg

i feel like i must have at least seen one over the years but can't be sure.

Is that the single that Peter Buck apparently smashed in disgust?

Don't quite understand people who give Chronic Town and Murmur an A and then Reckoning a B. I seem to remember being a tiny bit disappointed upon first hearing when it was released but I can't remember why- because you could understand the words a little bit better? but quickly getting over that.

I gave Reckoning a lower grade because it has a couple of stink bombs.

Can't remember which those were, but that one has so many stone classics that I'm willing to overlook few like that. The first one that I really didn't like that much and never warmed up to was Fables. Then Life's Rich Pageant seemed to be a return to form and after that it was fasten your seatbelts bumpy ride time. Suspect I should give Fables another chance.

"Time After Time" is my least favorite song!

"Camera" too.

I gave it an A-.

You gave it a B+! Between this and the Elvis Costello opener confusion, some of us might worry that you are developing early onset Alfzeimer's

"Time After Time" is a rare drone that I love, but "Camera" is a just a drag.

It's probably my 2nd favorite REM album after Out Of Time, though. "Letter Never Sent" is a peak, when all four artists lock in on their own thing & make something greater together: it's like a machine in perfect arrangement, even though each part may waver on its own.

"camera" is amazing and sad

what is it with you people

I gave Reckoning a slightly higher grade than Murmur because I think virtually every single one of the tracks on there has merit, with possibly 'Second Guessing' and 'Letter Never Sent' being the two minor moments on the LP for me. Having said that, they're both short and snappy, and have great backing vocals, and I have plenty of time for both of them. Murmur on the other hand, while I appreciate that it was a landmark record for its time and continues to sound timeless, I've never been fond of 'Moral Kiosk' or 'We Walk', and I feel Reckoning, while it lacks the 'distance' and 'mood' of Murmur, has stronger songs on it than 'Catapult' and '9-9', hence the slightly higher rating. Although I must add, I like both 'Catapult' and '9-9' a lot.

You gave it a B+! Between this and the Elvis Costello opener confusion, some of us might worry that you are developing early onset Alfzeimer's

Looooooong week, man.

I kinda figured that.

I found my copy of that Hib-Tone single the other day, I was afraid it had disappeared in the last move. Those versions of "Radio Free Europe" and "Sitting Still" (which I prefer) are included on the And I Feel Fine... comp.

Man, LRP is holding up really well. Just realized there is a little break in "Superman" that sounds like it came from the early Beatles - "Hold Me Tight," I think.

I always kinda slept on LRP, rediscovered it a couple years ago, and now really think it's one of their best records. (Nice it seemed to get a lot of favorable mentions here.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvbGYt6KlJw

The whole story of how they got the title is great too.

"Fall On Me" has a snatch of melody that sounds like it came from "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey."

And something else maybe not on this album seemed to cop the first bars of "Knowing Me/Knowing You" but now I can't remember what it was.

Every R.E.M. album is like A or A-.

Also, "Me in Honey" is about pregnancy and breakup, right? Certainly not lightweight imo.

Male pregnancy according to Q, who occasionally liked to make things up.

Seems fairly clear - "Baby's got a baby with me/That's a part, that's a part of me!"

LRP is patchy as shit after Cuyahoga

i hate that kid for being able to play underneath the bunker better than me.

Listened to Out of Time on a long drive tonight Belong is really nice. Most of it hasn't held up.

When I mentioned earlier that Near Wild Heaven reminded me of the Moody Blues, I was wrong. It's Texarkana.

Also, "Me In Honey" = "Can't Hardly Wait"

Me In Honey was a 'reply' to 10,000 Maniacs' Eat For Two wasn't it? or that's what i've read. hence "what about me?" etc.

Read yesterday that the three new tracks on the compilation album that's coming out were recorded over the summer in Athens.

Just occurred to me - I wonder if they feature you-know-who on the drums!

that would rule

i just loaded up onto my ipod, resequencing it as suggested by stylus magazine a few years ago (except i (a) deleted lotus, which i don't like and (b) dumped the rest of the songs discarded by the stylus article at the end (by the way, they axed airportman, which i actually liked a lot as an exercise in hazy atmosphere)).

those "playing god" articles were nice features.

"why not smile" is probably my least favorite track so i could never get my head around the logic of that running order

man i totally forgot "lotus" exists

CLASSIC SIDE

Chronic Town: A-
Murmur: A+
Reckoning: A
Fables: A
LRP: A+
Dead Letter Office: A_
Document: A
Green: A- (would be A but for "The Wrong Child" and "Worth Leader Pretend," which between them foreshadow most of the mistakes the band would make later)
Out of Time: A

POST-CLASSIC SIDE:

Automatic: C
Monster: A-
New Adventures: A-
Up: C
Reveal: D
Around the Sun: only one I didn't buy
Accelerate: B-
Collapse: B-

Also, "Stand," "Shiny Happy People," and "Radio Song" are triumphs of the human spirit.

The Oxford American version of "Why Not Smile" is pretty great; it's on the "Daysleeper" single.

eephus otm re. Green