REM: Classic or dud?

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

eephus off teh markh re: Automatic

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

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BNyDjkPO8l0/0.jpg

eeph notm re: "the wrong child" and "world leader pretend" being bad but otm about how the templates they set never approached the originals

I don't think either of those songs set significant templates for their later output.

"world leader pretend" = first rem song with the lyrics printed in the liner notes. a template for the michael major label message song? "the wrong child" is peter's first mandolin dirge iirc

Listening to Green this morning for the first time in ages, I could barely get through "You Are the Everthing," which I used to love.

were you drifting off to sleep, with your teeth in your mouth?

Eviscerate the memory!

all you hear is time stand still in travel

R.E.M. remembered by some folks in the Athens community

I don't think "world leader pretend" and "the wrong child" are bad, i just think they're less good than everything else on "green."

I should have added "Drive" as portender of future mistakes -- there is speak-singing earlier on the records (notably "Belong," but Stipe also used to do it a lot in live shows in the 80s) but the particular kind of rhythmically dead speak-singing that mars lots of later tracks starts with "Drive," I think. Not that it's always bad. "Belong" is wonderful.

Finally, "You Are The Everything" is the best song of its kind they ever wrote, only I'm having a hard time specifying what the kind is. But it includes "Nightswimming."

"world leader pretend" is completely fucking awesome, probably my favorite song on green

man what a pretty dirge