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! BronĂ©! (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 don't really rate 'Me In Honey' either, fwiw. I don't hate it, but it's not one of my favourites either.
― I wanna live like C'MOWN! people (Turrican), Thursday, 25 July 2013 01:01 (ten years ago) link
Hnnnnnnnngggggggh, hnnnnnngggggh-hnnnngggghhh.
It's not horrible, but c'mon.
― pplains, Thursday, 25 July 2013 02:00 (ten years ago) link
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.
I think this is because Stipe was frequently quoted in interviews as saying it was his favorite.
But "Me In Honey" was, is, and always will be the best song on Out of Time. Though "Belong" has grown on me with time.
And I see "Losing My Religion" as a reprise of "World Leader Pretend."
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 25 July 2013 02:10 (ten years ago) link
Think I voted for Low, and I'll stand by that.
― pplains, Thursday, 25 July 2013 02:17 (ten years ago) link
'belong' was my first favorite rem song, but i'm pretty sure i voted for 'country feedback' or 'half a world'. side 2 ftw, anyway
― mookieproof, Thursday, 25 July 2013 02:22 (ten years ago) link
I voted for none of them, this band sounds like if sheep got instruments and didn't learn to play them but still recorded an album anyway and the album was recorded whil e the sheep were being seared
― waterface, Thursday, 25 July 2013 02:43 (ten years ago) link
i mean sheared
― waterface, Thursday, 25 July 2013 02:44 (ten years ago) link
mmm lamb chops
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 July 2013 02:51 (ten years ago) link
So it turns out this looks to be the actual most politically influential album ever, at least in American history:
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/longbox/?curator=MediaREDEF
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 13:30 (nine years ago) link
that's kind of cool
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Wednesday, 23 July 2014 13:33 (nine years ago) link
Meanwhile while you've read that starving deer are nibbling at plastic longbox cases for Bon Jovi's New Jersey located in closed and toxic landfills.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 13:40 (nine years ago) link
I would have voted for "Endgame", fucking lovely stuff.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 17:43 (nine years ago) link