R.E.M. trio albums POLL

I get that. What about Mills' harmonies on that take? they weave together in a way they rarely accomplished otherwise

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

dang

well, that's pretty definitive

whoa

it was pretty obvious from reading this thread that Up would triumph, but the word "shellacking" wouldn't seem out of place here.

the Bill Berry factor

actually laughed out loud at those results, that has to be one of the most lopsided five-way polls ever

who voted for around the sun

For the relative goodwill for the last two they didn't exactly run away with 2nd and 3rd.

Meh, I'll still always prefer Accelerate

It's all relative...I was an Up voter who prrrrrrobably would have gone with Accelerate if Up was out and this was just "the four REM albums with no street cred" or whatever.

Honestly I think Reveal is a great album. I can understand people diminishing it with the post-Berry asterisk but I'm baffled by the opinions that place it at the same depths as Around the Sun.

A problem with Reveal might be - for those still buying REM albums into 00s - the sound, approach and production wasnt what a lot if fans wanted at that point. Berry's gone, Up's not heavy on the guitars, what's going on?

I was actually into the idea of Reveal - okay, they've done this colder-feeling thing, now there's this warmer-feeling thing, and both seemed more 'electronic' and concocted-in-the-studio than their previous records... and I dig some of the recordings on Reveal even, maybe partly under the influence of positive reviews at the time that framed it as this wash of summer haze and production lushness. The thing is it just doesn't have the songs - the ones that are meant to be the anthemic waypoints in the tracklist (especially "I'll Take the Rain") fall totally flat, so lesser songs that might have survived being kinda interesting album tracks (were they next to stronger material) end up seeming underwritten and superfluous to the catalog. I basically think it wasn't a fertile period for the band in terms of songwriting - or maybe, that they really didn't know how to write songs together without being a band, in a room, with a drummer.

Accelerate > Monster. Come on now.

ILM 90s mindset I see u

They’re all bad, but —

Up > Around the Sun > Collapse > Reveal > Accelerate (it’s unlistenable)

How long must we try to correct each others wrong REM rankings? Just go back and see my ranking.

Monster is listenable to the extent that I’m not inherently put off by what sounds like ‘90s major label alternative band demos.

don’t point your finger

lotta wrong opinions in this thread bump

Euler not addressed to anyone in particular but I think speculation about constructs for our perceptions in general can be fair game.

You know that's not my thing

The reason I feel like this particular matter might involve constructs just comes from listening to Accelerate and thinking that there's just no way that those songs are inherently inferior

They seem to accomplish the same exact things, nothing is missing

I can't picture how any of the songs sound like if I look at the tracklisting of accelerate. I registered to the discography like a month ago

I hammer at my own constructs all the time - I know we all do

I'm primarily into early REM. I consider monster to be a bit later in the discography for my liking and dont hold it in hugely high regard.i vastly prefer it to all of the post berry albums

Mr. Richards and Supernatural Superserious are both as good as What's the Frequency, Kenneth

i like accelerate and know that isn’t true

nothing on accelerate as good as “crush with eyeliner,” like at all

In what possible sense?

Up >>>>>>>> Accelerate >>> honestly whomst even cares

idk there’s a looseness and charm to “crush” that’s all gone by accelerate. if you don’t like “crush” that’s fine but imo monster is just a great glam rock record with amazing guitar tones

Up > Around the Sun > Collapse > Reveal > Accelerate (it’s unlistenable)

An R.E.M. ranking I nearly agree with for once, though I'd swap the last two (it's very listenable).

The only album here that is out-and-out bad is Around the Sun, all the rest are good to very good records.

Accelerate > Monster. Come on now.

― timellison, Saturday, March 9, 2019 7:06 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like Monster more now than I ever did in the '90s, but this is indeed true. I'd rank Collapse Into Now higher than Monster, too.

nothing on accelerate as good as “crush with eyeliner,” like at all

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Sunday, March 10, 2019 12:29 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is bullshit. Sorry.

Anyway, my only issue with the results here is that Up took it in a landslide. IMO, the votes should have been more spread out with Around the Sun a distant last.

you’re not sorry

"Up" is like a different band fronted by Michael Stipe - one I wouldn't mind hearing more from. The rest of these albums are clearly sub-prime REM that I'll never bother going back to.

There are great songs on every REM album. I love "Mr Richards" and "Supernatural Superserious" and "Accelerate". But I like Monster more. I have a big soft spot for Monster which I've probably said elsewhere in this thread. It's sort of an alien within their discography but it's cohesive unto itself and I really dig a lot of those songs--Crush, King of Comedy, You, Kenneth, etc.

I feel like they experimented with a new sound for "rock mode" REM on that album, which they then carried over to New Adventures ("Wake Up Bomb" sounds like it could be on Monster without a blink, for instance). But for the most part they ironed out some of the quirks on New Adventures (ie turned off the tremelo effect on Buck's guitar). Accelerate and Collapse, insofar as they "return to rock", sound to me like they were trying to reclaim what they were doing on New Adventures more than any other past REM album.

And I think the thing that nags at me about those last two albums is that they feel like the only two albums in the entire REM discography that saw them looking backwards more than forwards. That's one reason I'd never say Accelerate is better than Monster. For whatever faults you can assign to Monster, REM were being ambitious when they made it, trying to break out of the box they were being put in by the mainstream and also trying to make a rock record that didn't sound like one of their older more rock-oriented.

That's fair, but there's something brilliantly transcendent about the looking-back-as-farewell on Collapse Into Now. That record is magic.

For whatever faults you can assign to Monster, REM were being ambitious when they made it

This is where I disagree a little. I don't know as that I ascribe significant ambition to the change in direction with Monster or with Up. I don't know as that I feel that the approach to the last two albums involved less ambition overall just because it wasn't totally new.

Live “Let Me In” is the only thing I’d save from the Monster era.

The post-Berry albums are so boring, ppl don’t even want to discuss them in their own thread 😂

There are 245 posts!

But we do go over the album hierarchy every year or so, in the various REM threads. I'm sure I've said what I have to say about Up many times, I love it forever, and I will defend Reveal quite a bit (the atmosphere and humid sunny blaze still impresses me) even though I understand the idea that it feels like the start of a stagnation

pgwp- those are good points.

I really like about half of the individual tracks on Reveal, but the whole thing is too soporific to listen to in one go

It's the nooks and crannies of the career that poke at you on Collapse Into Now, ending with "Country Feedback" in a big Radio Ethiopia mess with Lenny Kaye.

Ha, I'm listening to it now - forgot the "Finest Worksong" reprise at the end

still can't stand collapse but i do like your enthusiasm for it tim. maybe one day