REM: Classic or dud?

(that said, i can totally understand why a Murmur fan in 1989 would not be into the album)

yeah the first REM I heard was "The One I Love" but Green was the first REM album I got, on cassette for Christmas 1988.

I'll admit that the transition from "Turn You Inside Out" to "Hairshirt" could have been handled better (maybe by sticking "Hairshirt" on a b-side instead).

Orange Crush was a really quite intense highlight of the Green Tour show that I saw.

Green was the moment when they went full-on MTV, it felt like a big change of direction after the IRS records

yeah on Tourfilm "Orange Crush" rips, "be all that you can be... bababababbababababa", more menace than the album take

one of my biggest music regrets was missing the closing show of the Green tour at the Fox, even though I was just a sophomore in high school & would have had to get a ride from my parents from corncob county.

I don't think R.E.M. went full-on MTV until Monster, when they started making more performance-based videos. Automatic For The People into Monster was far more dramatic than Document into Green. Unless Michael Stipe dancing with a bunch of topless chicks is "going full-on MTV" ...

Always struck me how, especially given Stipe's extracurricular interest in art was/is never higher, how horrible those last 5 album covers are. The only comparison is Monster, but that in itself seems an intentionally gaudy one off.
It's as if those covers mirror the gracelessness/artlessness of REM in the 00s, even compared to the Bill Berry 90s, never mind the 80s

imo r.e.m. were never particularly great at cover art

as bad as Neil Young imo

hahaha, it's funny reading the comments on here and being reminded of seeing "can't get there from here" on MTV after it came out and thinking they had gotten so slick and MTV!

Murmur, Green, Automatic For The People, Monster and New Adventures In Hi-Fi are probably their best sleeves for me.

of all those i'd suggest murmur has a great sleeve

hmm, i think Reckoning looks great
but yeah, their 00s albums have cover art that looks like it was whipped up by a junior designer in about 3 minutes.

that's fair, and it's also true that they were showing up on MTV as early as Reconstruction

from the perspective of Athens folks who had followed them from the start, the material up through Document still felt close to home, but with Green it was clear they were changing and moving into the big time ... "Stand" in particular sounded like a song written for a video

This huge Murmur stan brought home his cassette of Green, played it, heard "Stand," was like wow, this is a pop song for the ages and R.E.M. is finally gonna be huge. Haven't changed my opinion.

"Orange Crush" and "Turn You Inside Out" sounded kind of monotone/shouty/muddy to me until I heard them live and then was like "NOW I GET IT"

xp yeah "Can't Get There from Here" also seemed written for MTV

"can't get there from here" felt like they were going for that big wall of voodoo money. even the video.

I don't think I've ever seen the video, but I didn't have MTV in 1985.

"Can't" was definitely the first time I heard R.E.M. on a big FM rock station, though.

It's the track on Fables that has aged the worst, IMO.

Honestly some of Berry's backing vocals are pretty dodgy on the early records, they add a really muddy feel to the chorus of Life and How To Live It, for example.

Yeah – Green and Fables are my least favorite pre-1998 albums.

IRS albums: Reckoning > Murmur > Lifes Rich Pageant > Fables of the Reconstruction > Document
Peak-period WB: New Adventures In Hi-Fi > Automatic For The People > Green > Monster > Out of Time
Late-period WB: Accelerate > Up > Reveal > Collapse Into Now > Around The Sun

out of time at the bottom of the peak period? aside from the opener, that record is amazing. (and yeah I include "shiny happy people", i like that song)

Yes, there's a lot that I like on it, but the gulf in quality between its best songs and its worst songs is vast and I don't think it comes together as well as an album the way the way their best albums do.

whoever dislikes "Shiny Happy People" is a disgusting savage imo

I like 'Shiny Happy People' a lot and have never understood the problem that some folks have with it.

hey now
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/5e/ac/a1/5eaca146f1fdb428d3b8aaee718b886a.jpg
xp

lol I might invert Turrican's peak-period order

Green (especially "Stand") and Talking Heads' Little Creatures (especially "And She Was") were this kind of bizarre moment of mixing art school and VH-1 positivity. Pretty bold choice in a way, if they weren't wincing through it.

Overall, it'd probably look something like...

New Adventures In Hi-Fi > Automatic For The People > Reckoning > Murmur > Green > Lifes Rich Pageant > Accelerate > Fables of the Reconstruction > Document > Up > Monster > Out of Time > Reveal > Collapse Into Now > Around The Sun.

wouldn't invert that but I'll take Reveal over New Adventures for sure

"moment of mixing art school and VH-1 positivity" wouldn't be a bad description of REM's modus operandi !

I like "Shiny Happy People," and I don't even like Out Of Time.

Reckoning > Murmur > Chronic Town > Fables > Lifes Rich Pageant > Document > New Adventures > Green > Out Of Time

(never heard Automatic; disliked the singles so much that I never bothered with the rest of it)

"Shiny Happy People" is better than "Stand," I guess

more of a dull grumpy person myself

mills backing vocals REALLY started to bug me around shiny happy people for some reason. like in a peter brady voice cracking way. and i never really noticed them as much on the earlier stuff.

I could never embrace "Near Wild Heaven". Too much down the power pop road for my taste.

Ha, that's the other Out Of Time song I like; easily my favorite on the record.

yeah i love "near wild heaven"

My favorites from OOT are easily "Half A World Away" and "Country Feedback", though I love most of the stuff there with the exception of "Near Wild Heaven" and "Radio Song".

Great: 'Losing My Religion', 'New Wild Heaven', 'Shiny Happy People', 'Half a World Away', 'Country Feedback'
Alright: 'Endgame', 'Belong', 'Texarkana'
Ugh: 'Radio Song', 'Low', 'Me In Honey'

I love everything on Out of Time, my favorite REM album

string arrangement on "Low" = A+

song itself = F

Talking about string arrangements, I think it's easy to not pay attention to the string arrangements on Automatic For The People because the material itself is so strong, but the last time I listened to the album I found myself listening closely to the strings and other assorted stuff happening "below the surface", as it were. John Paul Jones did some great work on that record.

I don't think Me in Honey is bad. And I also like SHP but i'm not sure it's great. otherwise, you OTM

missed this from mark richardson at the top of this thread:

"No band is good forever, so based on my favorite REM material I'd have to say classic. But it feels odd giving that designation to a band that's about as interesting as Matchbox 20 to me now (I'm sure Matchbox 20 is actually great to all you wannabe Chuck Eddys, but you know what I mean ;-)"

ouch. all you future chuck eddy matchbox 20 defenders out there...wait, maybe he IS talking about you guys. you guys can defend almost anything. it's a marvel really.

this thread is old.

I love "Me in Honey."

here's another vote for Me in honey.

Loved the original album art:
https://finestvinylalbumcovers.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/honey-top.jpg?w=980&h=870&crop=1