Worst of the platinum R.E.M. albums

hifi easy

Hi-Fi doesn't have "The Wrong Child" and "Orange Crush."

Green.

"Monster" by far.

Followed by "Hi-Fi" and "Document". The rest are all great.

Alfred OTM

Green has "You Are The Everything," which is good but not comparable to past glories or the next album's country cousin "Half a World Away"; the catchy throwaway "Get Up" and deserved hit "Stand." The rest is average to awful ("Hairshirt"!).

Probably Green for me as well.

NAiHF is probably the most underestimated R.E.M. album. That said, you'll find the occasional R.E.M. fan here and here that will claim it's the greatest of all, which isn't true either (to these ears, anyway). Almost everyone will agree it's overlong by about 20 minutes, but no one can seem to agree one which 20 minutes to cut!

the Brits adored NAIHF at the time.

Out Of Time

New Adventures by a long shot. I listened to it last week and it was still hard work.

I love Green but I lived in Atlanta in 1988-9 and so it's a very personal thing. I wouldn't try to defend "Hairshirt" in impersonal terms, but I love it.

Almost everyone will agree it's overlong by about 20 minutes, but no one can seem to agree one which 20 minutes to cut!

The one song that most obviously should have been cut away was the initial single....

Isn't "Inside Out" on Green?

"the Brits adored NAIHF at the time."

This Brit still does. I never understood the hate. The correct answer is Green.

they still may! I just remember the ecstatic reception at the time, akin to how Automatic was received in Amerikay.

"Hi Fi" will not get any votes here, simply because those who dislike it dislike "Monster" more.

Using my expert reading comprehension skillz and information presented here in the last 10 minutes, I predict that your prediction will be incorrect.

Gross

(In fairness I'm not sure I listened to naihf more than once over the system at the cd store where I was employed when it came out)

(I sorta don't hate green. Was little kid living in ga when it dropped)

The second half of Document is pretty forgettable, I'm going with that.

There's about 3 songs on each of these that I really, really like surrounded by some real bullshit. Having a difficult time deciding which offering of songs I like more and/or which bs filler I like least.

NAIHF is great! Going with Document.

Green

Gotta go with the masses on this one: Monster sucks.

but the masses made Monster one of the band's biggest sellers!

And then they sold all those copies back to their local record store, where they still are to this day

At last, an easy R.E.M. poll -- Automatic For the People, the only truly boring record R.E.M. ever made. Surprising in that they managed to include the clunkiest, and most obvious of their political songs ("Ignoreland") the sappiest and emptiest of their ballads ("Everybody Hurts") and the weakest lead single (the lifeless "Drive," which R.E.M. had the sense to leave off their most recent hits comp) all on one album. At the time, I liked the poppier tracks on this ("Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite," "Man on the Moon") all right, but today they seem bouncy and cheap. The only thing on the record that R.E.M. doesn't do much better elsewhere is the moody, organy, dirgy stuff ("Sweetness Follows" and "Star Me Kitten") which, while not as good as "Low," at least follow the lead of that song in a new and reasonably interesting direction.

I think part of the reason I somewhat overrate "What's the Frequency, Kenneth" is that it was such a mammoth effing RELIEF in 1994 to hear something new from R.E.M. that didn't sound like this mopey and poorly thought out mess.

^^^ realest of talk.

Guayaquil=clueless

"Automatic For The People" is a fantastic album, filled with wonderful highly melodic pop songs, stripping off all "rock" elements. They should have stayed in that genre for the rest of their career.

Hi-Fi. I could try to argue that none of the others have so much filler, but I'm biased by the fact that all previous albums were purchased and memorized before my last adolescent growth spurt. I find it hard to hear what's obv filler as filler (at least melodically) on them. If you chopped off Binky through Low Desert it might compete with others for me.

Monster is the only one of these I never listen to. Hi Fi is just too long but at least has lots of good things in it somewhere.

I'm actually surprised that Geir likes AFTP so much; so few chords!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

I'm actually surprised that Geir likes AFTP so much; so few chords!

Hahahahaha.

i don't really know what this band is about, musically

besides jangling obv

the key of G

but yeah idgi either

faster big star radio city filtered through vague punk artiness

until 1987, after that idk

Out of Time and Automatic can be tossed in a lake of fire afaic, but there's nothing wrong with the other ones here (and especially the order they ended up in after this poll).

listening to green, and my impression is mainly one of formlessness, for the album and the songs

of course when they hit a radio number they know how to let it rip

but i was thinking more stylistically, like, throw in a little mandolin here, little wicky-wicky there, 60s jangles but 80s bigass drum plods, this sense of kind of filling up the space with stuff to make it more energetic but without a musical idea to tie it together

until 1987, after that idk

I was a big fan in jr. high/high school and then when I go back and listen to them yeah idgi. the production and instrumentation are all so one-dimensional (never something I would accuse Big Star of), there's just a flatness to it all. Stipe is interesting in his mumbly southern surrealist way for awhile but most of the time I just don't give a shit what he's singing about. I did think it was curious how much of an explicitly *dance* band they started out to be - it made sense that they were in the same scene as the B-52s, playing this upbeat post-punk dance music for white people but idk it just lacks a sonic depth (oh look this track has TWO guitar parts! *snore*) to my ears.

and then yeah when they throw in a mandolin part to color things oh look it's a one note part

are there r.e.m.-influenced bands going right now?

I haven't heard a band seriously influenced by REM since Guadalcanal Diary, and they were contemporaries.

Fwiw I think Green is the worst album they did up to and including Monster. (I didn't really keep track after that.)

^^ otm

after 1996 there was competition

I'm a 90's REM whore and even I hate Out of Time.

out of time is grebt

terrible cover tho

"Radio Song" aside, I love Out of Time.

i love that song

if hi-fi wasn't here and I had to pick an album of the batch i worshipped as a kid, i'd probably go with Automatic. Though Green was the first CD I ever bought, I'm pretty sure AFTP was the first new album I got after acquiring (at least most of) the back catalog and becoming a real rock press addict (my first Rolling Stone was the one promoting out of time going #1). So it'd suffer from a relative lack of mystery for me even if it didn't have ballads as straightforward as "everybody hurts." And while I still love it, I enjoy Monster's bubblegum rock a little more on the whole.

big moment in my musical life when i copped the NAIHF CD prior to official release date, then rushed home to play it, and was all like :|
to this day that album fucking sucks -- I think it's resentment on my part

if new adventures had been 48 minutes like monster and automatic and the group broke up after it i'd probably wear rem t-shirts every day and basically talk about them like that bruce mccullough character talks about the doors

i guess i should be glad they destroyed their mystique for that 80 million

new adventures is my favorite r.e.m. album at this point which i've probably said in other r.e.m. threads

Monster/Green/AFTP>>>>>>Document

Sund4r and Alfred OTM re Green

All the Green hate makes me sad. It's been my favorite for quite a few years at this point.

This band is pretty unassailable thru NAIHF though tbh I havent heard green in forever so it might be terrible. I like monster!

My favorite is probs reckoning at this point.

The end of my R.E.M. fandom was when song lyrics were printed inside Green.

only "World Leader Pretend."

That was all that was needed.

are there any circumstances in which lyric sheets are elvis-permissable?

Whenever the lyrics are better than some sub-Bernie Taupin b.s.

are there r.e.m.-influenced bands going right now?

real estate?

I have a cassette player in my car and recently bought a factory cassette copy of Green at the swap meet and was kind of knocked out by the sound. I had the record when it originally came out. Somehow, hearing the cassette version, it feels like it really makes sense as their major label debut.

Out Of Time is my favourite REM album, I think.

Mine too. I think.

Automatic doesn't feel like it's aged too well. I found a s/h copy of Green recently and am looking forward to hearing it properly for the first time soon.

Automatic feels impervious to ageing for me, the exception being Ignoreland which is probably the single most dated thing in the REM catalogue.

There are bad tracks on the other albums, sometimes many of them, but New Adventures is just boring from start to finish. I don't know if I have ever made it through the whole thing.

I'm curious as to why people dismiss Ignoreland so often? It doesn't really seem that out of place to me on the album, or of any greater or lesser quality, but a lot of people don't like it.

I always want to hate it - this goofy document 2 bass-popper with a corny title in the middle of their moody Out Of Time 2, but honestly I don't hate it

I don't think New Adventures is boring at all. I agree it's one of those 'random select' records like Wowee Zowee or Troutmask which can be a bit much to take in all at once, but can be listened to in any order and go through a range of styles. It dips a little in the middle but I still think things like Electrolite, Leave and How The West Was Won are among their best and/or most remarkable songs.

I can't stand "Ignoreland," but I never liked ATFTP anyway. "Ignoreland" sounds like a high-school sophomore's first attempt at writing a "political" song.

admittedly i never really took notice of the lyrics. come to think of it, i rarely do with REM.

Mike mills punctuating stipes "oh my god the us government is 1991 is sooo embarrasing" verses with "ignoooreland" feels not unlike Kirk Hammett offering "my lifestyle defines my death style" during the recording of st anger

I usually don't notice R.E.M. lyrics either, but when they stand out (and stand out as crappy), I can't help but notice. And the arrangement, ugh, it's straight out of the worst AOR schlock on the Who's It's Hard (specifically, "It's Your Turn").

Rocking out used to be second nature to R.E.M., but here it sounds like a chore.

Which is exemplified by the most unenthusiastic "yeah, yeah, yeah" ever recorded.

Also I love that Stipe is so bad at writing a political song that one of his indictments of the government is "the president threw up on a guy once".

xxpost I think I must have heard that album at such a young (and still rather impressionable) age that I find it hard to discern much about AFTP in quite the same way.
Didn't even realise what it was supposed to be about until just now. Think as a young teen I'd assumed it was about the Roman empire, apropos of nothing(!)
FWIW I bought (What's The Story) Morning Glory on the same day, so trite lyrics and hoary rock tropes were par for the course for a young dog latin.

It's also just odd in the context of the album

"Please don't kill yourself"
*moody instrumental*
"Family funeral, omg we're getting older"
"Sigh...remember that tragic actor?"
"OH MY GOD if I have to deal with a second term of George Herbert walker bush, I'm gonna...I'm gonna bite my pillow is what I'm gonna do!"
"Hey, baby..."

i don't really know what this band is about, musically

I think they always had a sort of classicist tendency. Even when Green mandolin/accordion tracks that were experimental in structure, I think they were going after something historically evocative. At their best, wherever it occurred through the years, they were absolutely brilliant at it. I was a teenager when the Mitch Easter/Don Dixon records came out and it was like, "OK, these people know music better than I do and they're passionate and they're really nailing it."

*Even with

With the exception of a song or two from most of these albums that I'd happily chuck in the gutter, this is a classic run culminating in their best album. I think Up is utterly defensible, too, if a pretty clear sign of the decline to come. I think I tried to listen to Reveal twice.

So I just checked out Radio Song for the first time... wtf? That is like, one of the worst songs I've ever heard. How is this band still wellconsidered?

that's like hearing "Dancing in the Street" and going…wtf? This is like, one of the worst songs I've ever heard. How is Mick Jagger still well considered?

Probably, and I do have the same reaction to several RS videos from the eighties. But to my knowledge Dancing in the Street isn't the opening track to an album generally seen as some sort of breakthrough.

Like, Waiting for a Friend, how did their carreer survive that?

"Radio Song" is one of those aforementioned chuck-worthy songs for me (see also: "Ignoreland", "Shiny Happy People", maybe not all of "You" but definitely Stipe's singing at the end of "You").

Totally agree with Radio Song. Opening song for millions of new REM fans and its woeful.

Stipey would do a nice Dancing in the Sheets

I think I like all their bubblegum songs.

undoubtedly said this on some thread over the last decade but the guru/manager of the local record store in my hometown told me he'd gotten off the boat with REM with Life's Rich Pageant, but threw on Out of Time due to the big sales uptick. Said he was digging those opening arpeggios and then...whaaaat the fuuuuuck

What are you saying, what are you playin, who are you obeyin, day out and day in? HUH

And a single. Its not like they tried to hide to it on the second side.

if they were going for some kind of Finest Worksong-impact of an opening song then they failed abysmally

The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it

Worst opening couplet of a 'classic' album ever?

What would someone expect from bubblegum that differs significantly from that?

if they were going for some kind of Finest Worksong-impact of an opening song then they failed abysmally

the song got a grammy nomination for Best Rock Song and the album doubled the sales of the one before it, i'll take a slice of that failure please

more than doubled, actually

This was NME single of the week.

They gave OOT 10/10 as well though (also, NME)

let's also not forget Murmur opens with

Decide yourself if radio's gonna stay
Reason: it could polish up the gray

It's probably best to think of Out Of Time as an absolutely outstanding EP with some doofy bonus tracks that were unfortunately sequenced randomly among the other songs rather than tacked on at the end.

Out of Time def boasts the biggest gap between its best stuff, which is also among the band's best, and worst stuff, which is also among the band's worst. That's something.

I mean, five or six of those songs are among the absolute best songs in their discography.

Yes to what Josh just said.

Whatever people thought of Radio Song at the time, surely it must have the worst rep of any classic era REM single (Stand, maybe)

Zero issues with "Stand". It's fun.

i dunno, if you want an album of mandolin-led ballads and whatnot without the goofy stuff you could just listen to the decemberists

ok, checking out stand now... again, wtf?

man, i do not get rem at all.

One thing with Out of Time - how could they not find room for the likes of Fretless given some of the stuff that did make it?

I don't remember even the slightest critical peep about the awfulness of "Radio Song" at the time. I didn't hate it myself at the time -- I was just glad that it didn't sound like that awful, meandering, shapeless, dynamic-free "Losing My Religion" -- but it sounds monumentally embarrassing now.

I remember getting the Radio Song promo 12" with remixes and thinking if I held on to it it would be worth money one day. HAHAHAHAHA. I was dumb.

I like Stand though.....they did the goofy stuff really well

People rag on SHP and that but their ability to pull that off is one of their biggest strengths of the platinum years. Depends what you want from REM?

let's also not forget Murmur opens with
Decide yourself if radio's gonna stay
Reason: it could polish up the gray

two things about "radio free europe":

1. yet another album-opening song that has something to do with radio, and that was an emphasis track for radio, and that is not nearly as good as, nor nearly all that representative of, the rest of the album.

2. i've been listening to it for 30 years and until your post 5 minutes ago i had no idea those were the lyrics. the first line, sure. the second line has never elicited anything better than a random, wild wild guess from me.

That was one of the best things about pre-enunciation R.E.M: you could just make up your own words.

Radio Song is great, this is madness

at the time my two favorite acts were rem and bdp so the song's existence blew my mind and maybe I never got it back

The problem with Out Of Time, I think, is that it sounds half calculated. Like they were going for something with broader appeal rather than trusting their instincts. Which paid off, I guess. But there's no precedent for anything like "Radio Song" in their discography, which gives it the faint reek of an exec bellowing, "Synergy, fellas!"

I do like Shiny Happy People, though. It sounds as if they absolutely know they are being ridiculous.

A problem for older fans and turn of the 90s REM is if you dont like whimsical REM and/or mandolins, youre shit out of luck.

Eh, Radio Song's fun, Stand's one of my fav REM songs, chill

I don't remember even the slightest critical peep about the awfulness of "Radio Song" at the time. I didn't hate it myself at the time -

yeah i think assuming this was some failed corporate synergy ignores the fact that the song came out in an era where lots of "alternative" had that punk-meets-funk vibe and as the vanguard of alternative its not insane they experimented with it and its far goofier in the REM discography than in the age of Lollapalooza Year One.

but then q-tip did show up on around the sun

Problem is REM sounds so stiff with any sort of 'crossover'

i'm so so pleased with my thread revive

your hatred is strong

it was a time where faith no more and fishbone were more promising commercially than anybody from seattle, and when no one would have guessed the chili peppers would crossover with a power ballad

"an era where lots of "alternative" had that punk-meets-funk vibe"

the golden era

seriously

Just listened to "Shiny Happy People (Dance to the Music Mix)" for the first time. There's a little surprise toward the end.

There was a sort of funk track on their demo tape, I think. Can't remember the name.

rather than lenny waronker saying "you gotta get a rapper on this, boys, earn me some $" it was that "hey our new demo is funky, y'know i met krs-1" was not going to responded with "are you fucking high"

And that little bit of tune before "Rockville," I think, on Reckoning.

krs-one on "radio song" was not anything remotely close to "corporate synergy." it's not as if krs-one was a pop star in 1991.

That little tune is infinitely more funky than "Radio Song." Better recorded, too.

xp

Decide yourself if radio's gonna stay
Reason: it could polish up the gray

man how did Stipe include a colon in mumble form

what are you talking about you can hear his colon all over "shaking through"

the colon is the one part of it that makes sense! if you had told me the actual lyric was ": ; # ; & ^ ^ ! = : " i would believe you.

all I hear are a bunch of mumbled semicolons

sometimes in guitar magazines they would get mis-transcribed as em-dashes.

I don't care for it but really the only embarrassing part in 2014 to my ears is the organ

Radio Song does sound a bit as if a studio executive said 'you know, our research find the public really responds to that black cnn thingy, but are too scared of chuck d to aplaud. could we get someone else to say sorta the same thing?'

again, if you have no clue what was hip in late 1990

Radio Song does sound a bit as if a studio executive said 'you know, our research find the public really responds to that black cnn thingy, but are too scared of chuck d to aplaud. could we get someone else to say sorta the same thing?'

Dre hadn't happened yet, and Judgment Night was two and a half years away.

I would say Kool Thing was an influence

This is like, one of the worst songs I've ever heard. How is Mick Jagger still well considered?

this is a totally fair question imo

xxxxp

again, if you have no clue what was hip in late 1990

Jane's Addiction. the funk-rock-rap thing was def in the air

i like the idea of an exec saying 'you know, our research find the public really responds to that black cnn thingy, but are too scared of chuck d to aplaud. could we get someone else to say sorta the same thing?'

and another exec responding 'yes, you know what would obviously be more commercially viable, krs-1 on an rem song'

and a third executive saying, wait, isn't someone from poor righteous teachers available?

'nice! i'll get peter buck on the line. peter, you there? three letters and a number for you. k. r. s. 1."

"ching ching!"

peter buck

“”When we wrote it out we only had acoustic guitar, bongos, bass, organ, and a 12-string over the chorus. When we got to the studio we added drums, and I put down some funk guitars and we thought, ‘Well, gee, now it’s kind of a funk song.’ And Michael suggested bringing in KRS, since he’d worked with him before (KRS-One appeared in a public service announcement for Stipe’s C-Hundred film production company). It blows people’s mind, and gets them thinking, ‘Woah, what’s the rest of the record going to be like?’ But then we go into ‘Losing My Religion,’ which is probably the most typical R.E.M.-sounding song on the record.”

see now that makes me wish KRS had la-la-la'ed over "Endgame."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq8hQ_lyMBs

ah my intro to the "When the Levee Breaks" beat

feel like there's a poll somewhere in early 90s rap-rock collabs (best and worst)

hey, there's always a poll somewhere

there's also Can't Get There From Here in REM funk canon. hehe.

^ my pick for their worst classic-era single

seconded

the first REM album I got into was Eponymous and Can't Get There From Here was/is my favourite track, I was so baffled and dismayed when I found out it is generally unliked

Jane's Addiction. the funk-rock-rap thing was def in the air

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, July 29, 2014 5:12 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Living Colour, too.

Chuck D on "Kool Thing" was a joke. SY and PE were two of my favorite bands at the time, were coming off their greatest records, and..."word up"? That's it?

no -- tell it like it is

Come on, come on, come on.

Yeah. Tell 'em 'bout it.

"word up" would have been a good cameo

Dirty Boots, BOYEEEEEEE

Listening to NAIHF for the first time in ages and really enjoying it. Up is better though. I never feel the urge to listen to Green, Automatic or Out of Time. Later albums tended to have a lead single that drew me in, then were uniformly disappointing.

Pretty sure I like Shiny Happy People better than Losing My Religion. I always imagined them as the same story told by the same person but from different outlooks.

As in, both seem to be taken from the point of view of an outsider observing a scene. Always heard SHP as being a song about loneliness in a crowd.

Can't Get There From Here: another surefire winner for me

Always heard SHP as being a song about loneliness in a crowd.

so as a sort of sequel to "Camera" which comes right out and says it's about this?

I don't really dislike any of the classic-era singles but I think "So. Central Rain" is the weakest despite its general belovedness. Opening riff like a declarative sentence and this version of R.E.M. was great partly because of the lack of declarative sentences. Admittedly, the last fifteen seconds of piano are really urgently great but to me the song kind of ambles up to that point.

As for "Can't Get There From Here" -- it's great! Doesn't sound funky to me at all. Sounds like the shouty dance music they were playing in 1981. (See also: "Just a Touch.") Always like it when Stipe and Mills sing different lyrics on top of each other, as in

I've been there I know the way
can't get there from here

or, to get back to the platinum era,

It's the end of the world as we know it
time I had some time alone

"Fall on Me" has a stack of three:

Faaaall onnn meeeee
What is it up in the air for?
It's gonna fall

The "It's gonna fall" is Bill Berry; I wish he sang more!

That's awesome, I never really noticed Berry there before!

feel like there's a poll somewhere in early 90s rap-rock collabs (best and worst)

Already done: Best Track On Judgment Night Sountrack

Harborcoat is another - seems to have two different sets of lyrics going through almost the whole song ("seems to" = I've got no idea what the backing ones are)

Never consciously realised how great a dualvocal band REM often were till this thread, thanks all

Automatic feels impervious to ageing for me, the exception being Ignoreland which is probably the single most dated thing in the REM catalogue.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, July 29, 2014 12:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this. i mean, i listen to it and i'm instantly back in high school, my ex-gf's car and the copy that never seemed to leave her tape deck (except to be swapped out for crowded house's together alone, and then back again). but it's still a really moving and powerful and lovely record to me.

She sounds awesome, srsly

she was awful. AWFUL. but i will stan for automatic and together alone any day of the week.

Not enough Together Alone stanning

i will never tire of together alone. but this is not that thread.

this. i mean, i listen to it and i'm instantly back in high school, my ex-gf's car and the copy that never seemed to leave her tape deck (except to be swapped out for crowded house's together alone, and then back again). but it's still a really moving and powerful and lovely record to me.

― The beer was cold, but so was the glass, which drives me crazy. (stevie), Wednesday, July 30, 2014 10:41 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes indeed, I get the same feeling. Maybe more-so for Out of Time in that both these albums to an extent remind me of being a teenager on endless car trips with my family. REM will always evoke scrolling landscapes to me.

see, out of time is just as evocative of a moment in time for me - but i actually think its not a very good album (some great moments, but its the sort of LP that the skip button was invented for). Automatic, though, I still find very affecting.

Just curious, what are the skippable songs on OOT? I like all the fillery bits like Endgame and Belong. Near Wild Heaven and Country Feedback are among my all-time REM songs. Can't remember Texarkana and Me In Honey too well even today. Low is pretty okay I guess, maybe not essential...

Would def skip Low. Shiny Happy People, that's a skip. endgame, you better bet that's a skip (though yeah i love belong). not sure if i'd skip radio song - i love krs one but its not his finest moment. me in honey is one of my favourite REM songs, though, and love texarkana (big mike mills stan).

I skip radio, losing, and shiny. Belong is sometimes my favorite thing on the album.

Endgame is so good, usually my fav on the album

Endgame is so good, usually my fav on the album

oh god, YES

Radio Song-skip
Losing My Religion-okay but way overplayed, possible skip
Low-fucking love it
Near Wild Heaven-decent tune
Endgame-very pretty instrumental
Shiny Happy People-fine as a dumb pop song, possible skip
Belong-decent tune
Half a World Away-fucking love it
Texarkana-decent tune
Country Feedback-do I even need to go there? one of their best
Me In Honey-fucking love it

It's really only that handful of skippable tracks that keeps OOT from sitting pretty among the all-timers like Murmur and Automatic and New Adventures.

About half this thread is drunk and needs to go home.

Hey, you don' know me, man. Thish is from when muzzic men sumthin.

The "It's gonna fall" is Bill Berry; I wish he sang more!

His singing (with Mills) was a huge part of their live sound.

IIRC it's Berry singing the "Dreams they complement my life" backing on "Get Up," no?

The relative New Order-y secrecy behind the band always made it hard to tell who did or was doing what, but Berry leaving really underscored his role. He was singing and playing much more than drums as early as "Murmur."

Supposedly he wrote (most of or completely, depending on the source) "Driver 8," "Can't Get There From Here," "Perfect Circle," "Man on the Moon," "Everybody Hurts," and a bunch of others.

That is him on Get Up Dreams They Complicate/Complement chorus thing-y. I'm definitely in the should have hung it up after New Adventures camp.

they've all gone on record saying berry was the most "don't bore us, get the chorus" editor when it came to songwriting

get to the chorus

Berry also sings "I have seen things you will never see" on "Try Not To Breathe".

As much as I love some of the stuff they did after he left, I feel like he was the soul of the band (wasn't there a thread about guys like that?) and the ratio of hits to misses shifts drastically once he's gone.

I'm relistening to Green for the first time since I sold it back years ago. I know it's a cliche to say "Stipe was better when he was mumbling etc." but some of the lyrics on this are really not good. So far not a song on this I want to hear again.

'Songs about orienteering' is a thread I may one day start on ILM. I can only think of three though.

Are you counting "Find Your Way Back" by Jefferson Starship?

It's really only that handful of skippable tracks that keeps OOT from sitting pretty among the all-timers like Murmur and Automatic and New Adventures.

― Manilow's Farm-Fresh Razzamatazzberries (Old Lunch), 30. juli 2014 15:34 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, you're right. It's only fact that nearly half of the tracks on this album is not very good that keeps the album from being very good ;)

In other news, I'm listening to OOT and this time I'll make it the whole way through. Low is fine.

There's definitely an argument to be made for Stipe's muttering. They do have a lot of songs with clearly-enunciated lyrics that are terrific, but they also have a good number of songs with truly awful lyrics that should've been anywhere other than front and center.

I was like, "Why is Up getting away unscathed?" and then realized it sold less than a mil.

I'm glad this poll has closed-I have no idea how I would have voted. Process of elimination (what's the worst best song) leads to: Sweetness Follows>Country Feedback>Disturbance At The Heron House>Untitled>Let Me In. so yeah, Monster seems right. In addition, while there are plenty of total failures on all those records, Strange Currencies feel like the first time they really mailed it in.

Document has the best experiments (Oddfellows Local 151, Fireplace, King of Birds).

I really like 'You' from Monster. It's not an amazing album but it's got some brilliant moments that are right up there for me - love Bang & Blame too.

Apart from a couple of the singles, 'Let Me In' is my big keeper from Monster. To the extent that I was overjoyed when Neil Young released Le Noise, because it was like someone had finally taken that aesthetic and built on it.

Let Me In is wonderful. Love that bit where the song seems to break down, and then Buck changes chord.

[just panicked that I'd imagined that bit but yes, it appears at 1:44 below]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6vOKQFzmgc

That's Mills on guitar on that one.

oh - did not know that, thanks for the tip off!