\\\///\\\/// It's the ILX SUPER SUMMER R.E.M. POLL OF POLLS RESULTS THREAD \\\///\\\///

At long, long last, the results!

Thanks once again to everybody for participating. For the nom list and explanation of the convoluted and arguably ill-advised voting system, see: \///\/// It's the ongoing R.E.M. SUPER SUMMER POLL of POLLS \///\///

The short version is that nominations were pulled from album-by-album nuILX polls, although voters were also allowed one WILDCARD pick from outside the nom list. In hindsight I should have allowed more wildcards, because they are fun. A couple of them did make it into these results! Ballots were a ranked top fifteen.

I am counting down the top "thirty," but there are several tie results, and I treated these as single entries in the "thirty" - so in fact we will see more than thirty songs here.

Enjoy, and as always, I hope this is fun for everybody and also sparks some discussion. Doing the original poll threads was a great way to discover other people's relationships with this band and their music, which to me represents the great power of ILM in general...so here's to y'all!

http://wildcliff.org/heron_house_tile.jpg
#30: Disturbance at the Heron House
4 votes, 28 points
Highest position: #2 (Euler)
Position in Document poll: #1 (9 votes)

Document doesn't suck though. I'll big-up "Disturbance At The Heron House" for badassitude, lyrical silliness, a solo that burns bright and brief, great vocal overdubs [...]
- rogermexico

(Will be doing one or two entries per day I think - about as much as I can pull off in the allowed surfing time at work. Plus more time for discussion in between!)

Document doesn't suck though.

Document doesn't suck at all! It's just not that old Southern-Gothic rock feel that many fans had come to associate with R.E.M. (the last gasp of that sound was on Life's Rich Pagent, sadly).

But Document works as a killer -- albeit conventional -- rock record.

Awesome, looking forward to the rollout of the results!

The recording of this song on the 1992 Unplugged opened my eyes to the song's melodies, especially the interplay of Mills and Stipe (and maybe Berry?) in the final chorus. The Document version is fab too.

Man, if "King of Birds" is a conventional rock record, then that's a pretty broad understanding of conventional rock. But that's just to reply to Daniel.

King Of Birds may be my favorite song on Document, BTW. I guess it's not "conventional," per se, but it comes closer to standard rock records than much of what's on Murmur -- Fables, at least.

yuk @ my "opened my eyes to" something sonic. Way to mix metaphors, champ.

I decided long ago that Document sucked, so I haven't listened to it in forever. But listening to Heron House just now, its quite good. I wish the background vox were a little more prominent, and I'd be interested to hear that '92 unplugged version. It made me curious about the rest of the songs that I'd written off so I started bouncing through the tracks. I can't stand the opening one-two of "The Finest Worksong" and "Welcome to Occupation", and that has turned me off this album for years. The rest of the songs are like old friends I'd forgotten about (except for The One I Love, we're enemies). Thanks to this poll, Document is going back in the rotation.

Good start - never one of my absolute favourites but I like it a lot and I'm really glad it placed.

Hey Doctor Casino! Could you REVEAL how many ballots were submitted?

By my RECKONING there were twenty-five - which is maybe less than I'd dreamed of, but way more than I'd really expected.

Wish I had access to my LPs right now - I'd like to give "Heron House" a listen and brush up on it. I know I like it pretty well, but when I try to sing it in my head, it keeps warping into the "doot-doot" vocals from "Strange." I know I like the bit about "cops and grunts and hirelings," and I think I used a lot of bits of the lyrics in some silly homage in one of my teenage comic book doodlings. (The characters were trapped on a Documented Island [as opposed to an undocumented one - haw!!!!] and everything was references to the album...)

I just sat down and did all the number-crunching stat stuff for the whole countdown, so from now on I just have to gather the pull quotes and images, which is the fun part!

The curve of votes is about what you'd expect, but there are several things that totally got in on a groundswell of general good regard (ie, lots of low votes as opposed to a few people making it #1)... which makes me happy. I think with a different format the poll results would have been REALLY different, but it's a damn solid list of songs that I wouldn't make any cuts from, and again, should be good discussion fodder all around!

Here's the Unplugged performance mentioned upthread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWrY1q8wYZ8

http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/remitstheend.jpg

#29: It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
2 WILDCARD votes, 29 points
Highest position: #1 (abanana)
Position in Document poll: #4 (6 votes)

<One> of the few REM songs I've ever enjoyed at any point. (I liked it for the first time the one and only time I drank so much that I got sick to my stomach the following day. It took a lot of whiskey to get me to appreciate that song. I'm not sure what I'd think if I heard it right now.)
― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:17 (6 years ago) Permalink

<Still> one of the half-dozen best songs they ever did, or at least one of the half-dozen that I liked. Doing a "Subterranean Homesick Blues" rewrite freed Stipe from even the pretense of writing lyrics that "meant" something (good) so you could enjoy 'em just for the SOUND. (And I'm still not sure whether Stipe sings "Turn 'em into turn 'em into turn 'em into flies!" OR "Tournament of tournament of tournament of lies!", as if it makes any difference.) Plus it was still cool to namecheck Lester Bangs in '87. <...>
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:46 (4 years ago) Permalink

Document pulling up the rear...which is about how I expect this to go, with mostly songs from the IRS years ordered roughly from earlier to latest (with Pageant / Fables reversed). There'll be one from Automatic (prob. "Drive"), one from Monster (prob. "Kenneth"), and prob. one from Hi-Fi ("E-Bow"? I just don't get that album). I'm not sure if anything from Out of Time will place---I can see vote-splitting there.

If that had made the nominations list it might have won.

haha wow, I didn't notice that it placed based on two wildcard votes! I'd likely have voted for it, not particularly highly but it would have gotten a lot of not-super-high votes, enough to push it high on consensus.

Cracking version of Disturbance At The Heron House on the new REM live album. Sticks pretty close to the album version, but a bit more rough and ready and all the better for it. I didn't get round to voting in this poll. My bad. Will be interesting to see how it turns out and how many lesser known tracks make it. I'm hoping Pilgrimage makes an appearance...

I would have thrown "End of the World" a few points on my ballot if it'd been available as a non-wildcard...it's a good song that I used to LOVE but I think I'm kind of worn out on it. Particularly the opening - the drums suggest something really exciting is about to happen, and then when the actual song kicks in, it's a little, I dunno, less astounding than promised. They're happily loping along when the opening promises a breathless gallop. They gradually pick up steam and the song does end up pretty exciting though - I have no complaint whatsoever with the last verse. Totally classic Mike Mills vocals on this too.

This song would have totally made my ballot if it had been nominated. That opening drum riff! All those lyrics to be memorized and sung! That video with the weird broken house you always see off the highway and you're like, how does that ever happen? with the shirtless kid and skateboard because abandoned house+junk=shirtless kid with skateboard! The harmonies in the last minute of the song! Seeing them play it as the last song at my first REM concert in 1995 in Baton Rouge and everybody going crazy and rushing up to the stage! Not shouting "Leonard Bernstein" because your too cool to be like everybody else and of course there are better songs on Document everybody likes that one and I can find something unique and awesome in "Disturbance at the Heron House" I've been there since the beginning not like all these sellouts!

Its a fun song.

I can't be the only one who hates this goddamn novelty tune.

You're not.

Doing a "Subterranean Homesick Blues" rewrite

More like a We Didn't Start The Fire prequel.

btw I don't mean to take issue with anyone voting for it, it just drives me crazy that for a disturbingly large percentage of the population "people who have heard of R.E.M" this is the song they are known for

Yeah I can see why thats annoying, but I got into this band because of "Stand", so any gateway will do.

What bugs me is they used this song in the trailer for Chicken Little or some such animated movie. Which is lame, not because its some animated movie, but due to the fact that I always thought REM were against selling songs to commercials. I even remember them having to release a statement when some ad used "Superman" (different recording, maybe the original?) saying that commercials weren't a thing that they did. I guess the commercial nadir of Around the Sun changes things a bit?

Amazingly there are TWO threads at hand on this pressing issue:

"It's The End Of The World As We Know It" vs. "We Didn't Start The Fire": which is more annoying, and why?
TS: Billy Joel's "I Didn't Start the Fire" v REM's "It's the End of the World"

So is this song their "My Ding-A-Ling" for some? I have no fan's resentment against it, just a little tired of it as I said...none of the surprises are surprises anymore. But that's not really the band's fault.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y279/NrllAless/blog/news/geisha1.jpg

#28: Shaking Through
5 votes, 30 points
Highest position: #2 (contenderizer)
Position in Murmur poll: tie for #1 (10 votes)

I've always been a sucker for:
'What if this one small voice, doesn't count in the world...'
<...> can't understand a word he says after the first line tho. geisha girls?
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, December 5, 2005 8:56 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

don't really get the love for "Shaking Through" as it's kinda an embarrassing Stipe vocal but maybe that's the appeal?
― Euler, Tuesday, December 30, 2008 4:56 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think "Shaking Through" has to be just about my favorite R.E.M. tune -- the interplay between the piano and guitar makes me feel like a little kid running through a wheat field.
― christoff (christoff), Friday, November 7, 2003 10:29 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Never tire of the Hail-Mary vocal Stipe delivers on this: "Shaaaaayyyeeeeeaaaayeeeekeeeiiin through...."

Yeah, it's *that* vocal that makes me cringe, but if it really is the hook, then I understand the love better.

Ha! I never really payed attention to song titles, and I always sang along "she given". Now looking at the lyrics, its somehow even more of a mystery than my nonsense syllables interpretation. This didn't make my ballot, but thats mostly because Murmur is such a consistent album that I just picked another song to represent it. Its probably the one REM album I play start to finish most often these days.

The consistency of Murmur actually kind of envelops this track for me - I like the song OK but it really loses something taken out of context. Listening to the whole album, I hear it as part of the weave and really enjoy it; looking at my ballot I passed right over it. Good song though - I like Stipe's singing, including the key change at the end!

Have you heard the deluxe re-issue of Murmur? The second disc -- which is a recording of an early live concert -- has some smokin' versions of the Murmur songs. It gives them a much edgier, harder-hitting vibe.

The consistency of Murmur actually kind of envelops this track for me

Yes, and that does make it more of an anonymous track, but I hear "Shaking Through" - with the concision of its verses and with its chorus - as the climax of the album, too.

(Meaning to say that this has always made it stand out for me a little bit, too.)

xx-post
Yeah that live disc is really great, with a bunch of Reckoning and Chronic Town stuff on it too. More muscular Stipe vocals than the albums. It makes me want to get a bunch of bootlegs from different REM-eras, but I think thats a rabbit hole I don't want to start going down. The re-master of Murmur itself seems kind of pointless though, it doesn't make enough of a difference to justify the expense. ALthough I'd probably still pick up the Reckoning one if I found it cheap in a shop.

This has always been my least favorite song on Murmur. Can't quite see what all the fuss is about.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ozl2y2OzUm4/Sblyy3946ZI/AAAAAAAAAZY/lk48LxG1VEU/s320/IOB.jpg

#27 (tie): Turn You Inside Out
4 votes, 33 points
Highest position: #2 (dad a)
Position in Green poll: #3 (7 votes)

Good groove, that one; but this sonic cousin of "Finest Worksong" is totally unconvincing: the only thing Stipe can turn inside out is his mattress in looking for his glasses.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, January 19, 2009 7:19 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I used to be fascinated by the structure of REM's "Turn You Inside-Out," which is sort of like Verse / Chorus 1 / Chorus 2 / Chorus 3 / Chorus 1 / Chorus 2 / Chorus 3. There's only one verse.
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, May 3, 2005 1:31 PM Bookmark

Wouldn't you think of the "I believe in watching you" part of "Turn You Inside-Out" as being more of a pre-chorus/bridge leading up to the chorus?
― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, May 3, 2005 2:06 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OK, so it's verse / bridge / chorus 1 / chorus 2 / bridge / chorus 1 / chorus 2. that's even better!
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, May 3, 2005 2:17 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/500H/9780312352233.jpg

#27 (tie): World Leader Pretend
4 votes, 33 points
Highest position: #2 (sonnypike, kuba a)
Position in Green poll: tie for #2 (12 votes)

I never undestood why Stipe felt the lyrics were strong enough to print. This song is no "I Believe" or "Begin the Begin."
― Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 19:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

I propose this song as their biggest wtf moment.
― Tim Ellison is number one proponent of Beatle!!!Mania!!! on nu-ILX (tim ellison), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 19:45 (2 years ago) Permalink

"world leader pretend" is a great song.
― Tyrone Slothrop (Tyrone Slothrop), Thursday, 4 January 2007 02:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

Our first tie - and it's a Green showdown! Neither of these songs means a lot to me personally, and the pull quotes would suggest ILX doesn't have much to say about them either - but they got votes and I would love to be converted....

the fuck is this thread and why does it exist?

"Turn You Inside Out" is one of the only R.E.M. songs that they really sold me on live; never cared for its insistent one-notiness on the record, but it turns out to be a great stadium track by a not-that-great stadium band.

Much better than "World Leader Pretend," which seems to be written in the voice of a faux-naive and stunted persona, like "The Wrong Child," the other bad song on this record.

re: this poll in general. I put all of the nominees on my iPod and listened to them several times over the last week, and wound up unable to choose and basically just listening to a lot of R.E.M., which was awesome. Wish I had voted though.

No love for the little instrumental coda at the end of "shaking through"?

I have never heard either of these two Green songs.

"Turn You Inside Out" was my favorite deep cut off Green. I love how Buck gets the guitar at the start to sound like a harmonica. The song is no blues but it flirts with being one. I don't love the drum sound on it. Mills is great on it!

Someone voted "World Leader Pretend" #2? I'd like to hear something from them about why.

I certainly didn't vote for "World Leader Pretend" but that steel guitar backed bridge into the piano backed chorus(verse?) is pretty powerful. On the other hand "Let me make it good" I find both annoying and extremely hook-y. Not a fun combo.

I like eephusl's idea of it being the same narrator as "The Wrong Child". Then later in "Orange Crush" he sees a commercial for soda pop and gets his mom to buy him some. Taking this new-found consumer confidence out into the world and rules the neighborhood playground with a can of Crush in his hand. His leadership ability makes him such a pimp that he doesn't just start turning his playmates out, he turns them "inside-out".

I forgot, one of the things I really like about "Shaking Through" is when Stipe holds the note longer on the first syllable of "shaking" in the first chorus. I also really like the bridge. Great song!

re: WLP, I always liked the odd, medieval-sounding discussion of practicing weapons, "I fitted them myself." Stipe the Armorer.

http://prettyfakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/rem-leave.jpg

#26 (tie): Leave
6 votes, 38 points
Highest position: #8 (Euler, Doctor Casino)
Position in New Adventures poll: #3 (8 votes)

<…>like REM produced by the Bomb Squad or something.

emo memory: my first kiss was to "Leave"
― the maximum value that ZS obtains given its constraint is 8 (Z S), Sunday, January 25, 2009 7:28 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I once had the idea that I wanted "Leave" played at my funeral.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:34 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.svs.com/rem/gif/discog/sp-70416pa.jpg

#26 (tie): Ages of You
5 votes, 38 points
Highest position: #1 (contenderizer)
Position in Dead Letter Office poll: #2 (7 votes)

After "Crazy" I'd go for one of the VU covers or "Ages of You", which is kinda like "Sitting Still" but not as good.
― Euler, Saturday, February 7, 2009 10:39 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://991.com/newgallery/REM-Daysleeper-123325.jpg

#26 (tie): Daysleeper
6 votes, 38 points
Highest position: #4 (dad a, brontosaur)
Position in Up poll: #1 (9 votes)

<…> then their best single since "Drive".
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, November 29, 2008 7:25 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

<...> one of their best ever singles.
― Gavin in Leeds, Friday, November 14, 2008 6:17 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Stipe is fantastic, truly underrated, when his lyrics hint at a story and you're left to fill in a lot of blanks ("Daysleeper," "Sad Professor," "So Fast So Numb") <…>
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, June 28, 2005 10:37 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sorry for the spam - we're in the midst of a big block of tie votes. These are three very very good songs though. Daysleeper is one of maybe five CD singles I ever bought. Fabulous song, I think, and I really wish Stipe had been able to maintain that level of lyrical quality across the last few albums. They're more directly sympathetic than IRS-years lyrics but they've re-acquired some of the odd-word-choice poetry that made him great as a lyricist ("I'll squeeze into Heaven and..Valentine!") Not crazy about the "bull and the bear" part, but I love this section:

I cried the other night; I can't even say why
Fluorescent, flat, caffeine light
It's furious balancing
I'm the screen, the blinding light
I'm the screen - I work at night!

I'm surprised that Leave made the list. I wouldn't put it in the top-half of NAIH-F.

I once had the idea that I wanted "Leave" played at my funeral.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:34 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OK, this is making me 100% sad right now.

Oh my. I hadn't put 2 and 2 together on that comment.

"Leave" is terrific. The album was a crushing disappointment to me, but "Leave" wasn't. Stipe's vocal sounds frail, ugly and sweet (in contrast to his harsh, barky vocals elsewhere on the album). Was it an Automatic outtake? The riff sounds a bit like an electric "Monty", sad and clear, filtered through the ongoing grief and confusion of the Monster era.

I forgot, one of the things I really like about "Shaking Through" is when Stipe holds the note longer on the first syllable of "shaking" in the first chorus. I also really like the bridge. Great song!

Yes, that specific bit is great. I think Mills or Berry do something similar in the last chorus as well. It's such a shifting harmonic chorus!

Acc. to Wikipedia re. "Ages of You": "It was intended to be a track on the band's EP Chronic Town, but producer Mitch Easter felt it let down the tracklist – "Gardening at Night," "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)," "1,000,000," and "Stumble." Easter felt that the song "Wolves, Lower" was a better and stronger song in the context of the EP."

I'd never heard this, but yay youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFcaxmxkR-k

I like it, though I'd like to hear a better fidelity version. The bass sounds chunky, and Buck and Stipe take turns spitting out notes on their respective instruments. It's a more frantic version than the one I'm familiar with.

Finally, some songs on my ballot! "Daysleeper" at #4 and "Leave" at #9, "Ages of You" was on my short list too.

"Daysleeper": Love those lyrics that Doctor Casino posted. Also, the 6/8 time signature and the slide guitar on the chorus really make this song swing, glide, and soar. In the context of Up this song really seemed like a cop out at the time. "Bill Berry's gone. We brought in all these synthesizers. But we can still sound like the REM you know and love." And it does, and its great.

"Leave": It has always seemed significant that the intro ends exactly on the one minute mark. I would love to know at what point the the songwriting process they decided to use the car alarm sound. I'm not as into this song as I was when the album first came out, but I let teenage brontosaur vote this one in.

"Ages of You": That Chronic Town outtake is super. I too want a better fidelity version. "whoo-ooo"

Man. How did I miss this poll during the summer? What was I doing? Hmph. Ah well, it'll be fun watching the results roll in, at least.

looking for a better version of that Chronic Town "Ages of You" I stumbled across this "Shaking Through":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0uo3kPmDfc

re: Daysleeper - also really like the opening lines:

Receiving department, 3 AM
Staff cuts have socked up the overage

The first gives us time and place efficiently, and the second clarifies the tone: within a web of corporate BS and doubletalk, this guy is working, at night, alone, the cameraderie of coworkers having been purged by the bottom line. Very nice.

re: Ages of You, I can only get the first three seconds to load on my crap connection but they've got me intrigued! Thanks for sharing, Euler.

Leave: There's a really crap version without the siren and a lot of spacey/floaty synth pad stuff in the background. I want to say it was on the Life Less Ordinary soundtrack or something like that.

I also didn't put it together concerning the funeral comment - really sorry if anybody was upset, that wasn't my intention at all in quoting it.

re: Leave, despite having my first emo kiss to this song, it didn't make my ballot. I've always thought it was one of the textbook examples of a song that's just too damn long. I'm sure plenty of people would disagree, but if it was 4:17 instead of 7:17 long, I'm sure it would have placed higher here.

So far only one of my picks (Shaking Through, my #15) have made the list, so I'm really looking forward to the rest!

Turn You Inside Out? Daysleeper? World Leader Pretend? Y'all need an REM refresher course.

Leave and Daysleeper are among R.E.M.'s finest achievements. Both would have made my top 10 if I had actually voted.

A 7:17 long emo kiss sounds great!

"Daysleeper" really did sound great on Up. I like that album a lot still but it has a lot of mid-tempo songs that don't leave much of an impression (e.g. "The Apologist", "Sad Professor", "You're In The Air", "Diminished", "Parakeet")---"Daysleeper" stands out among that bunch, even if it's an obvious nod to the earlier days.

"Sad Professor" almost went on my ballot in the 15th-place slot - I think it's a pretty good little character study. Maybe a bit clunky in places but I like the range of Stipe's sympathies.

I think it's their tempos---they just don't make an impression on me. It's my own lazy listening fault, and I ought to try to pay more attention on next listen.

But of course the records used to make you listen!

"Sad Professor" jumps out more than anything else on Up for me. Mainly just the strange juxtaposition of words, a whole story in a noun phrase. Not enough for me to vote for it, though.

Still my preferred Up listening experience

That's a good article, although I can never countenance the deletion of "Airportman."

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tRg73iZIquM/SqJBGSdmz2I/AAAAAAAAdH4/y8NvAxgFTIE/s1600-h/rem+finest+w.jpg

#25 (tie): Finest Worksong
6 votes, 43 points
Highest position: #7 (dan., rat bat bruce, G00blar)
Position in Document poll: #2 (8 votes)

Has anyone ever noticed how much the coda to "Finest Worksong" sounds like mid-80s-era Rush?
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 7 October 2008 01:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

When "The Finest Worksong" came on, I thought to myself, "This is amazing! I can't believe that they've come up with the most irritating song ever recorded! What an unholy crock of shit!"
― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

http://991.com/newgallery/REM-Life-And-How-To-L-457131.jpg

#25 (tie): Life And How To Live It
4 WILDCARD votes, 43 points
Highest position: #1 (dan.)
Position in Fables of the Reconstruction poll: tie for #5 (5 votes)

But there is no contest: with that shimmering riff, that shuddering tipsy feeling of love, loss and time as the track stops on a cliff's edge, that title even – LIFE AND HOW TO LIVE IT
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 14:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

I couldn't believe Life and How To Live It didn't make the poll. That could be another wild card dark horse.
― kornrulez6969, Friday, 30 October 2009 17:06 (1 week ago) Permalink

Our last tie for a little bit, thank goodness. Two rock-solid songs - I think L&HTLI is way, way better, but don't let the pull quotes make you think I'm hating on "Worksong" - ILX just doesn't seem to have much to say about it!

I think L&HTLI is way, way way, way, way, way, waaaayyyyyy better

Truth.

I've skipped "Finest Worksong" when listening to Document almost every time since 1987. Stipe can't really sing the highest notes and nobly tries anyway; it's just that the noble failure makes my ears hurt. For some reason I like the Eponymous version, though; the horns counter-balance the caterwaul, maybe.

"Life and How to Live It" seems like a weird choice for so many wildcards, but I think it's a great song. As the pinefox points out, the riff is key, so frantically played; and the explosion at the end when Stipe finally blurts the song's title.

listen, listen to the holler

http://991.com/gallery_180x180/REM-Near-Wild-Heaven-5261-991.jpg

#24: Near Wild Heaven
10 votes, 52 points
Highest position: #4 (Euler)
Position in Out of Time poll: tie for #1 (10 votes)

"Near Wild Heaven" is a nice Beach Boys pastiche <…>
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, October 8, 2008 7:23 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"Near Wild Heaven" would seem to suggest that he gets laid a lot.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, February 23, 2005 7:41 PM Bookmark

for some reason I'm leaning toward "Near Wild Heaven" here, I think because I love how it sounds not like R.E.M. but the jangle-pop that came in their wake. I also love the lyrics ("Holding our hands/feet/self together/In this near wild heaven/Not near enough!") and Stipe's backing "ba-ba-ba"s. <…>
― M Matos, Saturday, June 22, 2002 8:00 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

One of my unabashed favorites. This is also the first entry to really get in on a groundswell of several little votes as opposed to a couple of big ones. "Texarkana" is also quite nice - I don't think I'd go for a Mills solo record as such, but I wouldn't have minded if he'd been the group's Ringo with an obligatory lead on every album.

I like this song and it made my ballot but if I'm honest it was probably a proxy vote for "Half a World Away," which nearly got my wild card.

Most of these single covers are better than the covers of the albums they come from!

I like that it got in on a bunch of little votes. That seems sort of exactly right for this song and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. It's sweet.

re: sweet, pretty songs on Out Of Time - I was very tempted to throw my wild card to "Me In Honey"...this is just a good wild card album.

"Near Wild Heaven" is terrific. I remember when it came out that it was the consensus pick among kids at my high school (in Georgia so REM albums were big events among the kids). That's partly because it's fun to sing along to, and heck you can almost kicker dance to the chorus. Holy cow I love this era of the band: day-glo songs, switching instruments, a sea of possibilities.

What's weird is, I'm a lot like Euler except that I find this particular song kind of boring. "Stand" I love. "Shiny Happy People" I love. Their version of "Love Is All Around" I love. But not this (and not its sonic cousin "Man on the Moon" either.) I like it! And I probably find myself humming it more than most other songs on Out of Time. But there are five songs on the record I think are better. It doesn't come close to touching "Me In Honey."

Why boring? I think the harmonies are really obvious. I think there's not much of interest going on with the lyrics.

Right; for me the rhythm makes the song, especially on the chorus with Berry's cute little fills.

In the context of Out of Time I really enjoy "Near Wild Heaven". But when I was listening to songs to fill out my ballot, I found that this song on its own lands kind of flat for me. I think its mostly because Mike Mills' vocal performance feels like background vox. It hits the notes, gets the job done, but it comes across a little dull and lifeless to me.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Don%27t_Go_Back_To_Rockville.jpg

#23: (don't go back TO) ROCKVILLE)
6 votes, 53 points
Highest position: #2 (G00blar)
Position in Reckoning poll: #3 (11 votes)

I go back to Rockville again and again and again.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 22 December 2008 22:57 (10 months ago) Permalink

"don't go back to rockville" was another obvious piece of american rock sound that led to me gagging on their early stuff. I don't care however ironic it might've been about some place or other in america. It didn't mean anything to all us non-americans, just sounding like that country rock band Alabama to me, ready to go on the redneck charts. <…>
― george gosset, Friday, 25 February 2005 19:13 (4 years ago) Permalink

Does 'don't go back to Rockville' partly mean 'don't go back to Rockism'?
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 14 April 2009 14:32 (6 months ago) Permalink

^^^ love this one. Their great teenage long-distance relationship song. No irony at all for me, a really solid song. Kind of surprised nobody's ever covered this in straight mainstream country style (slowed down, probably) and had a hit.

That actually is sort of surprising! Tough call for me between this and So. Central Rain. I think I went for the one with the weaker chorus and the stronger riff but I'm very very fond of both.

The "and waste another year" punch line always hits hard. It's a terrific song. It stands out in the early REM catalog for actually being "about" something, at least *clearly* about something. I don't usually think of REM as a piano band, but between this and "Perfect Circle" maybe I should.

Wendell Gee as well.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/somewhat117/CYB1%20CyberWarriors%20Rebirth/CYB1-EN019Darkloid-GravityMan.jpg

#22: Feeling Gravitys Pull
9 votes, 54 points
Highest position: #3 (rat bat bruce)
Position in Fables of the Reconstruction poll: #2 (13 votes)

"Time and distance are out of place here" sort of sums up the track. It's unsettling and fantastic.
― Guilty_Boksen, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:52 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

My first job after leaving school was in a drug company laboratory, and one of my jobs was to inspect ampoules for specks of dust, which had to be done in the chemical store cupboard with a lamp. I would sit there and play this album completely enraptured. The jar of amphetamine sulphate that was kept in there helped too.
Gravity always sends shivers down my spine.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 6:28 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

or, if you prefer, classic, old-school Gravity Man:

http://www.ummagurau.com/writing/video/forte/image33.gif

I really like this track, but it's so far outside of their normal line of work that it feels on some level like the R.E.M. song for people who wish R.E.M. were some entirely different type of band - the song you play to your cool, arty friends to convince them that this band could do weird, dissonant sounds too! But that's a bit unfair and anyway, great lyrics and a hell of an album opener.

love this song. one of their most distinctive album openers. psychedelic r.e.m., a nightmarish sort of riff that justifies their name. and the floaty chorus, and the skittering chords afterward, damn -- they could do no wrong "chronic town" - pageant

I'm in Athens right now! The van driver took me by the church where R.E.M. used to practice!

Anyway,

I don't usually think of REM as a piano band, but between this and "Perfect Circle" maybe I should.

I don't even like "So. Central Rain" that much but the piano at the end of it is as perfect a piece of piano as R.E.M. has to offer.

haha eephus, based on your last proof I think I figured out who you are! You've said on other threads you're a math person, so I've been curious, as I'm a math person too (i.e. my silly user name). If I'm right, it's possible we've met, and it's certain that we have mutual acquaintances or even friends (in Madison and perhaps elsewhere). Don't worry, your secret is safe with me.

This is my favourite of their big doom-laden tracks and they continued to reiterate it throughout their career, mostly due to the sudden major shift in the chorus, like it opens up and lets you see the light before abruptly closing in on your again.

eephus - Ooh, how long are you there? Be sure to grab a Golden Bowl at the Grit (if you've ever even sorta liked tofu, you will LOVE this) (failing that most anything there is yummy, including the desserts), and/or a chocolate malted at the Grill. There's plenty of other wonderful stuff to do in town but those are the ones I'm most craving right this second...

Oh right, R.E.M.... loving the commentary on this one, it's making me want to hear it more than I did this morning for sure. Good call on the chorus. I also like the way the song eventually dies off with the lonely, confused, vaguely funereal strings. It's always kind of jarring to go from all that to much more "straight" Reckoning-style R.E.M. with "Maps and Legends" - kinda wish we went instead to "Driver 8" which is classic-style R.E.M. but more shadowy, a slight element of menace in the riff that would have transitioned nicely I think.

as to the song: I remember hearing or reading once, a long time ago, that it's "about" anal sex (inasmuch as any REM song is "about" anything). I'm not sure I buy it, but it's always...colored my view of the song. The line that hits me the most is

"It's a Man Ray kind of sky
Let me show you what I can do with it"

and in particular the second line: firstly the politeness ("let me show you") and the desire to make something mutual; and what's to be made mutual is the narrator's *ability*: "what I can do with it". The latter links with the craftsman theme that I hear being articulated on the album (it's dedicated to Howard Finster). There's also mystery, and perhaps some implied menace, by the narrator's not saying what it is that he or she can do.

And then there's the reply: "somewhere near the end it said you can't do that / I said I can". Yeah, I'm getting lost in these lyrics again.

With regard to the song's structure: the second chorus is great; I mean the "I felt gravity pull onto my eyes" part. I love how it melts into the strings in the coda. It helps me understand better what Camper Van Beethoven was going for on Key Lime Pie.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/ca501f745ba013f85eb097a7d027a8b8/794101.jpg

#21: Perfect Circle
7 votes, 59 points
Highest position: #4 (Charlie Howard, dan., Ari (whenuweremine))
Position in Murmur poll: tie for #3 (7 votes)

No pull quotes for this one - the name is damn near Googleproof, and most of what I could find on ILX was people listing it in their POX, and me personally complaining about its boring slackness on various threads - seemed somehow unfair....

BTW, if it isn't obvious, that's the cover of some dicey bootleg, and not in any way licensed by R.E.M.'s state-of-the-art graphic design team.

eephus - Ooh, how long are you there? Be sure to grab a Golden Bowl at the Grit (if you've ever even sorta liked tofu, you will LOVE this) (failing that most anything there is yummy, including the desserts), and/or a chocolate malted at the Grill

Very good malted. Thanks for the tip! Heading home tomorrow morning.

http://www.wowtcgdb.com/images/large/eviscerate.jpg

#20: You Are The Everything
7 votes, 60 points
Highest position: #3 (Guayaquil (eephus!))
Position in Green poll: #1 (14 votes)

I'll say this for Green: "You Are The Everything" sounded great in that "90210" episode in which Dylan sobs quietly on the couch remembering how much his dad loved him.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 January 2007 23:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

...the song where R.E.M. proves they can do a slow, two-chord, featureless, completely sincere ballad and make it majestic and great. Sort of a lonely monument against all the slow, two-chord, featureless, completely sincere, and kind of terrible ballads that came later.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, January 19, 2009 8:47 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The image for #20 doesn't display for me because...
"To view this page, you must log in to area “www.wowtcgdb.com” on www.wowtcgdb.com:80."

Yeah plus is annoying.

Another thing I like about this song: there are three characters in it, "you," "me," and "she." It took me a long time to appreciate this.

Wow. I expected "Perfect Circle" to place MUCH higher.

Sorry about the screwy image link, guys; it works okay on mine. :(

"You Are The Everything" has never been a favorite of mine, but pulled out of the context of Green (which I don't put on very often) it's sounding really good in my head, the opening tinkly mandolin-plucking etc. It's quite pretty and I do like Stipe's lyrics on this.

Here's a scene: you're in the backseat,
laying down, the windows
wrap around to the sound
of the travel and the engine

The only real dud is "I think about this world a lot" - eesh. There are other bits ("she is so beautiful") that are a bit generic on paper but totally sold by the vocal.

Yeah, I think you're right that the vocal sells the song. I remember on my first listen being struck by his commitment to what otherwise seemed like a silly song. I like how its last note is resolved by the opening of "Stand".

Hey, sorry for the lack of updates, guys - have been squeezing in the weekend travel and the weekdays are just too short anymore. Rather than have this limp and jerk along sporadically I'm just going to put it on hiatus until I'm back in the States and at a computer regularly - end of December most-like. Hope nobody minds too much. I do swear this won't become an abandoned poll though!

Anyway, we have Tuomas's excellent 80s albums poll to keep us entertained, and I suspect R.E.M. will be putting in some appearances over there...

I was just wondering where you'd gone off to. Enjoy the holidays and your weekends, see you here when you've got the time, and thanks.

Super summer lasts all winter long!

http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/000/072/0000007278_350.jpg

#19 (tie): E-Bow The Letter
9 votes, 65 points
Highest position: #3 (cwkiii)
Position in New Adventures poll: #2 (9 votes)

The main guitar line running through E-Bow The Letter still gets me every time - it's one of my favourite songs of theirs. Also it features Stipe playing with momentum in his vocals for pretty much the last time - it's really unlike pretty much everything else they released.
― Matt DC, Monday, January 26, 2009 12:13 PM Bookmark

"E-Bow" is horrible. May be the worst R.E.M. single ever (although the nagging and repetitive "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" comes close)
― Geir Hongro, Monday, January 26, 2009 3:35 PM Bookmark

That said, with napster I've checked them out quite a bit, and while a lot of their stuff isn't bad, it's not particularly strong either... that is, except for one song, which I actually feel is one of the most haunting I've ever heard, and that's "E-Bow the Letter" off New Adventures in Hi-Fi. From the constant drone in the background to the lyrics to the amazingly good idea of having Patti Smith on back up vocals, the song just plain works, and is surprisingly powerful, at least to me.
― Sean Patrick O'Toole, Monday, January 22, 2001 8:00 PM Bookmark

http://jackwolak.com/cd5/1741.jpg

#19 (tie): What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
9 votes, 65 points
Highest position: #3 (Matt DC)
Position in Monster poll: #1 (17 votes)

even though it's totally tuneless (read: discordant), i can still sing every note of that (backwards?) guitar solo.
― petesmith (plsmith), Friday, September 2, 2005 2:40 PM Bookmark

You want to punch Bono in the sunglasses, you want REM to just take the damn things off and stop kidding themselves.
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, October 23, 2004 2:25 PM Bookmark

It's a great song. I say this despite having been asked the title question countless times.
― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, September 3, 2005 8:40 PM Bookmark

I guess it just sounds better than "what's the frequency, anthony?" or "what's the frequency, alex?"
― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, September 3, 2005 8:59 PM Bookmark

I bet the lollability people find in certain of these lines is directly proportional to the tanginess I find there.
― roxymuzak, Monday, October 1, 2007 11:27 PM Bookmark

#2 and #1 on the Modern Rock chart, respectively. It was a different age.

WHOA

it's back! :)

I love e-bow, btw, and I assume I placed it high up in my ballot, although I can't remember.

what's the frequency was intriguing when it was released, since it signaled a (really yet another) shift in direction for rem. but aside from the one guitar riff, the song is lacking.

e-bow is okay.

I'd be with Geir on "E-Bow" except for "Leaving New York", which was a worse single.

"Kenneth" was such an excellent single at the time: their contract with America if you will.

Ah, the super summer poll....

http://www.astrolabio.net/revistas/articulos/multimedia/pretty-persuasion.jpg

#18: Pretty Persuasion
9 votes, 66 points
Highest position: #2 (kornrulez)
Position in Reckoning poll: #4 (8 votes)

Voted Pretty Persuasion, 'cuz the entire song still rings in my head, at least 10 years after last hearing it.
― Bored American Aerospace Defense Command (BORAD) (contenderizer), Monday, December 22, 2008 2:00 AM Bookmark

goddam

http://www.barrylutz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/whoa.gif

Propulsive and rocking - - reminds me of comments people have made about the Beatles, that their minor album tracks would have been dream smash hit material for other acts. Not that "Pretty Persuasion" has smash hit written all over it, but it feels like the kind of thing any R.E.M. ripoff band would have been shooting for (and never coming close).

Probably the best slurro-mumblo Stipe vocal performance of all time on the bridge.

won't gum up the thread with a youtube embed, but this is a live version of pretty persuasion from back when i LOVED REM

sounds so much like the album track i wonder if it's live (it's supposed to be, but 'tevs)

http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/000/072/0000007276_350.jpg

#17: Electrolite
9 votes, 72 points
Highest position: #3 (David Merryweather, Daniel Esq)
Position in New Adventures poll: #1 (11 votes)

i've had THREE vitamin waters today.

electrolite, you're outta site.

― j b goddamnfucking r (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, November 20, 2005 7:01 PM Bookmark

(As we go further and further up the charts, the songs feature more and more regularly in POX, POO, and "what're you listening to right now?" threads, but oddly have fewer and fewer long impassioned declarations - - perhaps because the consensus is assumed and people don't feel the need to sell others on the songs? I think there will be a bit of a swing back in the other direction as the songs get so colossal that you just can't resist trying to verbalize their majesty...)

This poll is making me realise that New Adventures is definitely my favourite REM album.

http://www.stormwaterelkco.org/pictures/large/00148-CuyahogaFrandAc06-lg.jpg

#16: Cuyahoga
9 votes, 74 points
Highest position: #3 (Charlie Howard)
Position in Lifes Rich Pageant poll: #2 (12 votes)

Another "popular in ilx lists but no pull quotes" song. Part of the problem may be that it's a little too clear what's being discussed here and it's hard to have a relationship deeper than nodding approval.

(But I'd love to hear from those 9 voters, o'course!)

People always talked about R.E.M. being "Americana" but I think that's mostly not true, except for this song.

I Believe is a little Americanaey too.

"Let's put our heads together and start a new country up."

I didn't vote "Cuyahoga" but I can something good about it too. The opening, with the bass riff and then a classic Stipe pump-you-up lyric, is great. Stipe's gentle verse vocal. Buck's guitar on the verse dancing around, painting bits here and there. The bell! You can shout along with the chorus! Is it clear what's being discussed here? I know about the burning river but I always thought it was sung from the perspective of a Native American but it's not super clear what the story is. Haha, looking at the lyrics on the net for the first time ever...

oh, the bridge! the best part! and then back to that bass riff, in the clearing again

"We are not your allies, we cannot defend."

the opening is the first thing i learned to play on a bass guitar

Is it clear what's being discussed here?

I take it to be: it's kind of a 1980s political song aginst dispirit, where the speaker is saying "people with beliefs like mine are now marginalized and the reaganite status quo validated as synonymous with americanism -- let us remember that the animating spirit of the american republic is a radical one which aims to 'erase the parts we didn't like' and make a nation different in kind from all others on earth -- and this spirit must go on, we need a radical and rigorous skepticism about the status quo if we're going to start a new country up so let's put our heads together even if the river is burning all around us and it seems useless or even dangerous to stop and think"

but more importantly that is an awesome bassline

kh wow, that's a cool reading of the song. I'm not sure how the "we are not your allies, we cannot defend" part fits in with that reading, though---it seems to me that there's also/instead an element of the scapegoat (a lyrical trope Stipe ran with on Up): the natives, the part we didn't like, are the ones whose knees were skinned and turned the river red, and they are not "our" allies in the reformation of the country, obviously, but "we", the reformers, have the upper hand; the natives cannot defend. If that's part of it, then the song is expressing skepticism not only of the status quo, but also of radical transformations as well.

wow, for me "the part we didn't like" is something like the religious parochialism and class heirarchy of Europe -- we want to keep the ideals of liberty we bring over but throw some baggage overboard. And it's the "we" of the song who knee-skinned it! I read this as "we (your ancestors) worked hard, so hard our knees bled, don't let what we did go to waste." I think the explicit identification of the speaker of the song with the "father's fathers" comes when the lyric changes from "this is where we swam" to "this is where they swam." The we (now) and the they (then) are the same. As for "we are not your allies, we cannot defend," I just take this to be addressed to the current powers that be. I will admit that this makes the "you" of the song rather confused (i.e. "your allies" is not pointed in the same direction as "we knee-skinned it you and me") but I guess I'm willing to let Stipe make this pivot as the song nears its end.

I never thought there were Native Americans in this song at all!

When I was 14 I had a Life's Rich Pageant-era poster of REM with the phrases Walked Swam Hunted Danced Sang. I'm not sure how this is relevant to any discussion going on, but I gotta be me.

yeah I'm not sure if the natives are Native Americans anymore, but just those who are the ones who are part of the status quo, the "baggage" as you put it. As I'm reading the "we are not your allies" part, Stipe is expressing sympathy for them, as they're the ones who stand to lose through reformation. This also takes a pivot of narrative perspective, because the "we" in that line isn't the same as the "we" who are going to start a new country up.

also I want to make it clear that I have no idea what I'm talking about

I've always thought it was about Native Americans.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bi5DKjtXL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

#15: Gardening At Night
9 votes, 78 points
Highest position: #1 (Z S)
Position in Chronic Town poll: #2 (12 points)

i used to debate the merits of gardening at night with my trig teacher.
― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Saturday, April 30, 2005 11:53 AM Bookmark

...I was a freshman at UGA when it came out, and I can still remember buying it, taking it back to my dorm room, and listening to it over and over, just boggled that someone from Athens did something that good. And then the person who reviewed it in the Red and Black (college daily) actually made a comparison (in re "Gardening at Night") that it was as good as something the Beatles could have done, which both shocked me and struck me as totally true. ...
― Lee G (Lee G), Friday, November 7, 2003 10:15 AM Bookmark

Damn, how did I miss this? From the noms my top 5 would be Fall on Me, Electrolite, Find the River, Country Feedback and The Lifting.

"Gardening at Night" (and the rest of Chronic Town) was the track that really made me a R.E.M. fan, and the way I came upon it was sorta strange. I hadn't heard any earlier R.E.M. (pre-Green) at all when I bought Dead Letter Office on a whim one day. That one didn't really sell me on the band either, being a collection of oddities/covers. And in fact, I didn't even make it all the way through the CD for a few years. However, I was lucky enough to buy the version of DLO that had Chronic Town appended to the end. I didn't realize those tracks were even on there, and I was boggled that all of a sudden this CD gets INCREDIBLE during the last few tracks! Eventually I figured out what was going on and was steered toward Murmur, Fables and Reckoning. To this day I still find mid-period R.E.M. a little boring (not a popular opinion on this thread, I'm sure!), but I love love LOVE those first few.

depends what you consider mid-period, Z S, I certainly think Chronic Town - Green is a way better run than Out of Time - New Adventures, for instance, and I'd guess most on the thread would agree? Well, let's see how the top 14 plays out.

In voting in this poll I found myself favoring the early records in ways that disappointed me, since I don't want to be "that" kind of REM fan. But I love lots of midperiod REM, just not as much as Reckoning in particular.

Re. "Gardening At Night": I got into REM with Document and then Eponymous on a cassette borrowed from a mysterious classmate in 9th grade. So I knew "Gardening At Night" from Eponymous before I knew the Chronic Town version. I like that "alt. vocal mix": Stipe sounds more brittle, less gentle, though the gentleness is still there on the "been there twice" part. (Is that a chorus? A bridge?). "Fun" fact: I quoted this song (along with many other REM songs) in my HS valedictory address. Since this was in suburban ATL I'd like to think the references weren't entirely lost on the audience.

Yeah, I also got to this via Eponymous - where honestly I think it works a lot better, part of the general "file under grain" ambience. Sorta slows down "Chronic Town" too much, but I guess a debut EP needs to show everything the band can do.. woulda been better shelved til Murmur IMO.

I'm rewatching the excellent doc Athens, GA - Inside/Out, and I just realized that Swan Swan H wasn't even nominated! It definitely would have made my top 5.

Crappy VCR transfer that cuts off the first part of the song, but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3CtOivDSTE

That doc also reveals that Athens band Time Toy invented the Spin Doctors.

That's a great clip, with Stipe playing the drunken hobo in his mannerisms. I love the fashion too. Full version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_QG6tr9mjo

I wouldn't have voted for "Swan Swan H" but I dig it: great accordion, an invocation of the name of Satan that catches your ear, esp. since the content of the song is hard to suss out (as usual), and it ends fantastically...leading right into the party smash.

There we go, much better clip, thanks

One of the very best r.e.m. bridges imo

http://justhonorgod.com/Portals/8/kiosk%20bridge%20day%201.jpg

#14 (tie): Moral Kiosk
10 votes, 92 points
Highest position: #1 (Charlie Howard, rat bat bruce)
Position in Murmur poll: tie for #3 (7 votes)

<3 moral kiosk

― Matt P, Thursday, December 11, 2008 1:47 PM Bookmark

http://991.com/newgallery/REM-Drive-10321.jpg

#14 (tie): Drive
10 votes, 92 points
Highest position: #1 (kornrulez)
Position in Automatic For The People poll: #1 (16 votes)

This album is too personal for me to say much about on here. It came out at one of my most emo times of life, just off to college thousands of miles from home, like a complete unknown. I'd gone so far because nobody tells me where to go, baby. REM had been my favorite band for years, and growing up in Georgia their work spoke to me physically: I knew those places they sung about. My mother sent me Automatic in a care package (I hadn't asked) and it ripped me apart. I spent a dark-ish night of the soul about a month ago with it and it still hits home. I voted for "Drive" Doing my best to articulate why in public language: because nobody tells me what to do, baby. But freedom has costs, not just for those left behind, but for the one leaving. "Drive" pairs what reads on paper as a celebration of freedom with a serious lament of a tune, funeral organ standing out. It continues to remind me that I buy my rootlessness at the expense of important goods, and as I drive away again wondering why I can't help but leave but why I feel so sad, "Drive" comforts me. And so does the album.

― Euler, Tuesday, January 13, 2009 9:48 AM Bookmark

^^^ one of my all-time fave ILM posts, really the kind of thing I log on here for.

yeah, booming post.

I just wrote something about "Moral Kiosk" the other day:

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com

also drive offers Peter Buck playing an platoon of honest to god Les Pauls through an honest to god Marshall, as a love letter to Brian May (who of course plays single coils through an AC30 but that's not important right now because no Buck lead had ever sounded fatter or meaner...)

"Moral Kiosk" is great. Everyone brings their A game to the performance: Buck's riff and the bends punctuating each line of the verse; Berry changes up his playing repeatedly, so much to listen for, so many little details; and in tandem with Mills' prominent groove it's a song that's great for cutting some rug (maybe a side of the band we don't talk about enough? at least the early band); and Stipe's hoots and hollers on the chorus, and the various grunts that punctuate other parts of the song: maybe he's bringing memories of military events to the surface? I have no idea what the song's "about" but as with the rest of early REM "aboutness" wasn't the idea: just dance, gonna be ok.

Agreed, one of the best things on Murmur, and along with "9-9," feels the closest to the almost-terrifying post-punk sock-hop of Chronic Town. I like how it feels like the various parts of the song have almost just been pasted together, but sheer momentum gets you from one to the next. Great rollicking listen.

http://elnirvana.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/losing-my-religion-rem.jpg

#13: Losing My Religion
12 votes, 93 points
Highest position: #2 (Charlie Howard)
Position in Out of Time poll: #2 (6 points)

I actually got clotheslined by some Another Bad Creation fans in elementary school for having the R.E.M. "Losing My Religion" cassingle as they chanted "R.E.M. Sux!" I'd hate to think what would have happened if I sang the song.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, December 12, 2002 10:27 PM Bookmark

man... every now and then this song catches you when you're not expecting it, and you forget that you've heard it a million times and you forget that the video was pretentious as fuck and completely inescapable and you remember that it's absolutely stunning.

It's hard to hear this song with open ears anymore and it still strikes me as a weird single...but on the other hand, you can dance to it: at a goth kicker dance party, maybe. Actually that sounds really fun.

I like this OK but it's below the median of "Out of Time" for me (but then again I am the weirdo who stalwartly backs "Radio Song" and "Shiny Happy People" which I think is a nonstandard view of this record.) I think the best material on this record is the weird, sparse stuff like "Low," "Belong," and "Me In Honey," a sound that's new to this album and to which I don't think they really returned. While "Losing my Religion" and "Near Wild Honey" represent for me the band recognizing that they've sort of hit the point of exhaustion when it comes to writing a certain kind of strummy, slightly abstract pop song.

I'm mostly with you up to your last sentence, and then I'm not. I take it you're thinking of e.g. "Driver 8", "Fall On Me", and maybe "You Are The Everything" as among this "certain kind of strummy, slightly abstract pop song"? If that's right (and it's not easy to think of other examples, at least if you mean "pop song" as "potential hit" as I do), then I think it's better to see "Losing My Religion" as a realization of that ideal, rather than some recognition of exhaustion (I take it from having mined that vein as far as it will go).

I'll go out on a limb a bit and say that the cultural hugeness of "Losing My Religion" in 1991/2 worked like this: good catchy pop song, a bit dark, but oh! that video, let me pay more attention to the song, oh, it's "about itself", about the band in the spotlight (and now they're huge so they really are in the spotlight) and Stipey is an icon...which is my sorta-incoherent way of narrating the feedback loop by which I think the song took on its hugeness: its sound and soundness of pop structure as a song but also as having a great video and then turning in on itself, containing a commentary on itself and their new fame.

Also didn't hurt that the title was suggestive of some sort of Deep and Profound personal crisis, even though the actual connotations of the phrase are a bit more pedestrian. Never been sure which way Stipe was really going with it. I guess it's officially a song about opening up to a crush and trying to interpret the few available signals, etc., but it would also work extremely well as a coming-out narrative, with "corner" as "closet."

I wasn't really paying attention when this was a hit, but I was exposed to it through Weird Al's use of it in a polka medley (yup) so it still felt well-worn by the time I got around to the actual song. But I do like it - - agreed with rogermexico that it sort of surprises me each time. The "that was just a dream!" section is dazzling.

http://cnx.org/content/m11636/latest/BluesScale.png

#12: These Days
11 votes, 94 points
Highest position: #2 (rogermexico, rat bat bruce)
Position in Lifes Rich Pageant poll: #3 (6 points)

huh, not one I'd have voted for, but I like it; it keeps the momentum going in its slot on the album, and it ends really well.

This has at times been my very favorite of their songs. Never before and never again did they rev up the tone enough to sell a line like "We are hope, despite the times." Maybe the "Enemy sighted, enemy met" part of "Exhuming McCarthy" comes close, or -- as familiar as it's become "Time I had some time alone." But those are moments, while "These Days" keeps it up start to finish.

Oh, that's nice. I've fixed on the snarl and menace of the song over the years, but as you're putting it, the snarl is meant to bring us to awareness, all of a sudden, that there is hope (and maybe that they're the hope, not you, at this time, so get your act together). Is this the first of the REM motivational anthems, then?

This song reminds me of the shows I saw in the mid-'80s. Whatever the thoughts might have been about the records (with the changes in producers), I definitely thought that, just as a band, they were getting better and better. Their presence onstage in '85 was very different than it had been the year before and by '86 they had taken it up another notch.

Is this the first of the REM motivational anthems, then?

Think so. When I think about where on their earlier record they approach the SOUND, I can think of maybe "Little America" and "Life and How to Live It" and parts of "Can't Get There From Here." I think when they shout on these songs they're shouting "Help I'm lost" (explicitly in Little America obv.) and in particular I take the title of "Life and How to Live It" to be meant sarcastically, i.e. the song pretends to no such knowledge. Whereas "These Days" and "I Believe" I take to be completely in earnest. (I like "These Days" better, though.)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tRg73iZIquM/SZATPiilk6I/AAAAAAAAa-A/JWl-U323qcA/s320/rem+night.jpg

#11: Nightswimming
11 votes, 95 points
Highest position: #1 (brontosaur)
Position in Automatic For The People poll: #3 (14 votes)

unless i am very much mistaken (more than likely). there is a prominent oboe in the last half of Nightswimming by REM.

and irrespective of it being an oboe or not, it sounds brilliant!

― Richard H., Sunday, September 2, 2001 8:00 PM Bookmark

Some interesting discussion here: Does Michael Stipe write good lyrics? . I love this song for the same reasons as I think anyone else would, so it's interesting to see it tackled more from a craft angle than from a personal/emotional one.

girl i fancied as a freshman was an oboe player, and Nightswimming was her favourite song because of that.

"I'm not sure all these people understand."

I'll skip the personal/emotional angle (suffice it to say that there's a lot of that for me with this song, so much so that it's almost suffocating to talk about). Such a late summer record: hard to listen to in April! These things, they go away. John Paul Jones' arrangement: a hammer of the quiet gods? Friends of friends played on this song. My wife just listened to it with me, her first time: we've not been nightswimming. She's not sure if it's melancholy or sad: I don't get the difference, but we are side by side in orbit now.

Anybody who doesn't like the sound of an oboe is dead inside imo

I like the sound of an oboe but not "Nightswimming," which arrived too late in my life to resonate with the already-ebbing chord in me of the feeling it's meant to evoke. Encountered for the first time as an adult it reads as maudlin. Or maybe what I'm trying to do is contrast with "These Days" above -- I think some of the lines require selling and the song doesn't sell them, to me.

i hope i never feel that old

You hope you never feel 21?

would say closer to 18 tbh

http://permastallplus.com/layouts/images/higbys.jpg

#10: Country Feedback
11 votes, 96 points
Highest position: #1 (Lostandfound, Ari (whenuweremine), cwkiii)
Position in Out of Time poll: tie for #1 (10 votes)

i've always thought R.E.M.'s "Country Feedback" was an awesome song title and kinda wished the song sounded more like something that the title (or this thread) describes

― some dude, Thursday, February 25, 2010 8:51 PM Bookmark

(that's on Has any band dared to mix country and noise-rock? )

"Country Feedback" for how evocative the line "these clothes don't fit us right" is...

― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, October 27, 2008 2:41 AM Bookmark

shuffling through my ipod a few days back and this came on. still amazing.

I'd like to hear more about why this song is rated so highly. I like it a lot, and love the album it's from, but it's never struck me as a highlight of the album. I like it if I think of it as parody: "here's this kinda dirgy tune, we're gonna sing some vaguely mopey lyrics just to be in character". I guess it's a grungy moment in the year that punk broke?

Listening to it now and it's hard to articulate - just a really evocative song, very old-school Stipe in terms of the indirectness of the lyric but relatively new-school in that it's at least clear that it's a love song (well, relationship/breakup song). All kinds of stuff going on in here - the dregs of sex ("you come to me with a bone in your hand") the general sense of a relationship performing what its participants think it's supposed to be ("these clothes don't fit us right"), and the great repeated finale:

It's crazy what you could have had
I need this

...in which the protag oscillates between trying to throw the breakup in the other's face (you're giving up THIS??? what a fool!) and revealing his own vulnerability. I dunno. I don't have a singular tight reading of this song and it's not my favorite on the record ("Me In Honey" is just unstoppable) but it's a very nice song. Would make a nice comparison with "Tongue" I think.

Country Feedback was my favourite REM song when I was a teenager. Incredibly evocative - something about the interplay between the roar of the pulled lower E and the over distorted whine of the higher strings while Michael fills in the middle with "I need this", a highly effective yet simple lyrical trope.

It does seem to pre-empt Monster somehow.

I always thought it was "You come to me with the phone in your hand" ...

I think "evocative" is the key to why this song is so loved by some and others don't get it (like me). "Evocative" is such an ineffable, personal feeling; if it hits you, it hits you hard, but the rest just don't feel it.

I'll put "Sweetness Follows," "World Leader Pretend" and most of Fables of the Reconstruction on my evocative list. "Country Feedback" is a lot of keening and whining to me (though it's not as bad in that regard as "The Wrong Child"--that one I actively dislike).

"Country Feedback" isn't so far from the songwriting of New Adventures In Hi-Fi, an album I don't really get (though my heart remains open). Yet I recognize that the latter album is super popular. So I wonder if love of this song is correlated with love of New Adventures.

I do love New Adventures, but I feel like "Country Feedback," for all its Evocativeness, is still way more directly zeroed-in on the heartstrings than most of the material on that record. Also, the sonic signatures (wailing steel guitar, sad strumming) are more familiar in terms of associations, like I hear those and I know I'm hearing a ballad, y'know?

But I will join Hideous Lump in detesting "The Wrong Child."

I think Stipe has often singled out "Country Feedback" as his favorite REM song and tbh I think that's one reason it gets lots of love. I think he sells "I need this." But yeah, it's no "Me In Honey."

Meanwhile though, I really never will get tired of this:

marathonpacks: I think it’s “Country Feedbag”

Matthew Perpetua: I am pretty sure that Michael Stipe wrote it about the closing of a beloved all-you-can-eat country buffet
“it’s crazy what you could’ve had — ribs, chicken, greens!”

you come to me with your fork in your hand

These clothes don't fit us right
the buffet's to blame

Euler, I fit your theory. "Country Feedback"is maybe my favourite R.E.M. song and NAIHF is my favourite R.E.M. album.

It would actually be kinda cool to hold the top 4 until each member of R.E.M. dies:

# 4 - Peter Buck RIP
# 3 - Michael Stipe RIP
# 2 - Mike Mills RIP
# 1 - Bill Berry RIP

Athens, GA finally finishes biodegrading in the year 13,200 AA (after apocalypse), cockroaches and single cell organisms rule the town - full lists/results are posted

It would be great to see the end of this!

Agreed, I am ready.

It might be quicker if we all just post our ballots here and work it ourselves.

no no, i will do it!!! Sorry guys! I am on extended archi-tourist vacay right now but i promise I will get these results out by the end of July. SUPER SUMMER 2010!!!

What, surely Buck outlives the rest. I see him starring in "It Might Get Loud 10" in 2045.

no no, i will do it!!! Sorry guys! I am on extended archi-tourist vacay right now but i promise I will get these results out by the end of July. SUPER SUMMER 2010!!!

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, June 29, 2010 2:01 AM (2 weeks ago)

im holding YOU to this!

it's still the plan! i have been screaming around europe on a bus full of architecture students but the POLL OF POLLS has never left the corner of my mind!

yeah!, as nice a song as it is, please don't leave us with country feedback as the highest-ranked all-time rem song.

i'm so jealous. you should be having the time of your life!

in that case don't worry about it, have fun, it will be here when you come back from holiday.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005BIG0.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

#9: Wolves, Lower
10 votes, 97 points
Highest position: #2 (Daniel Esq)
Position in Chronic Town poll: #3 (10 votes)

I'm not sure what the fuck "urgent" is but I'll volunteer "Wolves, Lower."
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, January 27, 2005 4:50 PM Bookmark

i had that as no. 2? hm. well, it is a fantastic -- and, j. cotten is right -- "urgent" song. the beginnings of the southern gothic rock vibe, and "that beat."

Love the hell out of this one - Mills's background vocals, the drumming, and especially the opening, things sort of gearing up slowly with the mysterious jangle, then kicked in by Berry and Stipe's yelping. Plus: "Suspicion yourself, suspicion yourself, don't get caught."

The "in a corner garden" bit makes the song for me: obv. not the lyric on paper but the way that he sings it, wistful but with the bucolic menace of wolves: there is something dangerous just beneath the surface.

yeah, by "hm," i just meant that i thought i rated another song from chronic town even higher. but that would be a pretty heavy concentration of songs from their debut ep at the top of my ballot. i'll have to go back and check my ballot.

I'm happy to see the poll going again btw: I'm on a big REM kick, listening through all the singles with their b-sides (for the first time!). And I listened to Reveal last week for the first time since, er, it came out, and liked parts of it a lot ("The Lifting", "I've Been High", "Saturn Return") (about the rest let's pass over in silence). Also I listened to Around The Sun for the first time ever & cannot remember anything off it to say anything. A first listen to Accelerate is coming soon too: I've finally worked up the nerve to get to the newer stuff. Why not smile.

summer's the season for golden-era (i.e., early) rem.

Euler, I think Accelerate is better than either Reveal or Around, neither of which I ever need to hear again.

"Wolves, Lower" -- can't think of anything to say about this near-perfect song except that it's near-perfect.

http://ambianceyourlife.com/images/coriander_ambiance_bb.jpg

#8: Find the River
11 votes, 99 points
Highest position: #1 (G00blar)
Position in Automatic For The People poll: #2 (15 votes)

I will say that REM consistently has killer final songs on their albums. Usually the last two are among the best two. "Nightswimming" and "Find the River" are an incredible pair. My take on the latter was always that the youthful skinnydipping escapades of the latter evolve into the poignant if painful reflections about going out to seek one's way without the company of all the party people from your college days. The water imagery the two songs share, and stories the various band members have told in interviews about "Nightswimming," lead me to jump to these conclusions.

― the consular horse, Wednesday, March 15, 2006 1:46 AM Bookmark

I remember reading an interview with Stipe when the album came out, and he said that he and Mike Mills (I think) would drive around Miami (I think) during the recording, in a convertible with the top down, just singing this song together at the top of their lungs. I always think of this scene, and the pure joy of singing implied, whenever I hear this song. Whenever Stipe's voice breaks on the high notes, I get chills.

― gooblar (gooblar), Wednesday, March 15, 2006 11:23 AM Bookmark

and more here: R.E.M. Find the River. Your thoughts.

I don't have anything to say about "Find The River" (it's the wrong time of year for that song) but just listening to the new deluxe Fables and holy shit does "Feeling Gravitys Pull" kick: the end of the song is apocalyptic, disoriented madness as you all know, but the disorientation is now more, er, disorienting; oh never mind, just listen to it. btw it is a Man Ray kind of a sky right now.

it's the wrong time of year for that song

100% otm.

also, fables of the reconstruction is very -- very -- underrated. i like it more than murmur or reckoning, tbh. it hits the southern-gothic rock vibe better than it's album predecessors and captures the band in a fragile, tenuous, almost-jittery, state. absorbing, hypnotic songs throughout this album.

wow, the "Feeling Gravitys Pull" on the second disk of the rerelease sounds like "The Hanging Garden", or at the least the drumming does at about 2/3 through the song, and again at the end; first time I've heard I've heard the Cure in REM I think?

Haven't heard the whole thing, but mentioned yesterday on the Rolling Reissues thread how great I thought the Fables remaster sounds.

also, fables of the reconstruction is very -- very -- underrated. i like it more than murmur or reckoning, tbh.

I completely agree, and "Lifes Rich Pagent" continues that uber-high quality. I like Fables and LRP much better than Murmur and Reckoning.

Liked "Find The River" when it came out, but now don't feel the need to hear it ever. There are a lot of explicit indications of poignancy on AFTP but in the end it's kind of a cold, gestural record -- e.g. no expression of regret on the entire album displays 1/10 as much feeling as does "Me In Honey."

Oh, I don't agree! "Find the River" is, I think, bigger in scope in that it's not about regret. It's the more universal loss coming simply from the passage of time.

Yeah, I agree with Tim, more or less; although it's not so much about regret per se as it is about attempts to step outside the "normal world" of work into which most of us enter, and to find "our own" way in the world. For Stipe this is the artist's way, strewn with flowers. And it is a beautiful dream but at the same time it is to see "life", that is, the life of the "normal world", passing you by. You have to leave the road to find this other way, and there is no one else to lead you. But while this is a standard romantic trope (the lone hero traverses her own way in the world), the song contrasts this celebration of the heroic individual with the observation that even the heroic individual is going to die, just like the "normals". All this energy & vision is still going to end up flowing into the ocean. All of this is coming your way.

Yeah, somehow the last line of the song really recasts the whole thing for me, it becomes open-hearted and optimistic after the inward-looking artist's path stuff and "nothing is going my way" - - - suddenly it comes into focus as Stipe at 30something chatting with a 20-year-old pondering whether to follow his/her dreams, or do what the read on the speed-meter says and take on a 9-5 in "the city." And the former is going to have its ups and downs, but the rewards are great and "all of this is coming your way." I like this one a lot.

I'm curious, is there something in the lyric that gave you guys the interpretation that he's singing to himself? Of course, he's singing about himself in some of it, but I always interpreted the character referred to in the second person as being somebody else.

The song is not very situational, though (apart from that reference to "the city," which can really just be a very general metaphor for everyday life). So, the character referred to in the second person is easily an Everyman/Everywoman. That's why I was talking about its universality in comparison with "Me in Honey."

http://southernheritagephotography.com/www/images/PE_BustinUpTheMoonshineStill_bw8x10_14b.jpg

#7: Sitting Still
12 votes, 107 points
Highest position: #1 (Euler)
Position in Murmur poll: #2 (9 points)

24 years after figuring out how to play it, "Sitting Still" is STILL the song I play when I'm checking out a guitar.

― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Friday, December 12, 2008 4:02 AM Bookmark

"sitting still" = template for a million trillion indiepop bands

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, November 7, 2003 7:02 AM Bookmark

oh man "Sitting Still"...in the early 90s budding scholar me wanted to make a "history of punk" compilation that was based around this song; still hear it as the band's way through punk to something that's uniquely their own. I dunno if it should be called the chorus, but the part of the song that leads into the song's title being sung is total pogo music (i.e. not for sitting still). I"m not sure this song really has a lyric so there's no chance of drawing anything out of that, except that its inarticulacy is pretty self-conscious with the "can you hear me?" part. Boy, I'm not making much of a case for this song, my #1: I'm pretty inarticulate too today! The drums on this song are a masterpiece, a propeller.

If this is the template for a million trillion indiepop bands then I should probably try listening to some of them!

Definitely one of my favourites. The last few in this poll were things I wouldn't have voted for, so hopefully we're back on track now.

One of my very favorites too. There are some videos of them playing this back in the day where mike mills exuberance is soooo infectious!

http://www.svs.com/rem/gif/boot/carnival.jpg

#6: Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
12 votes, 112 points
Highest position: #1 (Piotr Kowalczyk, dad a, rogermexico, Daniel Esq)
Position in Chronic Town poll: #1 (22 points)

"carnival of sorts" is a high-water mark in 80s pop music or any pop music.

― sundar subramanian, Friday, February 23, 2001 8:00 PM Bookmark

later on, whenever i put on another r.e.m. album, dad would say "i don't hear anything as good as 'carnival of sorts'."

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, December 30, 2008 8:40 PM Bookmark

wow, that's quite a picture, Stipey with the sad professor look! is that from a single? I guess I didn't realize it was ever released as a single.

Last week I finished listening through all the REM I have, including a bunch of live shows through 1985 or so. "Carnival of Sorts" is a mainstay of those shows; for instance it closes the July 1983 set included on the deluxe Murmur. Every one in the band is crucial: Stipe & Mills' vocal interplay on the choruses, Buck's riff (live it's even more juiced), & Berry's drumming: going into each chorus his fills are so fucking exciting. It's dance music! which the band always wanted to be until 1985 or so, at least dance music as music you can dance, rather than a separate genre. They're a party band! for a carnival, of sorts.

It's a bootleg cover, but boy what a great period photo.

God, it would have been great to see them back in the day, just these jumped-up party kids keeping the gang entertained with a show in the barn that consisted of, um, some of the best post-punk ever recorded.

Thanks to Stipe wearing these glasses I wore basically the same ones until like 1993. And people would always be like, why are you still wearing John Lennon glasses? and I would be like, no, they're Michael Stipe glasses, but not Michael Stipe NOW glasses, abandoned-church-era Michael Stipe glasses, and then I'd realize the person I was talking to wasn't there anymore.

Anyway. Great song. Still chill at "Gentlemen don't get caught."

so bummed that REM hasn't officially released or somehow sanctioned a bunch of their bootlegs.

carnival of sorts has -- and will always have -- THAT BEAT.

http://georgevelez.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/rem-fall-on-me.jpg

#5: Fall On Me
15 votes, 113 points
Highest position: #1 (Doctor Casino)
Position in Lifes Rich Pageant poll: #1 (16 points)

All I would add is that "Fall On Me" is still my favorite song of theirs.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, December 5, 2005 9:13 PM Bookmark

"Fall On Me" duh.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, December 15, 2008 7:28 AM Bookmark

Pivotal moments in your life:
first kiss - r.e.m. 'fall on me'

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, June 21, 2003 12:34 AM Bookmark

Just an unstoppable force of a performance IMO. I've said before that I think this is Stipe's finest moment as a vocalist, and really I think everybody involved turns in 150% here, just pulling out every trick they've got and throwing them at one impassioned plea for - what? Public sanity? Heavenly mercy? It's tough to do environmental songs that don't sound preachy but here Stipe borrows from the "Don't It Make You Want To Go Home?" playbook, he's just this guy shocked at how everything's going to hell and hoping it doesn't come crashing down on him. At least, I think that's what's going on here. God, that chorus.

MVP: Mike Mills' B-VOX

wow this song is ranked much higher than i thought it would be. (don't recall if i ranked it at all, and if so, where).

Love this song but not even in my top 3 on Lifes Rich Pageant. In fact, I don't even think it's my favorite "inspirational" number on LRP -- that's "I Believe." Unless "These Days" is inspirational -- which it kind of is -- in that case, "These Days."

I don't even remember if it's on this poll, but "Camera" came on my shuffle yesterday and jeez, my god.

http://www.svs.com/rem/gif/releases/scentral.gif

#4: So. Central Rain
18 votes, 135 points
Highest position: #1 (David Merryweather, Nasty Brutish & Short)
Position in Reckoning poll: #1 (17 points)

fall on me? it's no 'so. central rain'.

― keyth (keyth), Sunday, April 9, 2006 1:21 PM Bookmark

watching rem perform this on david letterman was a striking, shattering moment for me in the 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykp0Vq77IBw

That's the one I've been waiting for.

i don't think it was in my top five, but it's a towering moment for 80s college rock (the forebearer to 90s indie-rock, i guess).

also, having them debut it in that setting was extraordinary. and it showed tremendous confidence. they were promoting murmur; reckoning wouldn't be released for another year, i think; even fans in the audience would have had no familiarity with the song. it was just so good that they went ahead with it, instead of something else from murmur. such an extraordinary band, until it all went downhill.

It's also amazing to think of a time where a band could be on a major late night tv show in the U.S. and play a new, unreleased song on a national debut without their label or the tv execs shitting their pants.

That live clip isn't doing much for me (the sound is bad, unsurprisingly) & Stipe comes across as a thoroughly unappealing frontman. The ending isn't explosive the way it is on later versions. Buck & Mills are charming in the intro though!

I voted this song #9 it appears. That's partly a function of what ended up as choices for this poll, iirc. Is this REM's most Pearl Jam moment?

What stands out more than anything in that clip is that Peter's guitar it out of tune. But that, combined with Stipe's stage demeanor, just makes the whole thing more appealing for me. You can still picture them in a a garage, drinking cheap beers and casually working out a staple of college rock.

yep. sometimes it's more than dynamic playing/showmanship that make a performance. i just remember being struck by the song. like, "wow," these guys have a lot more than chronic town and murmur in them.

having said that, i don't think this song was on my ballot at all.

Yeah, but when I picture them in garages I think of the pre-Murmur boots in which they're leading what sound like awesome parties.

oh, yeah. well, as i've said before, it's ridiculous that they haven't officially released all those awesome performances from the early, early 80s that are floating around on bootlegs.

Stipe comes across as a thoroughly unappealing frontman. [...] Buck & Mills are charming in the intro though!

Totally my first impression as well. Peter Buck especially I was like "awwwww!" and then Stipe came up from the shadows and I was like "O_O OMG WTF IS THAT THING O_O" and then his stage demeanor made me all, "...oh great."

Three things I love about this song (in order of appearance):

1) The bass line before each verse

2) Eastern to Mountain, third party call, the lines are down, the wise man built his words upon the rocks
but I'm not bound to follow suit - I just loved the way this lengthy line sounded when I was a teenager, even though I couldn't work out what he was saying (due to mumbling, American accent, American culturally specific stuff('Eastern to Mountain') and sheer unlikeliness of the lyrics)

3) The Mills 'ah-ah-ah-ah...' in the final verse

Yeah, I love that phone-connection line, especially the way it tumbles from the practical specifics of the long-distance relationship storyline to this philosophical musing on wise men etc. "Eastern to Mountain, third-party call" is so grounded and specific, it's not quite "Long distance information, get me Memphis Tennessee," but it's sure close.

So did he/she really never call, or was it just that the lines were down?

http://991.com/newGallery/REM-Radio-Free-Europe-442792.jpg

#3: Radio Free Europe
15 votes, 138 points
Highest position: #1 (Guayaquil (eephus!))
Position in Murmur poll: tie for #1 (10 points)

I paid $100 for a fully-autographed copy of REM's Radio Free Europe on Hib-Tone.

― dan, Thursday, April 25, 2002 8:00 PM Bookmark

You have to remember how Radio Free Europe sounded late at night on commercial radio stations between Men Without fucking Hats and Quarterflash to appreciate how it impacted on observant suburban kids.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, February 10, 2007 6:47 AM Bookmark

what a great way to start a career btw

― mr bollock apple (electricsound), Tuesday, January 5, 2010 3:48 AM Bookmark

Which leaves us with these for the top two:

Beat A Drum
Crazy
Driver 8
Fretless
Harborcoat
Hope
Imitation of Life
King of the Road
Kohoutek
Leaving New York
Let Me In
Orange Crush
Sad Professor
Strange Currencies
The Lifting
The One I Love
Turn You Inside Out

I'd say this is between "Driver 8" and "The One I Love," perhaps with "Harborcoat" as a long-shot upset.

Then again I can imagine "The One I Love" getting shut out, so...

Have any wildcards placed yet?

just #29: It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

"Orange Crush" might have a chance

I think "Life..." was a wildcard as well.

I put a wildcard at #3, but I don't think it stands a chance.

I was waiting for Sitting Still, but have just noticed it was at no.7

On the merits, "Driver 8" takes it, followed by "Harborcoat." In real life, "Driver 8" followed by "The One I Love" (which certainly doesn't deserve, on the merits, to get shut out.)

As for my #1. When I was in high school I formed the intention to programatically become more cool. From what I read in Washington CityPaper, it was cool to like REM. This was maybe 1987. I bought _Document_ and _Murmur_ and listened to them over and over until I was cool.

Mills's up-the-stairs-down-the-stairs bassline on "Straight off the boat...." is one of my favorite moments in the history of popular music.

Is that weird? But I was once drunk at a part with a guy who played bass in a medium-successful indie rock band, and I didn't really have anything to talk about, and I started talking about this bassline, and it was like we were fans of the same baseball team or something, we were just instantly best friends, "go bassline!"

I heard this bassline and for the first time -- despite the many, many Yes albums I had listened to by 1987 -- understood that pop music was in certain ways supposed to be complicated.

ha, that's just lovely

Just heard "Superman" today. When I was in high school this was one of the very most canonical and beloved R.E.M. songs -- didn't even make it into this poll! I still love it to death. One of Stipe's very best wordless shouts behind the lead vocal on the last chorus.

Agreed about "Superman" - - absolutely beautiful recording.

You have to remember how Radio Free Europe sounded late at night on commercial radio stations between Men Without fucking Hats and Quarterflash to appreciate how it impacted on observant suburban kids.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, February 10, 2007 6:47 AM Bookmark

How weird to read that, given that Men Without Hats have held up so much better than REM. Pop Goes The World album > entire REM catalog.

http://media.musictoday.com/store/bands/93/product_medium/MUDD2210.JPG

#2: Driver 8
17 votes, 139 points
Highest position: #1 (Pancakes Hackman)
Position in Fables of the Reconstruction poll: #1 (14 votes)

I got into a pretty major car wreck while R.E.M.'s "Driver 8" was playing on the radio. I suspect that it wasn't a coincidence, even though it was the other drivers' fault.

― Chris Barrus, Wednesday, May 23, 2001 8:00 PM Bookmark

I want to vote for "Driver 8," but it's like the mid-80s suburban "Layla" -- EVERY fucking high-school-age band was playing it.

― Sara Sara Sara, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:57 AM Bookmark

"Driver 8" right now. Basically, everything about it: from that understated yet attention-snagging opening riff, through the propulsive jangle, via that gorgeous bridge ("Way to shield the hated heat /Way to put myself to sleep /Way to shield the hated heat /Way to put myself, my children to sleep") to the overall mood that rides a difficult line between a literal Southern train ride -- rich and imagistic -- and some other more figurative journey (toward death?). R.E.M. were almost always better when they were ambiguous.

― Lostandfound, Monday, July 23, 2007 6:36 PM Bookmark

and, without further ado, speculation, or delay:

http://www.variety.com/rbidata/photogallery/variety/11253.jpg

#1: Harborcoat
15 votes, 150 points
Highest position: #1 (kuba a)
Position in Reckoning poll: #2 (12 votes)

You people made me download Harbourcoat and I was so impressed I bought the first two albums (...)

― elwisty (elwisty), Saturday, April 30, 2005 5:58 PM Bookmark

did not expect such a strong showing by "Harborcoat", but I'm way happy about it!

― georgeous gorge (bernard snowy), Sunday, January 11, 2009 7:09 PM Bookmark

Harbourcoat just pips Pretty Persuasion for me. Both have some of Buck's best guitar work - Andy Gill angles and McGuinn jangles. Harbourcoat is such as stunning opener, and the way that gorgeous chorus flowers from the post-punky groove of the verse is masterful.

― Stew, Saturday, January 10, 2009 7:52 PM Bookmark

Great album. I am going to vote "Harborcoat" because then the whole album is covering after.

― Mark, Saturday, December 20, 2008 11:18 PM Bookmark

Thanks to everybody for participating, and for waiting out the, uh, slightly protracted results schedule. Hope y'all have gotten a kick out of all this, and more than anything I hope it's inspired people to pull out some REM!

Playlist is being made right now. Wish I had participated in the voting.

Great work, Doctor Casino.

Spotify playlist here: http://open.spotify.com/user/nathanwoolls/playlist/0eC7mZx2r9OaEK3C28rZfZ

This is awesome, thanks v. much!!

how I miss spotify. making it through old fashioned iTunes.

I have 0 recollection of "Harborcoat" even though I've definitely heard Reckoning

It sounds almost like a Smiths song

what came #1 in that Reckoning poll? So. Central Rain?

yeah, just scrolled up. nevermind.

The results:

#30: Disturbance at the Heron House
4 votes, 28 points
#29: It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
2 WILDCARD votes, 29 points
#28: Shaking Through
5 votes, 30 points
#27 (tie): Turn You Inside Out
4 votes, 33 points
#27 (tie): World Leader Pretend
4 votes, 33 points
#26 (tie): Leave
6 votes, 38 points
#26 (tie): Ages of You
5 votes, 38 points
#26 (tie): Daysleeper
6 votes, 38 points
#25 (tie): Finest Worksong
6 votes, 43 points
#25 (tie): Life And How To Live It
4 WILDCARD votes, 43 points
#24: Near Wild Heaven
10 votes, 52 points
#23: (don't go back TO) ROCKVILLE)
6 votes, 53 points
#22: Feeling Gravitys Pull
9 votes, 54 points
#21: Perfect Circle
7 votes, 59 points
#20: You Are The Everything
7 votes, 60 points
#19 (tie): E-Bow The Letter
9 votes, 65 points
#19 (tie): What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
9 votes, 65 points
#18: Pretty Persuasion
9 votes, 66 points
#17: Electrolite
9 votes, 72 points
#16: Cuyahoga
9 votes, 74 points
#15: Gardening At Night
9 votes, 78 points
#14 (tie): Moral Kiosk
10 votes, 92 points
#14 (tie): Drive
10 votes, 92 points
#13: Losing My Religion
12 votes, 93 points
#12: These Days
11 votes, 94 points
#11: Nightswimming
11 votes, 95 points
#10: Country Feedback
11 votes, 96 points
#9: Wolves, Lower
10 votes, 97 points
#8: Find the River
11 votes, 99 points
#7: Sitting Still
12 votes, 107 points
#6: Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
12 votes, 112 points
#5: Fall On Me
15 votes, 113 points
#4: So. Central Rain
18 votes, 135 points
#3: Radio Free Europe
15 votes, 138 points
#2: Driver 8
17 votes, 139 points
#1: Harborcoat
15 votes, 150 points

It is kind of hilarious how many of these songs I actually LOVE considering I used to tell everyone I hated REM

Thanks for the summary, Gukbe!

Overall, if it's not exactly the mix CD I'd make to hook a friend on the band, it IS a pretty umimpeachable "best of" list if you're not concerned about getting all the singles and so on. Nice picks, everybody.

No "The One I Love," no credibility. ;)

In a shocking twist, it turns out to be one we don't love.

In hindsight, I do regret the "use the album polls to seed the main poll" approach - - - too many good songs thrown out of contention by the cruel logic of the ILX "one vote per poll" system. But overall, not bad results.

Good point. Maybe you should re-do the poll.

Alas, no showing for my wildcard, my #3 vote, "Letter Never Sent". That's a jam, & basically "essence" of the band, or at least early band: the riff, the moaning, the explosion of drums from verse into chorus. & it's the last of these that's crucial imo about getting the early band: they took choruses really seriously for an "art rock" band; even if they weren't sing-along-able, they resolve tension, let you cut some rug a little differently. You could certainly dance to "Letter Never Sent"; it's almost kicker-danceable! Oh, and the bridge too!

Good list! "Daysleeper" is the only latter-day track & that seems about right (I'd swap "Hope" for it but one is enough). Maybe the list is a little more downtempo than I like to think of the band, but then again my ballot ended up being pretty early-band-centered (I didn't set out that way!) & they were more a dance band then than they'd become circa Fables and onward (when I love them too, but for different reasons).

Best R.E.M. poll I've ever seen and I've seen lots (spent a lot of time browsing rec.music.rem back in the Usenet era.)

Delightful #1. I would never call "Harborcoat" R.E.M.'s BEST song, but pace Euler I think it's the one that best sums up what R.E.M. sounds like, at least between 1982 and 1985.

Yeah, I didn't mean to knock "Harborcoat"; it was my #5. I remember getting Reckoning after having Eponymous, Document and Murmur, and thinking within about 20 seconds that this was the real deal. It's still my favorite REM album.

Although apparently I called it the second-best song on this poll:

#1 (15 pts) Radio Free Europe
#2 (14 pts) Harborcoat
#3 (13 pts) You Are The Everything
#4 (12 pts) Cuyahoga
#5 (11 pts) These Days
#6 (10 pts) Driver 8
#7 (9 pts) Shaking Through
#8 (8 pts) Pretty Persuasion
#9 (7 pts) Moral Kiosk
#10 (6 pts) What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
#11 (5 pts) Finest Worksong
#12 (4 pts) Sitting Still
#13 (3 pts) Disturbance at the HEron House
#14 (2 pts) Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
#15 (1 pts) Perfect Circle

If I were doing this today I'd put Cuyahoga and These Days above it, I think.

I too was reflexively disappointed not to see "The One I Love" on here, but there's only a handful of songs in the top 25 I don't rate higher. Nobody can make us play the hits!

For that matter, their very best big hits -- "Stand" and "Shiny Happy People" -- weren't even nominated.

You show yours, I'll show mine.

#1 Sitting Still

#2 Disturbance at the Heron House

#3 WILDCARD Letter Never Sent

#4 Near Wild Heaven
#5 Harborcoat


#6 Drive

#7 Gardening At Night

#8 Leave

#9 So. Central Rain
#10 Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)

#11 Nightswimming 

#12 Driver 8

#13 Turn You Inside Out

#14 What's The Frequency, Kenneth?

#15 Find the River

haha I totally belie myself by having a ballot full of ballads; having recently listened to the whole REM oeuvre in completo, including every single (!), I'd vote differently now.

Just noticed I still have the playlist I made featuring all the nominated songs. It was the only thing I listened to for several days as a racked my brain to come up with a ranked list. Never achieved it.

I had no idea what my ballot was, but I've just managed to find it:

1 So. Central Rain
2 Sitting Still
3 7 chinese brothers (wildcard)
4 Fall On Me
5 Turn You Inside Out
6 (Don't go back to) Rockville
7 Driver 8
8 Cuyahoga
9 The One I Love
10 You Are The Everything
11 Harborcoat
12 Feeling Gravitys Pull
13 Moral Kiosk
14 Orange Crush
15 Drive

I'm assuming 'We Walk' wasn't nominated, because I love that one too.

Harborcoat feels a bit slight for a #1 until that amazing transition into the chorus when the low chord kicks in. I would have found some room for a Monster track or two in my top 10 but that is quite a countdown.

I would have found some room for a Monster track or two in my top 10

^^^^^

Harborcoat! I had no idea it was so well liked. Even though I only voted it #2 I think it's the best #1 there could be.

My ballot is a little sleepy looking back on it:

#1 Nightswimming (15pts)
#2 Harborcoat(14 pts)
#3 Why Not Smile(13 pts) WILDCARD
#4 Daysleeper(12 pts)
#5 Electrolite(11 pts)
#6 These Days(10 pts)
#7 Gardening At Night(9 pts)
#8 Driver 8(8 pts)
#9 Leave(7 pts)
#10 Beat a Drum(6 pts)
#11 Country Feedback(5 pts)
#12 Radio Free Europe(4 pts)
#13 E-bow the Letter(3 pts)
#14 Losing My Religion(2 pts)
#15 Let Me In (1 pts)

btw, for the uninitiated (?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADFJGENj92E

Nice to see Life And How To Live It on the list. It was one of my favorites and it always irked me that a couple reviews at the time specifically called it out as a bad song.

my ballot:

#1 (15 pts) Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
#2 (14 pts) Wolves, Lower
#3 (13 pts) Electrolite
#4 (12 pts) Radio Free Europe
#5 (11 pts) Country Feedback
#6 (10 pts) Sitting Still
#7 (9 pts) Find The River
#8 (8 pts) WILDCARD -- All The Right Friends
#9 (7 pts) Ages Of You
#10 (6 pts) Gardening At Night
#11 (5 pts) Moral Kiosk
#12 (4 pts) Crazy
#13 (3 pts) Near Wild Heaven
#14 (2 pts) Harborcoat
#15 (1 pts) World Leader Pretend

unsurprisingly, early tracks and oddball entries populate my list.

Thanks for doing this Doctor Casino. Is there anyway you could post a full list with everything below 30th place and their points? And how many people voted in this?

There were twenty-five ballots... as for the rest of the entries, I'd actually love to, but I actually can't find the Excel sheet that has all the data! I know it exists at one point, because I compiled the countdown list from it, but the only Excel sheet I can find is definitely incomplete in terms of ballots. So.... oops? Might have been on a flash drive that I lost a couple of moves ago. Sorry, everybody!

#1 (15 pts) Gardening At Night
#2 (14 pts) Sitting Still
#3 (13 pts) Drive
#4 (12 pts) Moral Kiosk
#5 (11 pts) Radio Free Europe
#6 (10 pts) Wolves, Lower
#7 (9 pts) Losing My Religion
#8 (8 pts) Feeling Gravitys Pull
#9 (7 pts) Hope
#10 (6 pts) Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
#11 (5 pts) Country Feedback
#12 (4 pts) E-Bow The Letter
#13 (3 pts) So. Central Rain
#14 (2 pts) Cuyahoga
#15 (1 pts) Shaking Through

thanks for doing this, btw, dr. C! my apologies for complaining about the timing earlier, I was kinda drunk and was being a smartass, but putting all this together is a significant effort and I appreciate what you did. :)

I didn't remember to vote, but would have added another #1 to harborcoat

haha, no worries Z S! Thanks for all your contributions on all the related threads etc.

I didn't vote either but Harborcoat is my favorite REM song so well done guys!

looking back, i'm surprised I didn't have a song from maybe my favorite r.e.m. disc -- fables -- on my ballot.

I didn't remember to vote, but would have added another #1 to harborcoat

― iatee, Friday, September 3, 2010 3:44 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

What he said.

Great to see Sitting Still high up as well. No serious arguments with this poll - good choices folks!

1 Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
2 These Days
3 Strange Currencies
4 Cuyahoga
5 So. Central Rain
6 Try Not To Breath - WILDCARD
7 What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
8 Losing My Religion
9 Country Feedback
10 Perfect Circle
11 Radio Free Europe
12 Fall On Me
13 The One I Love
14 Gardening At Night
15 Near Wild Heaven

Near Wild Heaven made my ballot only bc i couldn't vote for Half A World Away...

i going to listen to these songs in order and see if i appreciate them a bit more.

Still regret not voting in this.

gardening at night
gardening at night
gardening at night
gardening at night