REM album poll- The 1980s

1990s and 2000s albums polls to follow if there is enough interest.

Reckoning

Reckoning

not Reckoning, Murmur or LRP for me.

Reckoning

what about Dead Letter Office?

Reckoning

Reckoning gets my vote, but Dead Letter Office is my favorite

Pageant in a heartbeat.

I loved the first four at the time. I'll vote for Murmur, no special reason.

What Evan R said. I like everything (except It's the end of the world..) through Document.

LRP without even thinking about it.

lrp rec mur fab ... doc gre

Time After Time was my least favorite song

Pageant in a heartbeat.

Ditto. I listened to it recently and it still has this pull that draws me in.

Green.

I wanna say Murmur but LRP was the revelation cuz I came to it a few years into my REM fandom. Thoughts here:

TS: R.E.M.'s "Life's Rich Pageant" vs "Document"

I'm probably going to be the only vote for Document but what can I say? I like enunciating Stipe more than mumbly Stipe.

At different times it's LRP, Murmur, Document, but I decided a long time ago that I was just going to settle on Pageant as my answer to this important question so there it is. Would never vote for Green in this but I'm glad it's getting a vote because it's often forgotten and underrated but is in fact great.

I've only heard Murmur, Fables, Document...of those, Fables is the runaway winner

if you go a million miles away i'll track you down Drugs

Lifes Rich Pageant is probably the most immediately enjoyable one for me, although on another day it could be Murmur. Reckoning is the only one of these that I've never completely connected with.

To me Murmurs and Fables are the most consistent.

Some of the others are pretty patchy (theme being - great first side..second..not so sure..)

I honestly think you could have a hard time conjuring up a great album with the second sides of a lot of these albums....theres a lot of forgettable muck in there

Fables > Murmur > Pagaent > Reckoning >>> Document >>>>>>> Green

actually that's kind of a kneejerk list from 20 years ago, haven't listened properly to any of those albums for much too long.

tbh I'm a much bigger fan of Document's second side than its first, a lot of my problem with 80s REM is that they get trumpeted as some super-atmospheric and poetic and mysterious folk-punk and then when I listen to the albums, on the whole, they kind of comes across as a slightly constipated version of the Tragically Hip or something...

I've vented my misgivings in other threads, but I will say this: Murmur was one of the biggest disappointments in my rock-nerd-dom

also: Chronic Town wd get my vote easy

good! no consensus

Lifes Rich Pageant for me, just for that incredible run of four songs at the beginning. Such a perfect point between the mysteriousness of their early work and the bright colour of their mid-period run.

Poll the 90s albums on their own IMO. No one's going to vote for anything post-2000.

Fables for me. Still the one that yields unexpected pleasures. Reckoning was always my least favourite of the IRS albums, though never quite sure why.

I used to prefer Green to Document, but their positions have really reversed themselves for me over the years. I think maybe because Green was the "wow now everyone is listening to my favorite band" album, but Document is just stronger overall.

Reckoning

Reckoning

I find that over time, Document has become more "mysterious" for me. I think it's because I listen to more classic rock lately.

Dead Letter Office!
My vote goes to the pure tenor quality of the Voice of Harold over 7 Chinese Brothers any day,

I do like this counter-reading of the supposed murk and mystery... but Murmur still delivers those goods for me. Chronic Town is witchier (and should be here, at least in Dead Letter Office form) but Murmur still has this certain....fog? Softness? There's this texture to it that's really evocative even or especially on the songs where I have no idea what the subject matter is, and you can just get folded up in the sign. It may not be a missive from a hidden Southern Gothic fortress buried deep in kudzu but it's a great thing. For all that, I think I played it one too many times a few years back, and have to pick Fables now for having fewer songs that I just don't ever want to hear again (Perfect Circle especially).

Fables still the most bleh of the early albums to me, as I confirmed a few days ago.

i wish R.E.M. albums contained actual mysteries, like Michael Stipe gets into character as a fedora-wearing private eye and investigates a murder

"It's a Man Ray kind of sky. I'm Michael Stipe, private investigator."

Fables, closely followed by Reckoning. The album unfolds magnificently with Feeling Gravity's Pull and from there on just flows beautifully

bahhhhha, REM albums rewritten as Athens-based musique noir would be amazing.

"it wasn't seven chinese brothers after all, but just one man who had seven different hats he wore on different occasions"

"But how did Driver Eight fit in? I needed a stiff drink and a long talk, and Old Man Kensey wasn't good for either one."

Voted for Reckoning also. Awesome that a sort of back to basics album could top the baroque grandiosity of Murmur and obviously I think it does.

"Police demanded an autopsy, but I saw no point in exhuming McCarthy."

I wonder about Don Dixon's role on the sound of Reckoning in particular. The album is like this stunning proof that vintage/retro could sound as contemporary as anything else, but I wonder if he hidden element in that was how much it relied on like hard rock engineering techniques.

I used to have a bit about how the progression from Fables to LRP to Document was an expression of the Hegelian dialectic. Never wrote it down, though, which is probably just as well.

It's the basis for my vote for Document, though. R.E.M. becomes a traditional rock band, but from a unique path.

That recurring disturbance at the Heron House didn't seem to warrant a call to the cops, but... This is a seriously incredible run of records, and a far more difficult decision than I thought (Reckoning is my go-to favorite). Having just recently listened to Murmur for the first time in ages reminded me of its warm and generous sense of mystery--a difficult thing to pull off, and an emotional tone not many records I know of share with it.

It's the stripped down back-to-basics sound of Reckoning that makes it less appealing for me. I like that the other albums feel more firmly rooted in the 80s.

"It was a perfect circle.... TOO perfect."

'reckoning' hit for me a couple years back. incredible album.

Reckoning is by far their best album.

the local protection racket was run by a button man they called 'hyena.' his motto was 'the bigger the weapon, the greater the fear,' and he laughed as he shot punks down. well, he wasn't laughing now, stipe thought.

the town is safe again tonight.

"But -- who are you?" she said.

"Just call me... the everything."

This is actually impossible

I think Fables of the Reconstruction is my favourite, it seems odd to me that the band apparently didn't like the production on that one?

Chronic Town was the best thing they ever did imo but for the purposes of this poll i'll go w/ Murmur

i really like all their 80s records. even Green. took me a little while to come around to it. still skip over Stand tho.

I am as big an "I prefer their earlier work" REM snob as you'll ever meet, but "Stand" is better than any song on Chronic Town.

"Crazy"

Fables has always been my favorite. It has that great loosely cohered feeling of being like a collection of short stories.

Murmur has the best sound world.

So to confirm my kneejerk assumption that I like reckoning most, I just ranked all the track ones, track twos, track threes etc, giving 5 points to my fave track one, 4 to my second fave, etc. the four track 11s got 1-4 points, the two track 12s 1-2.

What I wound up with -
Reckoning: 36 (three 5s)
Murmur: 35 (two 5s)
Document: 33 (three 5s)
LRF: 32 (two 5s)
Fables: 27 (zero 5s)

Reckoning winning made all the more impressive when Murmur had a guaranteed 2 extra points just for having two more tracks.

I like that the scores are all relatively close, since I do like them all (though yeah, Fables gets by a bit on mood)

album of my favorite track one, track two, etc.

Harborcoat/7 Chinese Brothers/Fall On Me/Pretty Persuasion/Strange/It's The End Of The World As We Know It/The Flowers Of Guatemala/Sitting Still/9-9/King Of Birds/Wendell Gee/Superman

least favorites (some of which I still love):
Finest Worksong/Maps And Legends/Exhuming McCarthy/Cuyahoga/Old Man Kensey/Can't Get There From Here/Catapult/Fireplace/What If We Give It Away/Good Advices/We Walk/West Of The Fields

Reckoning is my favorite REM album because it has Bill Berry's best drumming and he's the best REM member. Highlights: when he and Stipey weave together in the prechorus on "Letter Never Sent". The opening fills on "Second Guessing" and "Little America" and "Harborcoat".

I'm gonna say it again with the sincere testimony of the Revelaires (a must!): Voice of Harold >> 7 Chinese Bros

If ChronicTown was LP length and the same quality I'd have to pick it, but......Reckoning.
First one I heard, is part of it. Also, best drumming....and best backing vocals!

I would argue that Berry's drumming is a lot more straightforward on Reckoning than Murmur - better? Dunno

Laughing, Pilgrimage, 9-9 - some Copeland-esque stuff in there definitely

Suppose its a reflection of a much more straightforward album compared to Murmur

Maybe it's just because Reckoning was maybe the 8th or 9th REM album I heard but it has never really grabbed me outside of a few songs. It's good but it's probably my least favorite of the 80s albums.

This is impossible. All of these albums are 10/10 A+ classics. Except for Green. They were already starting to lose it a bit by that point.

That's how I've always felt, too, though I wonder if there wasn't a little part of me that was mad or disappointed my secret band had become everyone's favorite by then. The only album after "Document" I genuinely love is "Up".

Arrrrrrgh.... OK, after all these years of Murmur being my favorite album of all time, I'm kinda sick of a couple songs, like "Perfect Circle" and "Pilgrimage." But they most definitely lost a big part of their appeal when they ditched the disco influence on the drums. "Catapult" and "Moral Kiosk" would be dancefloor classics in a perfect world. Reckoning and Fables have one or two boring songs apiece. Pageant rocks really hard (at least by R.E.M.'s standards, of course), and the playful addition of new styles is welcome (I have no idea why they thought what "I Believe" really needed was a finger-pickin' banjo intro completely unrelated to the rest of the song, but boy am I glad it's there!), but on the downside "COY-ahoga" still makes me cringe, and I do seem to find myself skipping "What If We Give It Away" whenever I listen to the album. Document doesn't have any highs as high as "Life and How to Live It" or "I Believe" or "Harborcoat," but it also doesn't have any boring ballads that I never want to hear again like "Camera" or "Time After Time." So Document it is.

Would never vote for Green in this but I'm glad it's getting a vote because it's often forgotten and underrated but is in fact great.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, October 19, 2013 4:16 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If Green wasn't here and it was limited to the IRS records, I probably would have chosen Reckoning with Lifes Rich Pageant only just behind. I love all of these albums, but of the albums listed here, Green and Reckoning were the two that I found myself wanting to return to the most and the ones that I enjoyed the most. I can spin those two (along with Pageant) at any time and they still do pretty much the same thing for me as I did when I first heard them. I tend to listen to Murmur and Fables only when I'm in the mood to do so, and I very rarely find myself listening to Document.

In reality though, all of the albums listed here I think are roughly as good as each other, so I can see why some would find it impossible to vote in this. I've said this on here a few times before, but I think a lot of people still needlessly criticise Green. Then again, I started listening to R.E.M. in the '90s and I'm not American, so I don't approach Green from the angle of an American fan in the '80s who was (misguidedly, in my opinion) pissed off that R.E.M. decided to sign with Warner Bros.

I don't care for Green's second side: an awful lot of Stipe's now intelligible yearning.

...and, I mean, IRS Records was founded by Miles Copeland and was distributed through A&M and MCA. Hardly SST is it?

I don't care for Green's second side: an awful lot of Stipe's now intelligible yearning.

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, October 20, 2013 1:04 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Hairshirt' is my take-it-or-leave-it track on Green, and all of R.E.M.'s albums have at least one of these for me.

On these albums, they are: 'We Walk', 'Camera', 'Good Advices', 'What If We Give It Away?' (I'm not counting 'Underneath The Bunker'), 'King Of Birds' and 'Hairshirt'.

Can't pick one, sorry. I love all of these albums about equally. They're gorgeous, and every single one differs from the others in meaningful ways. I also love all of these more than anything they did since, Automatic included.

untitled song on Green is fantastic

"Good Advices" dissed twice in this thread! Probably in my REM top 10 all time trax.

anyway Fables>Murmur>Green>Reckoning>>>>>>>LRP>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Document

the bum track on Fables is "Maps and Legends", talk about a Man Ray kind of sky

I honestly think you could have a hard time conjuring up a great album with the second sides of a lot of these albums....theres a lot of forgettable muck in there

I like that the second halves of a lot of these albums are more impenetrable than the first. To me that's always been a solid formula for an album with replay value: a killer first half the draws you right in, followed by a less immediate second half that takes a while to open up and leaves you something to explore and return to once you've grown tired of all the stuff that grabbed you right away.

"Good Advices" is amazing, "Maps and Legends" is fine, i think if i lined all the songs on these records up there'd be less than 5 i can do without ever hearing again. and tbh, off the top of my head, "The One I Love" is the one i defnitely don't need

oh and "Strange"

through Fables at least side 2 > side 1, and except for "What If We Give It Away?", that's true through the 80s

"Can't Get There From Here" is my pick for worst period single.

Love "Can't Get There From Here" beyond all reason

yeah I love Stipe's goofy voice in the last minute or so of "Can't Get There From Here", a carny thing, something about corn, justified

I thought I hated REM after hearing the songs on Document that weren't "The One I Love" and "It's the End of the World As We Know It" but Eponymous was a revelation

low tolerance for average white bands

xpost

Eponymous was what got me into REM, I was born in 1985 and thought of them as a kind of dull AOR band for parents when I was growing up (though I got into the 90s albums later)

Imagine it with a different production, though. I think it has modest ambitions and they probably kicked it live.

xp

It was one of those songs where Stipe became more of a live performer, wasn't it? Fables tour was a big surprise as far as that went - he was just standing there before.

When I see photos and videos from this era I always think they looked really cool at this point. They seemed to loose the knack of putting themselves across visually at some point in the 90s.

Oh, I don't agree. There was one tour - I can't remember now whether it was late '90s or early '00s - but they had what looked like this incredible neon sculpture suspended above them. It had these different like icon symbols in neon that flashed for different songs. Pretty incredible.

Fables tour was the first time they had films projected behind them. They did on Pageantry tour too, if I remember correctly.

which reminds me i had Left of Reckoning on VHS at one time, sadly long gone

in fact i had this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succumbs

sad now

All that stuff should be on their website!

ok it's been kinda reconstructed on Youtube, slightly less sad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac0oaXhz1u8&list=ALBTKoXRg38BDXFxs9SZuiykqt7dtMlmXG

all of Succumbs, Left Of Reckoning and a shedload more is on this DVD, it's amazing.

http://eil.com/images/main/REM+-+When+The+Light+Is+Mine+-+The+Best+Of+The+I.R.S.+Years+-+DIGITAL+VERSATILE+DISC-459649.jpg

yeah I love Stipe's goofy voice in the last minute or so of "Can't Get There From Here", a carny thing, something about corn, justified

― Euler, Monday, October 21, 2013 2:47 PM (29 minutes ago

I liked this too! I also really liked "Underneath the Bunker" and the tinny sample that begins "Superman" -- "Swan Swan H" might just be my favorite song on Life's Rich Pageant. But then, there was about a month back in 1996 that I listened to "South Central Rain" and "Don't Go Back to Rockville" on repeat while getting wasted on Jim Beam and Coke and crying my eyes out over my ex-boyfriend -- so the sentimental value vote would go to Reckoning

xxxxpost the reservations I have with a lot of those second side experiments is that they arent
REM playing to their strengths generally. At that point sonically at least they didnt have the widest vocabulary and I think they would get better with this sort of thing in the 90s

It's like picking my bestest best friend from childhood..."B-b-bbut they're all great!"

Reckoning, though. Side one...wow, it just seeped into me. I'd never heard anything like it before. Had some really wonderful epiphanies with the Walkman on -- listening to it and staring out the backseat of the family car, out on the highway between the town where I was born and the town where we'd moved. "Don't Go Back to Rockville", "Letter Never Sent" and all that.

This sounds particularly wonderful/nostalgic to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruksteq0u20

Incredible run of albums but it's Murmur by an absolute mile. One of my twenty favourite albums ever.

Amazing what a great "highway album" is Reckoning. All my associations with it are out car windows too.

I am a weird REM fan in that I don't really like "So. Central Rain" OR "Don't Go Back to Rockville" that much -- I mean, understand that this means I still rate them above practically every other record available at the time, but on "Reckoning" I like Harborcoat, 7 Chinese Bros., Pretty Persuasion, Letter Never Sent, Camera, and Little America much better -- they are all SLANT in a way that Rain and esp. Rockville read to me as STRAIGHT. Not sure REM did a really great straight song in this sense until maybe untitled track on Green? That said, one cannot deny the piano at the end of "So. Central Rain."

Maybe, but "So. Central Rain" is straight in the same way that like "Sitting Still" and "Shaking Through" are.

Like all three of those songs are just infused with something Other.

i definitely hear the relative unskewedness of "rain" and esp "rockville" too, and when i think of the album i don't think of them as highlights. it's when i think of them as singles out in the world that they acquire weirdness

"Rockville" felt quite weird to me initially because here all of a sudden out of the murk and mumble and mystery was this relatively straightforward, slightly old-fashioned singalong song. even "So. Central" seemed more of a piece with their early aesthetic, but nothing in their early catalogue felt quite like "Rockville" to me and that made it fit in, somehow.

To a fan "So. Central Rain" sounded straighter too. An intelligible chorus with the guy singing, "I'm sorrryyyy"? A ballad.

Yeah, definitely felt that way when I bought Eponymous - ''oh, this must have been their first crossover hit.''

dubbed everything from Green on but still had a huge chip against these goobers until I finally listened to all of Reckoning in like 1996 or something. I was majorly into Fall / Wire / Gang of Four type biz for the first time and "Harborcoat" and "Little America" easily fit between that stuff on mix tapes. Reckoning is the only Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab CD I've ever owned.

Heard these more-or-less as they came out, saw them about a month before Fables was released. Have to go with Reckoning, as it's the only one of these that really captured that headlong rush into rushing that was so essential to their live approach. I think the move to arenas dissipated much of their live energy, just as Stipe's move to enunciating on record robbed them of a lot of mystery (and he went from being a potentially game-changing vocalist to a middling earnest folkie). I found their records progressively less interesting, less exciting, and more obvious: what had previously been intriguingly implied was now being spelled out. Green has an OK moment or two ("Get Up," "Pop Song 89"), but for the most part it was disorienting in that it just sounded like an Average Rock Band; in 1984, it was inconceivable to think they'd ever be dull.

rush into rushing?

Eh, couldn't think of another way to put it. They played like they were in a hurry.

It's like picking my bestest best friend from childhood..."B-b-bbut they're all great!"

Arg yes. I'm going to listen to them ALL right now.

Interesting the agreement on these as "highway albums." One of my favorite emo teen things to do was park my car by the ocean and sit there listening any of these albums.

I'm listening to Document on headphones so Jeff can watch TV in the other room and not being able to sing along with it feels like being smothered.

i really will need to relisten to make this determination, and i havent had fables since the cassette era. by the time document arrived, rem didn't mean anything to me anymore._it's the end of the world_ actively did, and still does, bug the shit out of me, so i know the last two in the list were never evaluated or appreciated in the same manner as the others.

listening while looking out car windows thing is a great memory for me as well, i vividly remember the window views of a trip through the white mountains that was all new gold dream and murmur.

i always felt like REM was a much better singles band than an album band. Seems to me to be a lot of middling crap on all their albums.

I kind of feel like REM didn't figure out how to make an entire album until Out of Time

Before Out of Time what looked like albums were just a bunch of cats taped together.

i also remember walking into strawberries on washington the day lrp came out and they had it cranked. i was surprised by the sound of it- so much cleaner sounding. and the bass and drumming sounded so un-rem to me. sounded like a pop album, but i was ok with that.

"chronic town"

gentlemen don't get caught

So many votes for Reckoning in the beginning of this! As much as I love Murmur I never really got into the followup much. I should reinvestigate, I haven't heard it front to back since the 80s.

"little america" is one of their most joyous moments. establishes the 'last song best song?' anticipation that lasts till 'new adventures.' still i'd take two sides of "chronic town" over anything that followed

I kind of feel like REM didn't figure out how to make an entire album until Out of Time

hey? hey? hey?

The secret was KRS-One and B-52s guest spots.

perfect circle, anyone?

I hate Stand

perfect circle, anyone?

― OutdoorFish,

thanks, I ate already

I've been giving this a lot of thought and I decided to imagine somebody was going to take the albums off me one by one and I'd never be able to hear them again. Which would I give up first? Document. I'm now at the stage of clinging to Reckoning and Murmur and trying decide which one to lose forever.

I kind of feel like REM didn't figure out how to make an entire album until Out of Time

I would posit that no album prior to Out of Time featured such disastrous filler as "Low" and "End Game," nor such a lapse in judgment as "Radio Song," but that's just me.

"Swan Swan H," "Can't Get There..." and "I Remember California" are lapses in judgment

I'd vote for "Endgame" in an OOT poll, probably already did

Low is a bit dreary, but hardly disastrous. Endgame is a nice wee pastoral instrumental. Filler perhaps, but rather lovely filler. I'm very fond of OOT partly for nostalgic reasons, as it was one of my first REM albums, but while I can see why some might not like it - and even I have trouble with Radio Song - I think it represented a necessary chamber pop left turn from the sometimes over-earnest liberal arena rock sound of the Document/Green away.

I tend to think Document and Green are the patchiest and most dated of REM's Berry-era albums. The production doesn't always help, either - compare the massive Neil Young guitar snarl Buck gets on the In Time live version of Turn You Inside Out to the studio version - or the slightly thin sound of Document.

That said, I don't really mind that REM started to be less consistent by the late 80s. Failed experiments can still be interesting.

And there are still some great songs and strong experiments on those albums. I even like the goofier songs on Green and Untitled is really delightful.

I always say Murmur is my favourite - a very special, mysterious album that will always remain magical - but Reckoning, LRP and Fables are glorious too.

"Swan Swan H" is the opposite of a lapse in judgment.

You're right: no judgmetn.

swan swan h for presidetn

danm

I would posit that no album prior to Out of Time featured such disastrous filler as "Low" and "End Game," nor such a lapse in judgment as "Radio Song," but that's just me.

― Driver 8, Wednesday, 23 October 2013 21:35 (2 hours ago) Permalink

Out Of Time is probably my least favourite of the Berry-era albums. I actually like 'Endgame', although absolutely with you on 'Low' and 'Radio Song', which rank as two of my least favourite R.E.M. tracks overall.

'document' is the one i heard the most, but 'murmur' is the one i go back to most frequently nowadays. love 'fables...' too. never connected that much with 'reckoning' and 'lrp', dunno why...

don't really remember 'green' tbh

I'm not a big fan of Out of Time either. High highs but low lows too. I think it's one of their most inconsistent, of any era. (That said, highs and lows is better than consistently mediocre the whole way through, as some of the later ones are.) But I actually don't despise "Radio Song" - the guitar line is lovely, most of Stipe's melodies are nice, and 20+ years later KRS One's bit is just kinda funny and goofy. Now "The Outsiders" from Around the Sun - THAT is a disaster.

I'm actually surprised to see so much consensus on Document being the worst of this era. I think every song from "Finest Worksong" through "The One I Love" is classic. I'm not crazy about "Fireplace," "Lightnin' Hopkins," and "King of Birds," but then the album recovers with "Oddfellows Local 151." That's eight out of eleven songs I'd rank as five stars.

I still like "Radio Song" too, but my tolerance for rappers turning up in unusual places in that era - like Miles' "Doo Bop" - is pretty high.

There are people who aren't crazy about "King of Birds"?

"The One I Love" and "Strange" are dirgey i think

TS: Michael Stipe's horrible guest rap on Neneh Cherry's "Trout" VS. KRS-One's horrible guest rap on REM's "Radio Song?"

I agree that Document/Green are my least favorite and do seem a 'pair' to me (moreso than Green/OOT anyway) but would rank Document higher, as I like its weird Side B material better. I used to rate it really high, when I was first getting into the band, but I think it sort of exhausts itself after a while on the ears...just not enough to discover or sink teeth into. A real step down from LRP in that sense.

has to be murmur or pageant imo any other outcome is a travesty

it's totally going to be Reckoning

Document's an awesome album imo, but then i've always been a big defender of Mike Mills slap bass

would be kind of pleasantly surprised if Reckoning won this poll, since Murmur absolutely crushed it in this: Now this is how it started: THE ILX 1980s ALBUM POLL RESULTS!!

I like LRP lots but it's the 80s REM album I'm least to put on as a whole; first eight songs are good to great, but the rest is a slog ("Superman" is ok to good)

i think murmur or lrp also, but would be ok with reckoning.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Seemed like the most appropriate place to post this. No use for non-UK folk, but REM is the first contestant's specialist subject on Mastermind. Questions were fairly easy. I did better than the guy on the show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03fmt80/Mastermind_2013_2014_Episode_11/

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

Document wuz robbed!

Well, based on the comments on this thread I thought Reckoning was going to take it. I'm just glad seven other people agreed with me that Document is tops. I'm not totally alone on that.

xp

happy to see Fables get a bit of kicking.

rude

Trying to think of any other band whose first one or two albums were so enshrined by critics but then went on to have popular success with album five or six. How many people who discovered REM in the "One I Love" through "Everybody Hurts" years went back to check out Murmur and Reckoning?

Trying to think of any other band whose first one or two albums were so enshrined by critics but then went on to have popular success with album five or six.

Pavement. Their best selling album is widely agreed to be their worst... and was recorded by REM fave Mitch Easter!

I did!

xp

uh BTC was late in Pavement's career. WTF?

xp yeah I did too but I'm talking new fanbase not music nerds. How many newcomers to REM in the getting big phase actually bout the pre-87 albums?

my first awareness of rem was finding stipe's voice annoying as fuc on 'the one i love'. missed 'stand' and somehow totally connected with 'out of time' -- 'belong' was my first favorite song. then i went back

voted pageant for more or less sentimental reasons and am okay with the results except that document > green

lol btc meets none of the criteria there

Trying to think of any other band whose first one or two albums were so enshrined by critics but then went on to have popular success with album five or six

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Their best selling album is widely agreed to be their worst

uhhh no

Most popular album surely Crooked Rain? That's the one w the 'hits'

lol Pavement "popular success"

Happy with those results except I like Green more than most people, by the looks of things

Talking Heads fit the bill; critically celebrated from the jump, didn't become platinum-selling radio staples until albums 5 and 6.

good one

wd've voted Reckoning

Depeche Mode to a degree, but not critically beloved.

yeah i think for it to be like 'first two albums were top 10 pazz & jop' level of critical enshrinement, would make a pretty small club.

Would make a good thread maybe? After the New Jersey negotiations I don't think I'd have the stomach for it, myself, but it could be fun and anyway might be a bit of an overlooked pendant/anchor on this thread...

I adore "Endgame" too, if I'm correctly remembering it as the instrumental with light vocals but no lyrics. Gorgeous.

Yeah, that's the one. I love that chord progression!

conversation fear!