Worst of the platinum R.E.M. albums

hifi easy

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

Green.

"Monster" by far.

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

Alfred OTM

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

Probably Green for me as well.

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

the Brits adored NAIHF at the time.

Out Of Time

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

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

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

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

Isn't "Inside Out" on Green?

"the Brits adored NAIHF at the time."

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

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

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

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

Gross

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

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

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

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

NAIHF is great! Going with Document.

Green

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

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

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

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

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

^^^ realest of talk.

Guayaquil=clueless

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

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

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

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

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

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

Hahahahaha.

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

besides jangling obv

the key of G

but yeah idgi either

faster big star radio city filtered through vague punk artiness

until 1987, after that idk

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

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

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

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

until 1987, after that idk

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

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

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

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

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

^^ otm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

or, to get back to the platinum era,

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

"Fall on Me" has a stack of three:

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

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

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

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

Already done: Best Track On Judgment Night Sountrack

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

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

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

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

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

She sounds awesome, srsly

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

Not enough Together Alone stanning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Endgame is so good, usually my fav on the album

Endgame is so good, usually my fav on the album

oh god, YES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

get to the chorus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's Mills on guitar on that one.

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