R.E.M. Band • Page 16

Monster is awesome, Strange Currencies and Let Me In are some of their greatest songs

 

the production of that album gives me a headache lmao but the songs are good. I Took Your Name is an absolute banger

 

Yup Monster was the first new REM release I bought and maybe the first cd I got as a *cough*middle schooler*cough* so it holds a special place in my heart. The remix/remaster has some interesting improvements but I will never forgive it for removing the tremolo from the chorus of What’s The Frequency Kenneth

 

Strange Currencies is so good

 

Saw one of their last shows at Jones Beach during a rainstorm and they played Let Me In in circle with each other, it was spellbinding

 

Have you given the anniversary remaster a try? I connected way more with the album after returning to it through the remaster.

 

yeah I do like the overall sound of it a lot more but some of the more substantial changes just baffle me like zorbed said up above. if it had just been a remaster without all the chopping and changing I'd have really loved it

 

Reading the new R.E.M. biography by Peter Ames Carlin (great read so far, by the way!) and one of the things that is striking me right now is how wildly active they were in those early years. From '83 to '87, they released an album every year, and most (all?) of those records are masterpieces. The '90s are slightly less active, but they still dropped five albums that decade, four of them between '91 and '96. Makes me wish more bands took a leaf out of their book and just kept the tap running!

 

Seriously dude the amount of high-quality output they released is mind-boggling. Any band would kill to have a run like Document through Automatic (ALL IN FIVE YEARS?!), but that they also had Murmur through Life's Rich Pageant before that AND still cranked out great singles scattered all the way to the end (not to mention put out a record as good as Accelerate that late into their career) only further cements their legendary status.

 

Their evolution as a band is so much more fun to chart than most other bands because they were always writing and putting new stuff out. I get why a lot of bands take 2-3 years or more off between albums, especially now when being in a rock 'n' roll band is not a lucrative endeavor. But thinking about their catalog really makes me wish most artists were more prolific.

 

Murmur to Lifes Rich Pageant is potentially one of the greatest creative runs in music

 

Murmur to Green, IMO.

Loved Green. Loved that tour.

 

I don't think I ever posted this before but figured I would now since there's REM talk going on. My dad got this fun "Man On the Moon" lyric poster for me for Christmas a couple years ago. That song is particularly significant for us since my earliest music-related memory is him singing and playing it for me.

 

They're basically bulletproof through Automatic. Your mileage may very with Monster, but I think that one rules too. Things get a little shakier after New Adventures, but they don't have an album I dislike. I've found I'm maybe the foremost Around the Sun booster out there, for instance.

 

I’d say Green to New Adventures is my favorite run in their discography. Although I go back and forth over whether or not Automatic or New Adventures is my favorite album of theirs

 

Automatic for the People, for me. One of the greatest albums ever made.

 

All of these things are true, and their latter output is far better than most will admit. There really is no bad REM album.

My favorite era is Green through New Adventures

New Adventures is awesome and by far the most underrated album

 

The only actual slump for me is Up through Around the Sun, and even those three have great songs among them.

Imagine Around the Sun was your worst album lmao, band is legendary

 

Gun to my head, Up is probably my least favorite overall, but I know people love it.

 

Up is great

 

Up isn’t my personal favorite, but I’ll be damned if At My Most Beautiful isn’t one of their best songs

 

Great song, I really dig about 4-5 songs on Up, but overall it's just not the REM sound I prefer

 

I think Automatic is technically their best but Adventures is my personal favorite. Not a bad record in the bunch tho. Shoutout to The Bear for reminding us all how great a song "Oh My Heart" is

 

just very obviously murmur for me

 

Not to mention, smack dab in the middle of the "wilderness" period of Up through Around The Sun, they drop "Imitation of Life," which I feel is absolutely the lost "classic" R.E.M. single, not to mention "The Great Beyond" and "Bad Day" which are both awesome. Dammit, an R.E.M. discography run may be in order.