R.E.M. Band • Page 2

Murmur is so good

 

one of the best debuts ever

 

Yikes... Have you seen Michael Stipe recently....

When I talk to my kids about 'Seattle Sound' (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc...) or LA sound (RHCP), I always mention Athens sound (as a joke) and talk about REM/B52s....

 

he looks like Michael Stipe with a beard?

 

Michael stipe's beard is extremely impressive

 

First half of Lifes Rich Pageant is about as good as it got in the 80s

 

I bought Document and Automatic for the People the other day on CD bc they were like three bucks each and my car doesn't have a tape deck so no more aux for me :(

 

LRP was a great cassette when I got it. I Think in 1987 one of my floor mates at college had a few tapes of REM as well. But when Document came out, that was it - I was hooked. When they toured Great Woods (Green?) and Natalie Merchant came out for a song, and the next day, MIchael Stipe came out to sing with 10,000 maniacs.... how fun was that!

 

The days go by and Stipe keeps looking more like the world's hippest rabbi:

 

Every time I'm in Athens I wonder what the odds are of running into someone from REM but mostly in a wishful thinking way

 

"Orange Crush", "Stand", and "What's The Frequency Kenneth" are jams. That's the depth of my R.E.M knowledge.

 

Been playing them a lot recently, Lifes Rich Pageant is such a fascinating bridge record for their career

 

Haven't played any of their CDs in a minute, should change that. Feel like murmur is still the fave and I don't own that one

 

Murmur is fucking incredible, and Reckoning might be even better tbh. Every album they made from their beginnings to New Adventures in Hifi is worth seeking out imo

 

I've actually never listened to Reckoning. I have Document, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, and New Adventures in HiFi on CD so I tend to listen to those most often in the car

 

I like Reckoning, Pageant, and Automatic more than Murmur so I guess that makes me a bad REM fan huh?

 

I also like all three of these more than Murmur.

 

I mean, I think all of their albums I've listened to have been great to excellent. Would say Document and Automatic are my next faves

 

My top three would be Automatic, Murmur, and Reckoning

Everything else from the first run is vary degrees of very good to great.

Oddly enough, Document has alluded me and it's probably my least favorite of the I.R.S. releases

 

I have to go wiki all of them again to see which I like the most.

 

ok - murmur has Radio Free Europe, Talk about..., and catapult, I think for me....
Reckoning had south central, pretty persuasion, and rockville (love that one, so bonus points)
Fables had Gravity, Driver 8, and cant get there....
LRP had begin the begin, fall on me, cuyahoga, I believe, I am superman.... Im sensing my winner here.
Document - the one that did it for me, that made me the REM fan....

everything from DOcument.... close to it.... But boy... LRP vs Document for me. Document made REM big, I think, right? That was 87... When they did Great Woods in Mass (I think)....

LRP I think I bought on cassette for $7.49. GOtta be that one, despite what I wouldve said previously.

 

I thought Murmur was their best album when I first heard it, but it's really a blueprint for a lot of things they'd refine to greater effect later on.

It's telling that they opened their next record with "Harborcoat", which is basically a distillation of everything great about Murmur into one superlative song.

Still a great debut, though.

 

Also, bump.

 

I love Murmur so much. One of the best debuts of any band. And they followed it up with an equally good/arguably even better record with Reckoning. Automatic for the People is probably my favorite though

 

I miss this band. I'm so upset I never got to see them