What are the top 3 R.E.M. discs? (1 Viewer)

[Louis C]

I am a huge R.E.M fan, and so I am curious what everyone thinks are their finest discs. I've got em all, but I'll hold back awhile before listing my favs.

 

[John Geelan]

I love:

Automatic For The People
Green
Out Of Time

But also enjoy:

Reveal...the new DVDA sounds better than the shrill cd.
Document...one of the first cd's I ever bought.

I was a fan of REM from the beginning but they seem to really come into their own with Document.
For a while in the middle 90's it looked like REM was one of the world's greatest bands.
They have definetly dropped off the Pop radar lately even though Reveal was a pretty good album.

 

[Tim Hoover]

I agree with John in that I'd place "Automatic" as my number 1 REM album. It's just a killer...

However, rounding out my number 2 and 3 slots would be "Document" and "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" respectively.

 

[Ryan Spaight]

Yep, I'd go with
Automatic
Document
New Adventures
as well.
Maybe it's a Kentucky thing...
Ryan

 

[Jeff Keene]

Wow! A bunch of REM fans that haven't said "anything before Document" or somesuch. Nice to see it.

My Top Three:

Monster
Up
Life's Rich Pageant

 

[DonaldB]

Well, allow me. Their best albums are the ones before the dull and commercial Out of Time. It was with that album that Stipe become too concerned with being a Personality and lost interest in writing songs, while Buck and the rest of the band starting going through the motions, apparently having run out of ideas.

Reckoning - Every song on this is a gem. It's a magical, alchemic blend of happiness and melancholia that I've heard duplicated in few other places.

Murmur - A bit unpolished but exploding with freshness and exuberance.

Fable of the Reconstruction - Perhaps more muddled musically than the previous two, but Stipe's lyrics here are probably his most ambitious and interesting.

 

[MichaelAW]

Automatic for the People
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Out of Time

 

[jeff peterson]

A second for Reckoning

 

[Todd H]

Murmur
Document
Automatic for the People

Honorable mention goes to Fable, Reckoning, and Green.

 

[Camp]

I'm surprised so many people are listing the newer REM stuff. To me, the new stuff can't compare to the older REM. Anyway, here's my list:

1. Murmur
2. Document
3. Life's Rich Pageant

 

[MatS]

1) AFTP (the closing one two punch of Nightswimming and Find The River may be the best record closers of all time)
2) tie: Murmur, Chronic Town ep
3) tie: LRP, FOTR (no not Fellowship Of The Ring)
you can get Chronic Town with the outtakes cd Dead Letter Office which is a nice package but not a great starting point. Document, Reckoning, Out Of Time, and Green are all solid. In The Attic is a decent collection of 'alternative recordings'.
avoid at all cost: Monster, New Adventures In High-Fi, Up, Reveal, Eponymous

 

[MikeH1]

I don't own (or heard) all their discs and am trying to change that. However, Out Of Time is my definate fave with Murmer being second and Automatic being third. I'm sure though if I listen to more 80s material I would like it better than Automatic.

All it took was that one particular song from Out Of Time and REM never sounded the same after.

 

[Camp]

avoid at all cost: Monster, New Adventures In High-Fi, Up, Reveal, Eponymous

How can you include Eponymous in that list? I can see disliking the way it was released but it contains many of REM's best material. In effect, a 'best of' made up of their early stuff.

 

[Michael Gilliam]

Hands down, top 3 on my list:

Life's Rich Pageant
Reckoning
Green

I have all of them, but I think Up and Hi-Fi are just....I don't know what to think of them. I don't majorly dislike these 2 but think they are indeed the weakest of the catalog. For those who've not listened to much of the group's material prior to "Out of Time," please do yourself the favor, you won't regret it.

 

[Graeme Clark]

Automatic is certainly #1. After that is sort of a crap shoot between Monster, Life's Rich Pageant and Green.

 

[JamieD]

Obviously you're never going to find agreement on much of their work which is newer than Automatic for the People. Most people enjoy their older work (pre 1990), but post 90's they modified their style substantially in a couple of progressive stages.

I've been a bit R.E.M. fan for about half my life now, all 22 years of it! *L*

Personally, I (suprise) enjoy the older work a great deal, but really like the "Rock-Out" of Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I certainly don't think NAIHF was a weak spot. I have had difficulty getting into Reveal and Up. While I think both albums are 85% great, it's the other 15% that causes me difficulty. Personally, I'd like go with
1. NAIHF
2. Monster
3. Out of Time

But of course, I now want to add AFTP, and most everything pre AFTP, so my list doesn't count!! 8)

 

[Ivan Lindenfeld]

I started trying to pick and my brain short circuited leaving me with just enough juice in my dying synapses to type this.
If someone I work with is reading this, please bury me under a tree. And tell my wife and daughter I loved them...

 

[Ivan Lindenfeld]

...whew. It wasn't as bad as I thought.

I really can't pick. I have been an R.E.M. fan since 1982 and can (and have) listened to every album concurrently in every possible order. The newest stuff isn't as "good" as the rest of the catalog but their catalog is so frekin' brilliant.

If you are new, start with Document and work back to the beginning then forward.

 

[Kevin Farley]

Anything before the "sellout". My faves: Fables of the Reconstruction, Murmur, Reckoning, with Document as honorable mention.

 

[Jeff Keene]

I don't understand the sellout argument with this band. I really don't.
Do we dismiss the entire Green album and everything after because Stand was on it? And do we dismiss Stand because it was a hit? Its popularity doesn't make it a pop song, and I have no reason to think it was written to that end.
REM has never sought to copy an album to ride its success (except maybe with Reveal, but what success were they riding? Up's??). They've never written songs meant to copy the current pop landscape. This is what sellout means to me.
Nobody is as sick of Losing My Religion as I am. But it's a darn good song. And it's a good REM song, more importantly.
Yes, REM has changed a lot since the early days, but I don't see them as having gone more mainstream, or any such thing. More accessible (Everybody Hurts), perhaps, but it's been a long time since Automatic for the People, and they've put out stuff that's simply awesome since then.
IMHO