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

[JasenP]

Well said, Jeff.

Mine:
1) Life's Rich Pageant (I Believe and Fall On Me are worth the price of the whole album)

2)Reckoning (If So. Central Rain doesn't make you emotional, you have no soul!)

3)New Adventures in Hi-Fi (This comes in just slightly ahead of Monster, E-Bow The Letter with Patty Smith is a fu**ing phenominal stream of consciousness piece!)

All in All, there are still my favorite band.

 

[Alex-C]

Call me an old timer but nothing compares to:

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

 

[Camp]

I don't understand the sellout argument with this band. I really don't.

In my opinion, they didn't sell out...they just got old. I just prefer the pre-Green stuff. Much of the post-Green stuff is good but just not my style. In my mind they might as well have changed their name after Green as I didn't change with them.

 

[Louis C]

OK, here is my list posted on Amazon...

 

[Steve Y]

i recommend you start with, in no particular order:

* chronic town (available on the DLO CD) + murmur
* automatic for the people

in my opinion these represent the best of the gutted, raw early style and the their polished commercial years, respectively; if you are new to r.e.m. you will enjoy the recent albums more if you start with the more iconic material and work your way carefully to the "front of the line".

but if you're just looking for an introduction to the band, go out and buy eponymous, which is a great compilation of their work all through document. it's worth the price just for the great (and i believe superior) versions of "gardening at night" and "radio free europe" that open the comp.

i find much of the post-monster work intriguing, but the new fluffy, synthesized ballad style (the last two albums in particular) has proved a little too precious for my ears.

stipe's lyricism, which used to revel more in ambiguity and steam-of-consciousness, has become simpler, leaner, and occasionally (or perhaps more than occasionally) awkward as stipe attempts to form coherent narratives, situations, and emotions. the music has become leaner as well, working in mood rather than melody.

i still don't think however, as a friend of mine asserts, that r.e.m. has fallen to "bad poetry rapped over elevator music".

one man's opinion,

~steve

 

[Kevin Farley]

I don't know if they specifically sold out, but there is a dramatic difference in songwriting, production, and singing values on and after Green. I liked Green for a while, but there is a spit and polish job on REM's "sound" that I felt detracted from what I liked about them in the first place. You could understand what he was saying! There was an intimacy and a passion about the earlier work that felt multi-layered, dense, deep, with a lot of subtle currents of emotion that I haven't heard from them since. Eponymous is a good collection that showcases this, if you haven't bought their earlier works. Check Gardening At Night, Can't Get There From Here, Radio Free Europe, etc. Gardening may be my favorite REM song.
I've seen other bands go through this experience, there can be enormous pressure from major labels to polish the sound and songwriting to garner more hits to justify the major label investment. That's as best as I can do to explain it, it's just on a feeling level. Not to say that their later work isn't good, it just isn't as powerful for me. Say like U2, for another example, I think that The Unforgettable Fire and War were their finest hour. Everybody was fawning all over Joshua Tree, when I wondered where all the praise for TUF was? It was amazingly intimate and powerful. If you like U2 and haven't heard the whole album, buy it immediately! You won't be disappointed.
That being said, I still want to hear more from REM. I do miss Bill Berry's drumming, though... He is great.

 

[Dave Morton]

I like the earlier stuff.
1. Murmur
2. Fables of the Reconstruction
3. Document

 

[LawrenceZ]

My favorites:

Automatic for the People - I think it may be one of the top ten albums of all time. Every single song has a different sound. Personal favorites include (tough to pick a couple), Drive, Sweetness Follows, Nightswimming, Find the River.

Life's Rich Pagent - I think this was the third or forth album I bought (after Out of Time, AFTP, Green, Document) and figured out why they were called a 'college band'. I think this album is the definition of that. Favorites are Fall on Me, Cuyahoga and Swan Swan Hummingbird.

Out of Time - This was the first REM CD I bought, mostly for Losing my Religion, that I think is looked down on a little now simply because Religion was played so much. There were some other really great songs on this disc as well, I like, Near Wild Honey, Half a World Away and Country Feedback.

Off-topic a little; are REM songs as effective when used in films for everyone else as they are for me? For example, A Life Less Ordinary with Leave and Vanilla Sky with Sweetness Follows, I think the songs elevated both scenes in which they were used from just 'good' to 'powerful'.

 

[George See]

Murmur
Chronic Town
The rest