Lifes Rich Pageant

8.5/10

When I was first getting into R.E.M. back in the early 90's, this was most definitely a hugely overlooked album in their discography.  Even among huge R.E.M. fans I talked to I never seemed to hear anyone talk about this one.  And on their early greatest hits album Eponymous this was only represented by one track.

In the intervening years and with the advent of internet review sites, this album's reputation seems to have improved quite a bit.  At least among the online critical community, I've often seen this rated as one of their best.  I might even be inclined to agree with that, depending on my mood.

Right out the gate it rocks harder than any R.E.M. album to date with a solid one-two opening punch of "Begin the Begin" and "These Days."  Then track 3 brings "Fall On Me," which doesn't rock as much, but has a fantastic melody.  The patented Mike Mills counter melody backup vocals are in full effect here.  Mike Mills backup vocals are always welcome in R.E.M. songs as far as I'm concerned.  "Fall On Me" may just be their best song to date.  It's really damn good.  It's also that one track that showed up on Eponymous that I mentioned earlier.

Things get a little weirder from here on out but the quality stays pretty strong.  The next two tracks "Cuyahoga" and "Hyena" have never been my favorites, but I never skipped them either.  "Underneath the Bunker" is a weird, kind of middle eastern sounding mostly instrumental, but I actually like it a lot.  Side 2 kicks off with "The Flowers of Guatemala," a decidedly not-rocking out song, but it's pretty and features a simple but effective Peter Buck guitar solo.  The album continues on in a kind of eclectic nature.  "I Believe" is a real highlight and even features a nifty banjo intro.  "Swan Swan H" is kind of dirge-like but I've always had a soft spot for it.  And it finally closes with a nice catchy cover of "Superman" with what I do believe features Mike Mills on lead vocals.

Overall this is another strong early R.E.M. album and is too ingrained in my music-listening subconscious for me to give it too bad of a grade.  But honestly if you're at all interested in R.E.M. it's essential.

Apparently this was produced by the same guy who produced John Cougar Mellencamp albums around this time.  Weird.

Fables of the Reconstruction

8.0/10

People seem to love to point at Fables as the weakest album of the IRS years, but I've got to disagree on this one.  Yes I've read the stories about how this was a difficult album from the recording process.  From being depressed about being in England and writing an album about the American South to apparently clashing with the producer and whatnot.  I do think this contains some of the weakest songs they've recorded to date, particularly "Old Man Kensey" is sort of a clunker.  But only sort of.  You can hear much worse songs on top 40 radio every day.

Elsewhere you've got some of the strongest songs they've produced to date.  "Feeling Gravity's Pull," "Maps and Legends," "Driver 8," "Green Grow the Rushes," and "Wendell Gee" are all awesome songs.  Meanwhile "Can't Get There From Here" is probably the weirdest thing they've recorded to date.  It's some sort of stab at funk or something that doesn't quite work, but in doing so it doesn't quite work in a great way.  The remaining songs aren't shabby but maybe blend into the background a little bit.

The key words here is atmosphere.  These songs have atmosphere in spades.  Even "Old Man Kensey."  It all works to make this cool dark southern gothic feel that's a departure from what they'd done before.  They never quite trod these grounds again, which to my ears makes it a definite keeper.  The lows on this are probably lower than the lows on Reckoning but I think the highs are much higher.