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.  

Reckoning

8.0/10

Another good early R.E.M. album.  Some people like this one better than Murmur.  For me it's a step down. It's got a lot of good songs on it but it doesn't seem to have a ton of diversity or the same sense of "mystery" as Murmur.  I like it a lot and yet to my ears it might be the weakest early R.E.M. album.  Most people would probably give that title to the next album, but for me it's probably this one.

I was ready to give it a 7.5 based on memory alone, but upon re-listening to it, it deserves higher than that. It starts off really strong with Harborcoat and maintains that for the first 3 tracks.  Track 4 also known as Pretty Persuasion is a good song, but it's a noticeable dropoff from the first 3.

Pavement wrote a song about this album called "The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" in which Steve Malkmus famously proclaims Time After Time to be his least favorite track.  It's not my favorite but there's something about the almost middle-eastern sounding guitar part that I dig.  For me the last track Little America is probably my least favorite.  It's not awful but it feels like they could have closed the album with something a little stronger.

I guess there's something a little "plain" sounding about the production on this one.  It's solid, but it's kind of no frills.  But if you like R.E.M. at all it's a must.

Murmur

8.5/10

Murmur is R.E.M.'s first full length album and is considered by many to be their best.  I can't quite agree with that assessment, but I am a fan of it.  There are a few tracks that never floated my boat too much like Catapult, 9-9, and West of the Fields.  None of these songs are bad by any means they're just not especially highlights to my ears.  On the other hand tracks like Radio Free Europe, Perfect Circle, Sitting Still, Shaking Through, and We Walk are all strong enough to ensure classic status.

Much has been made of Michael Stipe's mumbling on this album.  While I agree there are many moments of incomprehensibility, there are also many phrases that are quite easy to make out.  That said, I'm not sure these phrases always make literal sense.  But that's okay.  I really don't generally turn to song lyrics to receive wisdom.  .

The classic R.E.M. sound is on full display here.  Peter Buck's guitar is jangling away.  Mike Mills plays melodic bass lines and adds a lot with his backing vocals.  Bill Berry isn't a flashy drummer but he serves these songs perfectly.  And Stipe's voice is distinctive but not obnoxious.

I didn't hear this album until about 8 or 9 years after it's initial release and it wasn't the first R.E.M. album I heard so it didn't really sound radical to me when I first heard it.  But compared to what 1983 sounded like in general, it must have been a breath of fresh air to the college kids that were into this sort of thing at the time.

In short, it's a good album.  I dig.

Intro

All righty then.  This is going to be a spot where, if I actually get the urge to do it, I will review albums.  I'm not really trying to be a music critic as I find them to be largely pointless.  This is just where I'm going to state my own personal thoughts and opinions.  It's partially going to be an excuse to revisit old favorites from my collection, and partially a chance to jot down some thoughts on newer stuff because nowadays I seem to have difficulty remembering whether or not I liked stuff that I checked out.  Where applicable I might mention what the general critical consensus about an album seems to be and whether or not I agree with it.  I think I'll use a 1 to 10 rating scale with 1 being a complete piece of crap and 10 being an amazingly awesome album.  Consequently there probably won't be too many 10's and the ones that are there will probably be because of sentimental reasons.  Theoretically most albums should receive in the neighborhood of a 5 because that's an average album and by definition most albums are average.  If I generally think an album's pretty good but not spectacular it'll probably be a little over a 5.  If it leaves no impression at all it might actually be a little under a 5 because music should be memorable, damn it.  In actual practice a lot of albums I review will end up on the higher end of the scale, especially at first as I plan on focusing on bands I like.  Also scores may be subject to change as sometimes I end up liking stuff more later on after more listens and sometimes stuff grows off me as well.  Finally I must re-iterate, like all music reviews this is an opinion not a fact.  So if you happen to stumble onto this somehow and read a bad review of your favorite record, take a chill pill buddy.  Maybe I was having a bad day and I missed the obvious awesomeness of said record.  It'll all be okay.