R.E.M - Wow!

I LOVE REM!!! their old stuff is awesome...my fav albums are Murmur, Life's Rich Paegant, Out Of Time, Automatic for the People, New adventures in Hifi and Monster...glad to find other people who like them

 

I at one point in my past liked REM, but They have really gone downhill. I agree that "Drive" is by far one of their best songs ever. I also like "Lotus" off of one of their later albums. I own Document, Eponymous, Green, AFTP, Out of Time, and Monster. I don't particularly care for their earliest stuff (Murmur, Fables, etc.) and their newest stuff, well just sucks IMHO.
I did like the Document, Green era and part of LRP. I don't really listen to them very often, but every now and then a yearn for "Drive".
Monster is also an OK album, but a little too much tremelo used and a little too Glam. "Star 69" is a good song from that one.

-KB

 

Life's Rich Pageant is one of my favorite records of all time. But they really started to go downhill after Green.

Out of Time has some great songs too. Low and Country Feedback still give me goosebumps every time I hear them. If they had just left Radio Song and Shiny Happy People off of that album...

 

"Automatic for The People" is my personal favorite REM album. I don't really know why, but what they have done since just hasn't resonated with me at all.

 

Yeah, I' ve been into them since I first heard "Document" back in '88. I have all of their cds, and would say check out "Life's Rich Pageant", "Document", "Green", and "Out of time" first, then maybe the first three. All are great, and of the newer stuff I really love "New adventures in hi fi", but would say the latest 2 are more mellow and a little different from the earlier work.

 

On second thought, if you wanna check out their pre "Green" stuff, pick up "Eponymous". It's an early hits compilation. Might be a good way to see if you like the early material.
I'd love to see them do another "Automatic for the people" type album. Definately one of the best.

 

I woner why did peter use so much tremolo?

 

Big fan here too. Life's Rich Pageant was their best in my opinion. Fall on Me from that album is such an eloquent environmentalist song, and I'm a republican! Then Automatic for the People, then Out of Time. Best song for bass: Texarkana on Out of Time.

 

"Automatic for the People" is awesome, and the new one's pretty damn cool too.

My favourite REM song is "End of the World", though, has a great bassline too.

 

When I was like eight, R.E.M. was my favorite band. I don't listen to them much anymore, but I think that Automatic for the People is a masterpiece. Monster was pretty good, but couldn't hold a candle to Automatic. Don't like Out of Time, though. The radio song is pretty cool though.

 

31-Jul-58
Bill Berry is born:

 

Always liked Radio Free Europe from the first album Murmur.

 

Funny, because I always considered "Drive" to be from the NEW era of the band. I never really liked it that much....but.... the other day I found myself playing this song to myself in my head. At first I didn't know what the song what that I was trying to remember, but I guess it has improved with age.

Yes, I do realize that this thread was started nearly 20 years ago. I still think of "Drive" as from the new era.
I feel old.
Really old.

 

Their early stuff was more interesting...instrumentally.
Here is a later (quarter-century) live version of their 1981 song "Wolves, Lower".
My favorite period, though, was actually 1983-1986 because it was more folk-rocky.

 

This song takes on a new meaning with this crazy virus! One of their biggest songs too.

 

Murmur to Document was a fantastic streak of five great albums. My faves being Life's Rich Pageant and Document (Fables of the Reconstruction is not far behind).

Green and Automatic were pretty good, too, but not as consistent. Green was better. Out of Time had a couple of good songs but was otherwise terrible.

Monster and New Adventures in Hi Fi were solid, but the magic was gone by then.

 

Epic necropost. I remember when the Internet itself wasn't even close to 19 years old. Negative years old even.

But yeah, earlier REM is good stuff. When they hit it big at the end of the 80s and into the 90s...meh

Gotta love Mike Mills' tone and playing, and his backing vocals are something as well.

Two great tunes in this clip.

 

I couldn't agree more. "What's the Frequency Kenneth" was alright, but the magic was definitely gone for me when that record came out. I haven't listened to a single song of theirs since then. I'm sure they may have done some good albums since then, but Monster just just killed it for me.

 

Adventures would have been good if trimmed down to 10 songs from 14; there was some good stuff on that one but it was too long with some weak filler. But that was the last album of theirs I bought. Still listen to those first 5 albums.