Books, Movies, Music & Entertainment - Talk About the Passion - R.E.M.'s Discography Reviewed

Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry, four young ambitious musicians not content with small town life came Athens, Georgia, a small community that would soon become famous as the college music capitol of the United States. There they found each other and formed a band which, after several name changes, would come to be known as R.E.M.

Fourteen studio albums and millions of record sales later, the band remains a powerful force in music, constantly evolving musically and lyrically and selling out shows in the process. Such success stories are the stuff of legends, and as one of the most critically respected and adored bands of the past thirty years, R.E.M. have effectively solidified their legendary status. In short, R.E.M. are perhaps the single group that has influenced me most musically, changing my life in the process.

In this thread I will review all of R.E.M.'s studio albums, plus an array of live albums, b-sides compilations and greatest hits selections. Each review will have a selection of three key tracks from the album that you can download at will. A "Next Step" feature will also be implemented. For each studio album I review, the "Next Step" album will be an album to look into after listening to the reviewed album, which you may be interested in if you liked the reviewed album. Feel free to send me a private message if you ever want anything, and thanks for reading!

Studio albums:

IRS Records (1982-1987)

Chronic Town (EP - 1982) - 9
Murmur (1983 - Reissued 2008) - 10, 8.5
Reckoning (1984 - Reissued 2009) - 10, 8
Fables of the Reconstruction (1985) - 10
Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) - 10
Document (1987) - 7

*Rick's Essential R.E.M. Volume 1: The I.R.S. Years*

Warner Brothers Records (1988-Present)

Green (1988) - 7.5
Out of Time (1991) - 7
Automatic for the People (1992) - 10
Monster (1995)
New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)
Up (1998)
Reveal (2001)
Around the Sun (2004)
Accelerate (2008)

Live Albums:

Tourfilm (1990) - 9
Blue (MTV Unplugged) (Unauthorized - 1991) - 7.5
R.E.M. Live (2007)
R.E.M. Live at the Olympia (2009)

Compilations:

Dead Letter Office (1987) - 5
Eponymous (1988) - 8.5
R.E.M.: In the Attic – Alternative Recordings 1985–1989 (1997)
In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (2003)
Itunes Originals - R.E.M. (2004)
And I Feel Fine...: The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 (2006)


Note: Compilations will be reviewed song by song, whereas studio albums will be reviewed as a whole, taking cohesiveness into account.

Other Albums:

Man on the Moon OST (1999)
r.e.m.IX (2002)


Rating System:

10 - Mindblowing/Flawless. A cornerstone of any record collection.
9 - Classic/Essential. A nearly perfect album. Finding flaws will be very difficult.
8 - Exceptional/Great. A very good album worth multiple listens.
7 - Good. A valiant effort, flawed but ultimately worth it
6 - Decent/Above Average. Verging on mediocre, or a musical experiment gone wrong.
5 - Average/Mediocre. Fans of the band may find worthwhile parts, others may be disappointed.
4 - Poor. Verging on bad, not worth paying money for.
3 - Bad. Not worth downloading
2 - Awful. Not worth considering downloading.
1 - Bane of my existence. Should you be in the presence of a record with this score, destroy it.


_________________
B.R.
gia sư (http://www.hochanhvietnam.com/vn/giasu.html)

When you rate an album as 10,8 -- what do you mean?

I loved everything up 'til Green, but sometimes massive success is the worst thing that can happen to a band.

I loved everything up 'til Green, but sometimes massive success is the worst thing that can happen to a band.

agreed...i'm good with their stuff up to new adventures in hi-fi though...

I don't know, Monster sort of had that raw appeal that previous albums missed, it was almost
like getting back to roots for them.
A good 80s/90s/00s group, seminal? hardly.

quintessential college band of the 80's from the debut murmur/ chronic town whatever till life's rich pageant.
lot of different influences in their music. did they reinvent the wheel...no. did they add another spoke or two...yes. their early
business model was much emulated by up and potentially coming bands though...

Bump

Where ya been? Could be a good thread man!

I don't know, Monster sort of had that raw appeal that previous albums missed, it was almost
like getting back to roots for them.
A good 80s/90s/00s group, seminal? hardly.

I don't know if I agree with you there. REM sure did influence a lot of other artists. The 80's were a bit of a dead zone for music, and they were one of the lights of "real" music out there. They defined the early 80's College Rock scene, and the late 80's/early 90's "alternative" rock scene.

Their heyday was one decade long. Led Zeppelin only lasted for a decade. The Stones (as we have been discussing on this forum" had one truly seminal decade (no I don't want to compare REM with the Stones). Hell, people talk about Nirvana as redefining/rediscovering rock & roll, and they only had 2 albums. If Cobain hadn't died, they wouldn't be in the discussion. I think REM deserves their props, but only for the early stuff before they became self indulgant.

eff...some of the 'great' rock artists have been fortunate to have had a window of 3-4 years where nearly everything they
put out mattered. some, like the stones, zep, beatles, petty, bowie, dylan...have extended it to nearly a decade. everything r.e.m. put out from
murmur/chronic town till monster mattered. personally, i would include new adventures in hi-fi (1996) as well but many would not.
if you were trying to formulate a single 120 minute cd that had only the r.e.m. songs that mattered from that period, methinks you would
quickly come to the conclusion that you'd need another cd-their output was that formidable.

post-sixties/seventies classic rock bands & performers, r.e.m. along with u2 and radiohead are on the short list of performers that undeniably put out
consistently excellent music for longer than 2-3 albums in a row. r.e.m., imho, gets a bit shortchanged and not seen for the great band they were because of the college rock tag.

I broke out Green this weekend, and wow that was a good album! I had completely forgotten!

World Leader Pretend, You are the Everything, Orange Crush Just real solid, and it stands up. (maybe Stand doesn't, but who cares!)