Least favorite album, only because it is poorly recorded. Things that I have heard live make me go, oh, that is what they were trying to do on that song... I read somewhere it was recorded on the road. I guess in a way that is really cool. Monster always gets crap, when I like it better than this one. However, I think if it was recorded better, I would like it better than Monster... go figure. I just get bored at times and can't nail it to anything but the recording, so there it is for now.

Vastly underrated. A very depressing record but also consistently good with only a couple of duds. E-Bow the Letter is one of their finest songs.

It starts well but then it is only average

A sprawling epic. This is the last truly great album in ther discography.

REM's last classic album. They were coming down from the high of being nearly the biggest band in the world, and the fatigue was palpable in the lyrics and subdued tone of the album. This album is gripping. Grossly underrated.

Another great album. It's very long and introspective, it just goes on and on without ever getting boring. More than any other band, R.E.M. kind of grew up with me. While most bands stayed the same, their new albums always had a mood that matched what I was feeling at that point in my life.

I bought this because I thought I'd give REM one more chance. I think I listened to it all of three times. They should have exited the stage long before this and certainly long before now.

Green and Out of Time shed off the alternative fans. Automatic for the People just made some think too hard. Monster confused anyone left. Meanwhile the entire music industry was splintered with every radio station dedicated to a genre. Then this came out, and had no where to go, no audience. Additionally almost every song was first person and used or started first word with "I." It all added up to throw everyone off.
I've read that Peter Buck thinks this is their best album. I am a REM fiend and love it all, ok, not as much the 3 experiments, but I love their work and have spent so much of my listening life listening to them. After studying and then liking this album, I completely and totally understand his point. It may be their best. And it is one of my favorite albums.
And, "Leave" has to be one of their most interesting songs. I'm dying to hear it without the synth - but I know I'd demand it go on there just as it is.

There are a lot of good songs, like "the wake up bomb", "e-bow the letter", "leave" and "bittersweet me", but this album feels like a transitional album. the cover captures the sound pretty well, stark and desolate with something lurking underneath. From around "zither" and on this album trails off until "electrolite" which is a sweet-sounding closer. (Afterwords, they'd lose their drummer and subsequently their focus.)

Here is an anomaly. The album that time forgot and left to die with dinosaurs or something. The putrid pile of dud left behind by some great beast and understandably left to fester. Well some think it is. Why? Just... Why? It's no such thing! The Wake-Up Bomb... let that be your wake up call. You're getting educated today even if blows your mind! A distorted mix of igneous, tracks such as 'So Fast, So Numb' would run nicely beside the heavier works of Blur and Stone Temple Pilots. It is obviously a step in the same direction as previous album 'Monster' while taking causally from the ones which made them mega stars to begin with. 'New Test Leper' harkens back to the 'Out Of Time' but unfortunately ends up feeling like a robotic 'Country Feedback'. The piano makes a rare appearance on both 'How The West Was Won and Where It Got Us' and 'Leave' as well as others, the former the soundtrack to a road trip across an American twilight. No neon loneliness here... no none at all thank so you much. A lot can be said about the other songs on here. This is a loud guitar throwing- drums to the wall album recorded by a band having fun. But one song which really elevates this album to heavenly heights is none other than its finale, Electrolite. Simple poetry put to the poolside piano. A wish for something else and a desire to depart from the complexities of it all. A earthly star looking up at the stars in the sky. There is hope for us all.