Best Ever Albums

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 12:08:36 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/30/2014 16:08

Upset to see Up and Monster so low, and I'm very surprised Hi-Fi is sitting as far down as number 9. Reckoning, Document, Green and Out of Time I find to be pretty underwhelming records, so I'm not a fan of seeing them all so high either. Number one was predictable, but perhaps rightfully so, and I agree with the order of the bottom three. Top two songs are also pretty boring picks, but overall I'm very happy with the other choices.

Very insightful, great work CubaZed! 😄

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Norman Bates — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 11:54:25 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 09/30/2014 15:54

Skinny wrote:

No 'Cuyahoga' 'Pilgrimage'? Fuck is wrong with y'all?

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Skinny — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 11:52:20 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 09/30/2014 15:52

No 'Cuyahoga'? Fuck is wrong with y'all?

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 11:33:30 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/30/2014 15:33

CLOSED

16: Around The Sun by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 197

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15: Accelerate by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 174

14: Reveal by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 172

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13: Collapse Into Now by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 166

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12:Up by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 136

11:Chronic Town by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 118
First Place Votes: 4

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10: Monster by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 103
First Place Votes: 1

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9: New Adventures In Hi-Fi by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 93
First Place Votes: 1

8: Green by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 84
First Place Votes: 1

7:Fables Of The Reconstruction by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 74

6:Out of Time by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 71 (Tied with Lifes Rich Pageant)

5: Lifes Rich Pageant by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 71 (Tied with Out of Time)

4: Document by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 64

3:Reckoning by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 62
First Place Votes: 1

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2: Murmur by R.E.M.
Points From Number 1: 3
First Place Votes: 6

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1: Automatic For The People by R.E.M.
First Place Votes: 7

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BEA's TOP TEN SONGS

9=:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2taJLBGoMi8

9=:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0RCmOF1ACU

9=:

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Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 11:05:33 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/28/2014 15:05

1. Murmur
2. Chronic Town
3. Reckoning
4. Automatic for the People
5. Document
6. Fables of the Reconstruction
7. Lifes Rich Pageant
8. Green
9. Out of Time
10. Monster

Songs
1. Perfect Circle
2. Shaking Through
3. Gardening at Night
4. Don't Go Back to Rockville
5. Nightswimming
6. Catapult
7. We Walk
8. Talk About the Passion
9. Fall on Me
10. The One I Love

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 14:09:22 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/27/2014 18:09

First one I'm excited to participate in!

Albums:

1. Automatic for the people
2. Murmur
3. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
4. Document
5. Out of Time
6. Lifes Rich Pageant
7. Fables of the Reconstruction
8. Reckoning
9. Green

Songs:

1. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
2. Orange Crush
3. Shinny Happy People
4. Man on the Moon
5. Everybody Hurts
6. It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
7. Radio Free Europe
8. E-Bow the Letter
9. Lightnin' Hopkins
10. The Flowers of Guatemala

What a brilliant discography.

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 14:02:14 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/27/2014 18:02

Songs
Wolves, Lower (Chronic Town)
Talk About the Passion (Murmur)
7 Chinese Brothers (Reckoning)
So. Central Rain (Reckoning)
Driver 8 (Fables)
Fall On Me (Life’s Rich Pageant)
Crazy (Dead Letter Office)
It’s the End of the World as We know it (Document)
Pop Song 89 (Green)
Drive (Automatic For The People)

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

newbands1 — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 10:04:23 GMT

Author: newbands1

Posted: 09/27/2014 14:04

1. Chronic Town
2. Murmur
3. Automatic For The People
4. Reckoning
5. Fables of the Reconstruction
6. Lifes Rich Pageant
7. Document
8. Green

Songs
Gardening At Night
West of The Fields
Camera
Green Grow The Rushes
I Believe
Underneath The Bunker
Oldfellows Local 151
Nightswimming
1,000,000
Feeling Gravitys Pull

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 09:48:23 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/27/2014 13:48

24 hour notice!

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

pa — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 06:20:44 GMT

Author: pa

Posted: 09/27/2014 10:20

1 Automatic For The People
2 Murmur
3 Fables Of The Reconstruction
4 Lifes Rich Pageant
5 Document
6 Green
7 Reckoning
8 Out Of Time
9 Chronic Town

songs:

1 Losing My Religion
2 You Are The Everything
3 The One I Love
4 Find The River
5 We Walk
6 Talk About the Passion
7 So. Central Rain
8 Harborcoat
9 Nightswimming
10 Driver 8

..................................I can't get no satisfaction..............................

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Bach — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 16:31:07 GMT

Author: Bach

Posted: 09/26/2014 20:31

Albums:

1. Automatic for the People
2. Up
3. Reveal
4. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
5. Out of Time
6. Green
7. Monster
8. Murmur
9. Reckoning
10. Document
11. Lifes Rich Pageant
12. Fables of the Reconstruction
13. Collapse Into Now
14. Around the Sun
15. Accelerate
16. Chronic Town

Songs:

1. Losing My Religion
2. Drive
3. The One I Love
4. E-Bow the Letter
5. Find the River
6. Fall on Me
7. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
8. Bang and Blame
9. Orange Crush
10. At My Most Beautiful

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

mickilennial — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:37:45 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 09/26/2014 17:37

RepoMan wrote:

Haha! Nothing, unfortunately. I always give any band I'm in love with two strikes for the most part. I never liked Green, and tbh I kind of hated Out of Time especially "Shiny Happy People" and "Radio Song". They were both just too much for me.

Keep in mind that's it not like I ranked Document super high either. I'm really not a fan of overly bright production and much prefer stuff that's rough & raw which is why Murmur's the cat's meow for me.

Explains why you like noise rock, stoner rock, etc. 😉

I'm addicted to production; the crisper the better (depending on the band) usually is my mindset. I've always preferred REM's "college rock" era over their "post-punk/jangle pop" era because I felt their songwriting was a lot more focused and honestly much more mature. I mean I'm sure it has to do with me hearing a best of that contained their college rock years that helped, but if you followed my BEA interview or anything else it's obvious I love production tricks and quality. I happen to like both of the songs you mentioned; there's a lot of energy going on pre-Automatic and that's what I like about those records.

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:34:18 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/26/2014 17:34

Gowienczyk wrote:

So what changed?

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

mickilennial — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:16:55 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 09/26/2014 17:16

RepoMan wrote:

I was a fairly big REM fan in high school and bought both those releases when they dropped.

So what changed?

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 13:07:42 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/26/2014 17:07

Gowienczyk wrote:

You do realize stylistically, Out of Time and Green have a lot in common with Document right? Why does Document get a "I like this" when they don't?

It's not the style that bothers me, it's the execution. There's just a lot of songs on "Green" and even more on "Out of Time" that I just flat out don't like. It's very rare that I feel the need to skip a song when I'm listening to an album, but I found myself itching to do just that with both Green and Out of Time.

For instance on Green, I really like "Pop Song 89", but flat out hate "Stand" despite the fact that stylistically it's pretty similar territory.

I think Skinny once noted that there's often a fine line that demarcates what works and what doesn't work for a given band in a given style. This line is going to be at a different point for different listeners. With Green they crossed that line for me and then with Out of Time they pretty much left the building.

I know that's not a very satisfying answer, and I will listen to Out of Time tomorrow to try to ascertain exactly what annoys me about the different songs. But, it's not from lack of exposure to either Green or Out of Time. I was a fairly big REM fan in high school and bought both those releases when they dropped.

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

mickilennial — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:42:16 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 09/26/2014 16:42

RepoMan wrote:

Solid Additions
Fables of The Reconstruction
Dead Letter Office
Document

Will likely never listen to again
Green
Automatic For The People
Out of Time
Up

You do realize stylistically, Out of Time and Green have a lot in common with Document right? Why does Document get a "I like this" when they don't?

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 09:36:51 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/26/2014 13:36

Puncture Repair wrote:

Yeah, that sounds about right. Now you'll have to excuse me, I have to make a stop at the moral kiosk (what I'm calling the toilet now).

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 03:50:41 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/26/2014 07:50

sp4cetiger wrote:

I don't like Michael Stipe's lyrics. There are some especially cringe-worthy moments on Murmur where I get the feeling like he's trying way too hard to sound deep.

For the R.E.M.'s first few releases Michael Stipe has admitted that his method of lyricism was to just sing the words which he felt sounded good, which was part of the reason he mumbled, because he didn't feel confident in what he was actually saying. He often made fun of his earlier lyrics when performing them in more recent shows. He does a great bit where he reads what the internet thinks he says in 'West of Fields', since he himself has no idea what he's actually singing. Here's a snippet of it:

Link

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

MrFrogger — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 00:08:31 GMT

Author: MrFrogger

Posted: 09/26/2014 04:08

It goes something like this

Automatic For The People
Murmur
New Adventures In Hi-Fi
Monster
Chronic Town
Document
Reckoning
Lifes Rich Pageant
Green
Fables Of The Reconstruction
Out Of Time
Accelerate
Up
Reveal
Collapse Into Now
Around The Sun

R.E.M. were a massively important band for me growing up. Along with Talking Heads, Violent Femmes and New Order, they're pretty much what I was raised on. Both my parents were huge fans, and they were playing R.E.M. as far back as I can remember. I vividly remember getting my first ipod at age 10 or so, and it my parents pre-loading it with every R.E.M. album(Along with other things). Automatic For The People has always been my favorite, it was only later that I started appreciating albums like Reckoning and Life's Rich Pageant. But it's all great up until Up.

It's hard to think of my favorite R.E.M. songs, but here's my top 5
1. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight
2. Man On The Moon
3. Nightswimming
4. Wolves, Lower
5. Radio Free Europe

Re: CLOSED Let's Rank 20: R.E.M.

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:41:04 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/26/2014 02:41

I've always struggled a bit with R.E.M. and in preparing for the rankings, I think I've finally figured out why -- I don't like Michael Stipe's lyrics. There are some especially cringe-worthy moments on Murmur where I get the feeling like he's trying way too hard to sound deep. Anyway, I still love the jangle and they write some great melodies on occasion (singles band lol), so if you find my rankings puzzling, it's because I'm so internally conflicted about their music.

Reckoning
Out of Time
Chronic Town
Fables of the Reconstruction
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Life's Rich Pageant
Document
Murmur
Green
Automatic for the People

I don't feel like digging deeper than that, tbh.