Album of the day (#3621): Green by R.E.M. - Music

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Today's album of the day

Green by R.E.M. (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1988.
Country:

Overall rank: 551
Average rating: 78/100 (from 600 votes).

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Tracks:
1. Pop Song 89
2. Get Up
3. You Are The Everything
4. Stand
5. World Leader Pretend
6. The Wrong Child
7. Orange Crush
8. Turn You Inside-Out
9. Hairshirt
10. I Remember California
11. Untitled

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

Skinny
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A transitional record, and not one that I'm particularly fond of. They gave in heavily to their hi-fidelity power pop urges, adding an unnecessary sheen to their previously murky jangle, and lost a lot of their charming mystique in the process. Scattered throughout are a few dry-runs for the sorts of open-hearted, open-ended singalongs that they'd perfect across the next two records, but they're kinda bland and forgettable in comparison here. Overall, it's the sound of an ambitious band who hadn't quite got the concoction right yet, straining to become superstars but losing sight of themselves in the process. I prefer everything that came before, and quite a bit of what came after. That said, I don't hate it by any means. It's just a good pop-rock record by a band from whom I expect great pop-rock records.
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EyeKanFly
Head Bear Master/Galactic Emperor

Age: 33
Location: Gotham

Probably my second favorite album named "Green" after Green by 吉村弘 [Hiroshi Yoshimura]

Agreed with Skinny though, it's sort of middle-of-the-road for R.E.M., meets but doesn't exceed expectations.
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CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

I feel as though Document was the transitional album, while Green was the album that completed the transition. That being said, Green is probably their most polished album from Murmur through Monster, which might not be everybody's cup of tea. But personally I find the average quality of track very strong here, maybe even Top 3 R.E.M. I certainly prefer Green over Out of Time, Fables, and Monster. It's a close call with Document and Pageant. But honestly, there isn't a weak album in that decade-plus run.
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CharlieBarley

Gender: Male
Age: 48
Location: Mount Olympus

Praise be!
Finally an album and a discussion I can get into. Well, there have been a lot of interesting discussions and a lot of good albums but this one I like a lot.

Ok, for me Green is a very nostalgic album because it is almost the one that got me into R.E.M. It was one song from the album which sparked my interest but I didn't know which album it came from. It was 1990 and I was on a school trip to the Belgian and French former battlefields of World War One. It was very emotional. And I was a teen so feelings seemed deeper. All of us felt it.

One night my school mates and I tuned into Belgian radio. And we taped it. I had a ghetto blaster with me. We thought the Belgian/French music was cool. But they also played British and American music. So the song Stand came on by R.E.M. and I loved it. This guy Matt knew it was by R.E.M. I thought it was great. It really struck a chord with me and was one of the high points of the trip after the emotionally moving tours in the daytime of the battlefields and preserved trenches.

Fast forward a year and Losing My Religion debuted. So I bought Out of Time album. Then got Green out the library and taped it. I loved both albums. I preferred Out Of Time and still do, but both are good albums.

Green seems more innocent to me. Out of Time is a bit more worldly wise to me and although both have happy songs and sad songs I think Green is happier overall. The low points in OOT are lower, even though it hits some highs too.

My favourite track is Orange Crush.

Skinny
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CA Dreamin wrote:

I feel as though Document was the transitional album, while Green was the album that completed the transition. That being said, Green is probably their most polished album from Murmur through Monster, which might not be everybody's cup of tea. But personally I find the average quality of track very strong here, maybe even Top 3 R.E.M. I certainly prefer Green over Out of Time, Fables, and Monster. It's a close call with Document and Pageant. But honestly, there isn't a weak album in that decade-plus run.

Interesting. I tend to think of Document as basically being a continuation of their earlier work with slightly catchier hooks and slightly higher production values, but in no real way removed in terms of actual songwriting or style, whereas Green found them transitioning to a sound that was punchier and more deliberately straightforward, trying on power pop riffs on the one hand whilst enhancing their sonic palette on the other with their take on mandolin-driven soft rock balladry.
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2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.

CharlieBarley

Gender: Male
Age: 48
Location: Mount Olympus

Skinny wrote:

Interesting. I tend to think of Document as basically being a continuation of their earlier work with slightly catchier hooks and slightly higher production values, but in no real way removed in terms of actual songwriting or style, whereas Green found them transitioning to a sound that was punchier and more deliberately straightforward, trying on power pop riffs on the one hand whilst enhancing their sonic palette on the other with their take on mandolin-driven soft rock balladry.

I agree that Green saw the band venture into pop and become more mainstream, whilst they maintained their quirkiness. However I like poppy REM. I mean, I still like the earlier 80s albums, especially Pageant and Murmur, but I feel it was a good move by them, going power pop. They were never going to be a straight-up pop band. And by doing so I got to hear about them. I might never had discovered them had they not made this move.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Skinny wrote:

Interesting. I tend to think of Document as basically being a continuation of their earlier work with slightly catchier hooks and slightly higher production values, but in no real way removed in terms of actual songwriting or style, whereas Green found them transitioning to a sound that was punchier and more deliberately straightforward, trying on power pop riffs on the one hand whilst enhancing their sonic palette on the other with their take on mandolin-driven soft rock balladry.

I totally see your point. I find Document's catchier hooks, higher production value, and mixed up instrumentation as signaling the band venturing into mainstream territory. But I agree they largely stayed true to their songwriting roots. And I think the success of The One I Love and It's the End of the World clearly got through to them, as they made Green much more mainstream-friendly. Mileage varies with this change in direction. Nevertheless, I still feel Document is where it began, albeit subtly.

Personally I like poppy R.E.M. and I used to have Green as my #2 R.E.M. album but I think Reckoning has that claim now.
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PossiblyMichigan

Location: How do I meet the strangest men?

Never really got into any REM beyond their jangle pop era so I've never really gotten into this one. I'd agree with Skinny, this is the transitional record as opposed to Document which feels to me as the record Stipe realized ohhhh people want more of So. Central Rain

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

Their intro into pop - that ends up the whole time mocking it. It's incredibly brilliant. Unfortunate that's lost on too many as just "pop".

Easily song for song their best record as a life long fan of the band.

Are some of their other individual tracks more quality, absolutely. Having said that, probs 3 of my top 10 R.E.M. tracks are on here, Hairshirt possibly being my all time favorite song of theirs.

Also kinda find it cool R.E.M. matches up with KRS-one here and then with qtip later. Metal and rap often mixed up, but hard to think of an alternative rock group who did, especially of the caliber of R.E.M.