#261

All this document vs Out of Time chat is totally ignoring the fact that both are clearly head and shoulders better than ‘Fables’ which is the real stinker of the REM canon (by which I mean real REM: they released stinkers aplenty after Berry left).

#262

Nooooo! Despite anything else the first four songs of Fables is one of the great opening salvoes of any album ever.

It does fade a little after that, but it’s still got Can’t Get There From Here and Auctioneer. I know the band always hated it (because they were miserable when they were making it) but I think its darkness and gnarliness is a really important part of their story.

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#263

my least favourite REM song ever I think!

#264

Chronic Town + first 3 proper albums are all 10/10 for me. Last couple of years I’ve actually been thinking Fables is my favourite.

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#265

Feeling Gravity’s pull and Driver 8 are amongst their best songs. NOt sure there’s much else I’d save from a fire though.

#266

Maps and Legends is a great song.

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#267

well of course it’s all subjective and I know that even people who are fans of early REM probably have Fables at the bottom of the pile but I just connect with the album. I love all the songs individually but I also just adore it as a complete record - it’s like this wonderful southern gothic portrait.

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#268

It’s always been a devisive one but it’s aged really well I think - got it on now and it sounds amazing.

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#269

the only song that I didn’t used to appreciate is Kohoutek - it used to pass me by a bit between Green Grow & Auctioneer - but now I reckon it’s a kind of perfect distillation of first phase R.E.M.

Looking at the tracklist makes me feel a bit emotional…

#270

Listening to it now I am basically back in my tiny little college room in my first year at university more than 30 years ago (god help me)…

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#271

Ahem… Wendell Gee

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#272

Love this thread

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#273

That’s when I got into them. Life’s Rich Pageant closely followed by Murmur and the rest…The first time I became aware of them was when they appeared on The Tube. I was intrigued.

#274

I was a bit behind with them because John Peel had a blind spot about them - I got to University about the same time Document came out and along with a group of friends became a bit obsessed with them. Saw them play live twice on the Green tour, which was probably the last time they were still playing some relatively small venues.

They were amazing- I’ve just looked up the set list for the gig I was at at Newcastle City Hall in May 1989 -

Pop Song 89 / Exhuming McCarthy / Turn You Inside-Out / Disturbance At The Heron House / Be All That You Can Be - Orange Crush / Boy (Go) / Sitting Still / Feeling Gravitys Pull / Time After Time (Annelise) / We Live As We Dream, Alone - World Leader Pretend / Begin The Begin / Rotary Ten / Future 40’s (String Of Pearls) - I Believe / Get Up / Life And How To Live It / It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
encore 1: Stand / With The People - King Of Birds - With The People / See No Evil / You Are The Everything
encore 2: Harpers / Summertime / Finest Worksong / Perfect Circle / Dark Globe / After Hours

Still one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. Those last three songs in the second encore…

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#275

Fables is wonderful, full stop.

Document is trickier. The “commercial” production doesn’t bother me, it’s the relative lack of decent songs I find troubling. “Strange”, “Lightning Hopkins” and “Fireplace” are the closest thing IRS-era R.E.M. got to filler material, and “The One I Love” is the most trivial and over-rated of their famous pre-WB songs. The rest of the album is fantastic obvs, and like I said, even ‘average’ R.E.M. towers over most other bands’ output.

I understand why people might consider Out Of Time bitty and not-quite-classic; “Radio Song” and “Shiny Happy People” are rightly considered the prime culprits, and “Losing My Religion” has lost all impact through overplaying. But the album’s deep cuts are mostly incredible, and the “Belong”/“Half A World Away”/“Texarkana”/“Country Feedback”/“Me In Honey” run at the end of the album is amazing. Side A is pretty weak as far as R.E.M. goes, but Side B is one of the best they committed to tape.

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#276

I must have watched VHS of Tourfilm a thousand times.

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#277

I saw them in Leicester on the same tour. It was pretty fantastic for sure.

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#278

Totally agree on Out Of Time Side B… If that album was 9 tracks it would be pretty much perfect. The fact that Losing My religion is overplayed doesn’t detract from it still being a great song.

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#279

There’s something in everything you say, although even if you are right about the four songs you mention from Document that still leaves 7 great ones!

The run of Welcome to the Occupation/Exhuming McCarthy/Disturbance at the Heron House is particularly superb I think.

I must steel myself to give Out of Time another go. I know there are good songs on it but the recollection of the awful ones always puts me off going back to it. There might be some filler on Document but there is nothing actively offensive.

#280

Heartattack And Vine is absolutely essential Waits, and if On The Nickle is an all-time-great Waits Bawler, it’s only half the heartbreak of the utterly crushing closer of Ruby’s Arms… the waver in his ordinarily broken voice while delivering ‘So Jesus Christ, this goddamn rain - won’t someone put me on a train - I’ll never kiss your lips again - or break your heart’ is a throat-clencher of biblical proportions.