#21

I can’t get into the early period albums every one seems so keen on - I get how influential they are but outside a few obvious standouts I never feel the urge to put them on.

Blasphemously, I prefer Out of Time, Automatic, Up and New Adventures.

The highlights are high - high enough to get a 4/5, and like everyone else, I’m ignoring the last few albums when I say that.

Should I submit my own ban request?

2 Likes
#22

I fucking adore Lotus

2 Likes
#23

Good to see so much Cuyahoga love on here

2 Likes
#24

Same as me!

#25

I’m not even a big REM fan and I’m slightly outraged at no singles before 1988 being included here…

No End of the World as We Know It, no Radio Free Europe, no S. Central Rain, no The One I Love…

11 Likes
#26

The poll should have also included the ‘And I Feel Fine’ compilation too which covers the IRS years

4 Likes
#27

True - I’d have probably gone for Radio Free Europe.

It’s 3 out of 5 from me. I initially pushed them up to 4/5 with an extra point for their longevity, then I pushed them back down to 3 out of 5 by removing a point for their longevity.

I’m glad Everybody Hurts has no votes, I can’t listen to that, so whiny.

#28

Yeah I took the lazy option instead of typing them all out and missed loads out.

#29

True. What’s not to like? Big daft pop song with Kate Piersen on backing vocals? Yes please.

Silently raging that Near Wild Heaven, Shiny Happy People’s cooler older brother isn’t on that singles list.

6 Likes
#30

Probably my second favourite

1 Like
#31

Understandable.

1 Like
#32

was disappointed to learn this isn’t actually an REM song

#33

Easiest 5 for me. Biggest and most important band in my musical upbringing. They changing my whole outlook the moment I first heard them and I still regularly listen to them today, I will never tire of them.

Justifying my 5.

  • Perfect opening EP
  • Best debut album I know, completely formed straight out of the block
  • Insisted on staying with an independent while they grew as a band
  • Took joining a major label in their stride and if anything got better
  • 10 albums as the original lineup without a single not amazing album in there
  • Great live, always
  • Patchy since but not without very good material still and understandable given losing a member
  • Never compromised their artistic integrity
  • Set an example to bands on how to conduct themselves
  • Knew when to call it a day
  • Good people
23 Likes
#34
  1. Such a rich discography to tap into will never get bored or outgrow them (less can be said of other bands I gave a 5 to such as Pixies).
#35

Solid didn’t-even-have-to-think-about-it 5/5 from me. What a band. To have a near 30-year run with only a couple of off-the-boil albums is something else.

Favourite album? Too tough to call. Quite often flit between Reckoning and LRP like a fat kid between two boxes of doughnuts.

1 Like
#36

For better or worse shaped the alt rock genre for years to come. 4

#37

I like “R U Talkin REM re Me?” so it’s a 3 from me.

#38

Fucking TEN hands down

Nobody else is quite like them at all. Every album up to and including New Adventures In Hi Fi is a classic, the latter ones are still decent to good. Perfect mix of maximum nerd appeal and maximum pop appeal that no other band has. Near infinite catalogue of amazing live albums, live bootlegs, EPs, B sides, singles, demos, foreign bonus tracks and other assorted deep cuts. Seem like properly lovely people. Only thing I can hold against them is that I never saw them live, lads pls reunite I need it.

3 Likes
#39

Saw them live - post Bill Berry - at Brixton Academy, the year they headlined Glastonbury. They had the three remaining members plus three session musicians who were dressed like body doubles. Was still very good indeed, and quite special seeing them relatively close up.

1 Like
#40

Weren’t they headlining Glastonbury like every other year in the 90s and early 00s before Chris Martin usurped them as house band?