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R.E.M. top 20 songs

jakobnicholas

By jakobnicholas,
in Someone Else's Song

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Kim Bodnia

Kim Bodnia

Posted
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I do love NAIHF, so many good songs... it comes and goes out of my top 3 REM albums. Sometimes I find that it's just a couple of songs too long. And Leave... I have to be in the right mood to put up with 7 minutes of those 'sirens'.

 

I might attempt an REM albums ranking in the next couple of days

 

an album ranking is a good idea. I look forward to it.

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remphish1

remphish1

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1) Life and How to Live It

2) Untitled from Green

3) Radio Free Europe

4) Talk about the Passion

5) Don't go back to Rockville

 

 

that's about it for me. They should have quit in 1998.

 

based on your list they should have quit in 1989

 

If you didn't listen to their 2000's output you missed some great gems...sure they weren't as consistant in the 2000's but you could count on 4 or 5 solid songs every album.

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lizish

lizish

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based on your list they should have quit in 1989

 

If you didn't listen to their 2000's output you missed some great gems...sure they weren't as consistant in the 2000's but you could count on 4 or 5 solid songs every album.

 

I did. Aughties stuff too, it's just that I really tire of most of the Warner's albums very very quickly - probably from over-playing but truthfully I suspect that it's more from a lack of quality. I mean Monster sucked, AFTP was a snooze and I never play Out of Time.

 

I sort of liked Hi-Fi, but they really should have stopped. The rest - yeah okay, maybe a song or two, but nothing that is memorable.

 

Hey, I was a frigging Mod on Murmurs for a bit. My fandom didn't dwindle, the band did.

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spui

spui

Posted
Posted

So. Central Rain

Begin The Begin

Drive

E-Bow The Letter

Radio Free Europe

Pilgrimage

Orange Crush

Losing My Religion

Life and How to Live It

Fall On Me

Country Feedback

Low Desert

Discoverer

Laughing

Man On The Moon

Electron Blue

Undertow

What's The Frequency, Kenneth?

Uberlin

Electrolite

 

Not in any kind of order after the first two.

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Sweet Papa Crimbo

Sweet Papa Crimbo

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I was going to make a snarky, even bitter post here, then it hit me.

 

Why am I now so dismissive and disdainful of a band I used to love?

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dtram

dtram

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Crow Daddy Magnus® I understand your disdain, given the many mistakes and the various events surrounding the band's history.

 

And while I understand your disdain I don't have to relate to it.

 

 

p.s. It's the first anniversary of R.E.M.'s disbandment.

I guess i don't understand why people get to the point of feeling like this in general. Not to pick on Crow Daddy because a lot of people feel similarly to him but at the end of the day, it's just music. Bands evolve. The same group of folks that point out supposed mistakes that bands make would likely be the first to criticize if every record sounded like Murmur. I think R.E.M. followed their muse consistently during their history to varying degrees of success. I think to dismiss any period of their history is to miss out on a lot of great music.

 

At the end of the day, for me, thats all that matters. In the last week I've listened to Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, Out of Time, Monster, Hifi, Up, Accelerate, Collapse and the 3 new songs on Part Lies... and thoroughly enjoyed them all. At this point, a year after break up, all thats left is the music. To my ears it was a pretty great and consistent catalog. Any disappointments from along the way of what I maybe wanted at the time of release, Out of Time being acoustic based, Monster being too glam and not enough like document of pageant etc are gone and what is left are to me, great songs. If different periods don't work for different people, thats fair, I guess I just don't understand the disdain part.

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Kim Bodnia

Kim Bodnia

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In the last week I've listened to Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, Out of Time, Monster, Hifi, Up, Accelerate, Collapse and the 3 new songs on Part Lies... and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

 

It's a good thing that you dusted off those albums!

 

Of the three new songs I think we all go back to where we belong is the best.

 

 

um.. no Radio Song?

 

sorry, not a fan of Out of Time. Like lizish, I seldom listen to it.

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Atticus

Atticus

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The same group of folks that point out supposed mistakes that bands make would likely be the first to criticize if every record sounded like Murmur.

 

just to be clear, I'd be ok with this. I get your point, but REM has made some tremendous crap since Out of Time.

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Kim Bodnia

Kim Bodnia

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"I Believe" = 1-20.

 

Sorry I didn't get this when you posted it, several days later I'm assimilating the idea :)

 

Yes, "I Believe" is a great song, it's among my top 5.

 

 

just to be clear, I'd be ok with this. I get your point, but REM has made some tremendous crap since Out of Time.

 

I think the best album they ever made was after Out of Time, it's called New Adventures in Hi-Fi. With the exception of a very long song which can be annoying at times, everything in that album was perfect, mesmerizing, starting with a beautiful album cover, very cool inserts and promotional materials, outstanding pop songs well ahead of their time. They were very well into their thirties so this probably explains the maturity of the songwriting.

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spui

spui

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Yeah, New Adventures is one of their very best. There is just a weariness that pervades the whole thing....especially in songs like How the West Was Won, Undertow and Wake-Up Bomb. The guitar on E-Bow The Letter always hits me in the pit of my stomach. Even though there were a few more great moments after this album as a three piece; it would have been, in retrospect, been a great place to end.

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dtram

dtram

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just to be clear, I'd be ok with this. I get your point, but REM has made some tremendous crap since Out of Time.

 

I think tremendous crap is a bit of an overstatement. Arguing taste and likes and dislikes is a pointless exercise but I do believe a lot of the negative attitude towards the later records is due to perception for a lot personal reasons people may have.

 

Rolling Stone began their review of Out of Time, and I'm paraphrasing, by saying that while R.E.M. will probably never be as exciting as they once were, that they are constantly maturing as songwriters. I think that was true. Was there a period between Hifi and ATS that the records were too long? I think so, but I still think there were 45 minutes on each (ATS excluded) that were excellent. And the last 2, Accelerate and especially Collapse, really were the "return to form" they were touted as. I think Collapse is an incredible collection of songs and was a great way to go out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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