R.E.M

Thoughts_Arrive

Any fans?
I haven't checked them out yet.
But I like what I've heard thus far via a local music video show and youtube...
What's the frequency Kenneth
Stand (into this song atm, seems to relate to where I am atm, which direction do I go in life?)
It's The End Of The World As We Know It

Which albums should I start with?

catefrances

automatic for the people
monster

after that i really dont care where you go. :P

Nittany1bn

i LOVE R.E.M. if you're gonna get into them i would start with Life's Rich Pageant, Document, Green, and Out of Time. Or just start at the beginning and check out all their stuff, they really haven't made too many poor albums. I'm not a big fan of Up or Around the Sun, but they've made some masterpiece records in pretty much every decade.
MY Ranks:
1.Life's Rich Pageant
2.Document
3.Green
4.Out of Time
5.Fables of the Reconstruction
6.New Adventures in HI-FI
7.Automatic for the People
8.Murmur
9.Monster
10.Reconing
11.Reveal
12.Accelerate
13.Around the Sun
13.Up

jammerfall

I like to break it up this way...

Humble beginnings leading up to the big time:
Chronic Town EP
Murmur
Reckoning
Fables of the Reconstruction
Lifes Rich Pageant
Document
Very influential records. Listening to them now you'd probably not realize how groundbreaking R.E.M. were, they have been copied that much! Reckoning, Fables and Document are my favorites out of the bunch.

Making the big bucks & delivering the goods:
Green
Out of Time
Automatic for the People
Monster
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Five home runs in a row. I have never understood why people like to slag Monster; shut the fuck up already. Buy these records.

Mid-life crisis but still getting it up:
Up
Reveal
Around the Sun
Yes, Bill Berry left and you can tell. Take the best tracks off of the three and make one killer record. Still, these are some good recordings in their own right. Unlike everyone else in the world, I put ATS at the top of the mid-life heap.

It is what it is:
Accelerate
R.E.M. is R.E.M. and they are going to grow old doing what they want. If they continue to put out stuff as good as Accelerate for the next few years I'm ready to follow them to the retirement home! Looking forward to new music in 2011. Hopefully, Jacknife Lee fattens up the sound a bit more this time.

MysteryTrain

Good advice from the previous posters. Eventually you should get every REM album.

tremors

Even if you don't get completely into the whole of REM, every serious music collection should at least contain Automatic for the People and Out of Time.

guypjfreak

great live band love to see them again

red mos

start with Out of Time: the best of REM & And I feel fine the best of the IRS years 1982- 87.

Those 2 albums while greatest hits comps, will give you the best exposure to their catalog and what has made them famous.

Monster is a good album too. I didn't fully appreciate it when I was younger, but it is a great album, I have learned to fully appeciate it.

booth jam

REM are the biggest and best band ever to play my home town stadium, Played 2 nights in '95 and i was there for the first night, couldn't get tickets for the second.
man they rocked louder than you would think. Still can remember clearly the opening guitar to whats the frequency keneth as much as I do when i heard PJ play oceans.

Bon jovi and bryan adams also played there, but who cares about them.

electronblue

REM!!

okblueduck

I love "new adventures in hi-fi" - it's one of my favorite albums

Thoughts_Arrive

Thank you to all (especially jammerfall for that detailed guide) for your feedback.
I will check out the albums.

aspoonfulweighsaton

You can check some recent comments here:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=141504

Thoughts_Arrive

aspoonfulweighsaton wrote:

You can check some recent comments here:

http://forums.pearljam.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=141504

Thanks, good read that.

pdalowsky

start with automatic - a pure classic record

and then get new adventures in hifi - a criminally underrated amazing album

mini_tb

Unlike most people, I absolutely love Around the Sun. It's my second favorite R.E.M. album behind Life's Rich Pageant. Fall on Me, Cuyahoga, and pretty much the entire album... Near perfection!

As has already been stated, New Adventures in Hi-Fi is very underrated, and, because of all the hits, Automatic for the People is an obvious choice, too.

Monster is good too, once you get past the slightly exaggerrated use of guitar. It'll probably take multiple listens.

Out of Time is actually close to the bottom for me. However, it's still a good album. These guys are fantastic.

whulmef

Murmur might be the greatest album ever made by any band. I will never get sick of listening to it.

I think Up is a classic. You have to give it time and listen to the lyrics during the second half of the record which is flawless by the way. The band didn't really stray until Reveal and Around the Sun; they are the only two REM records I don't really listen to much. Accelerate was great and the tour for it was even better. They played their best set lists of their post '80s career in my opinion.

I just started reading It Crawled from the South. I should have gotten this book years ago.

Sian-of-the-dead

mini_tb wrote:

Unlike most people, I absolutely love Around the Sun. It's my second favorite R.E.M. album behind Life's Rich Pageant. Fall on Me, Cuyahoga, and pretty much the entire album... Near perfection!

As has already been stated, New Adventures in Hi-Fi is very underrated, and, because of all the hits, Automatic for the People is an obvious choice, too.

Monster is good too, once you get past the slightly exaggerrated use of guitar. It'll probably take multiple listens.

Out of Time is actually close to the bottom for me. However, it's still a good album. These guys are fantastic.

Agree 100% with the above statement. Around The Sun is an amazing album! (how can you not love Electron Blue and Final Straw?!) as is Life's Rich Pageant. I'm not a fan of Out of Time, never have been and don't really understand the hype around it. I like it enough as an R.E.M. album but it's far from being my favourite.

I absolutely love Up although, like Monster, it may require a few listens.

Accelerate is pretty near the top for me too

What's The Frequency Kenneth? is one of my all time favourite songs; I can never listen to it enough

nuffingman

Another Around the Sun lover, I thought I was the only one. Each album has it's little treasures but they have too many great songs to list. Both of the live albums are excellent.

Hopefully next year with a new album out there'll be a tour. The Twickenham show the other year was one of the best.

Thoughts_Arrive

I've read a lot of negative comments on other online pages about the song Stand.
People think it is a stupid song?
I like it.
The video is just odd, some dorks dancing like dorks lol.

Zoso

love the remastered mumor, reckoning and fables.... makes me get back into them again. they are classics are prototypes for every modern indie album.

catefrances

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

I've read a lot of negative comments on other online pages about the song Stand.
People think it is a stupid song?
I like it.
The video is just odd, some dorks dancing like dorks lol.

people are stupid. i like it too.

Sian-of-the-dead

nuffingman wrote:

Hopefully next year with a new album out there'll be a tour. The Twickenham show the other year was one of the best.

I was at Twickers in 2008! T'was an awesome show

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

I've read a lot of negative comments on other online pages about the song Stand.
People think it is a stupid song?
I like it.
The video is just odd, some dorks dancing like dorks lol.

I love Stand too!

nuffingman

Sian-of-the-dead wrote:

nuffingman wrote:

Hopefully next year with a new album out there'll be a tour. The Twickenham show the other year was one of the best.

I was at Twickers in 2008! T'was an awesome show

I know you were at Twickers. We discussed it in a thread just afterwards. If my memory is correct you particularly enjoyed Exhuming McCarthy. Great show!

mini_tb

Zoso wrote:

love the remastered mumor, reckoning and fables.... makes me get back into them again. they are classics are prototypes for every modern indie album.

How is the sound quality and volume of the remasters? I love listening to a mix of R.E.M., but those early albums are so quiet compared to the rest of their catalogue. I only have the pre-remaster copies from the 90s, but Murmur especially sounds so muffled in addition to being quiet.

Zoso

that was my issue with the early albums also.. they are so quiet but the new versions of the first 3 have a louder mix and better quality generally.