The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

R.E.M.: A Beginner’s Guide

rem_accelerate10) ACCELERATE (2008)

Following a lengthy gap after the lacklustre Around The Sun, R.E.M. roared back into public consciousness with their fourteenth record Accelerate, the title signifying their renewed intentions to a record-buying public that was in the process of forgetting them. A stripped-back collection of short, sharp bursts of rock, R.E.M. entered the Indian summer of their career. Crucially, when they toured Accelerate around the world they chose to accompany the new songs with some of their oldest tracks from their first four albums, signalling a return to base principles for the band (you can hear this on the double live album At The Olympia). Tracks like ‘Supernatural Superserious’ and ‘Hollow Man’ bristled with renewed vigour and, most of all, were fun. Everything its predecessor wasn’t, in short. Monster isn’t their ‘rock album’ – Accelerate is.

rem_fables_of_the_reconstruction9) FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION (1985)

The band’s third release Fables Of The Reconstruction isn’t considered to be as inspired and consistent as their previous two albums due to a very distinct change in sound. Stipe’s songwriting led to a more eerie and apocalyptic edge with twisted guitar hooks and darker lyrics. R.E.M. swapped their US studio for a cold, miserable studio in London with producer Joe Boyd. The band reportedly had a miserable time in the city which may have inspired the album’s theme of doom and gloom.

Boyd was most notably well-known for working with folk bands including Fairport Convention and Nick Drake which defined the typical folk imagery of loneliness, travelling and oppression. Stipe identified with this in tracks such as ‘Life And How To Live It’ and ‘Maps And Legends’, which explored the sounds and imagery of the American South. Fables Of The Reconstruction certainly wasn’t the finest of R.E.M.’s early albums, but it began to experiment with sound, style and genre within the constrictions of their studio, something that they would continue on their next release with the shackles off.

rem_lifes_rich_pageant8) LIFES RICH PAGEANT (1986)

For a band as literate and intelligent as R.E.M., the grammatical error in the title of their fourth album is curious. But it’s a shorthand for the ambiguous, thoughtful nature of Lifes Rich Pageant and the band that they were becoming. It captures R.E.M. starting to transform their sound from their college rock trademark to exploring slower, more muscular textures. It contains the ecologically-aware anthems ‘Fall On Me’ and ‘Cuyahoga’, both excellent examples of this transformation. Indeed, environmental and political awareness is a recurrent theme on LRP: opener ‘Begin The Begin’ is a personal and political call-to-arms according to Stipe, full of references to revolution and the beginnings of America. In contrast to the murkiness of its predecessor LRP is a cleanly produced album with an intelligent, sharp soul to it, and the point at which R.E.M. started becoming the version of the band that most people remember: urbane, uncompromising yet accessible to mainstream audiences.

rem_document7) DOCUMENT (1987)

R.E.M.’s fifth record Document is notable for a number of reasons. It was the first to be produced by Scott Litt who would go on to work with the group for the next decade; it expanded the range of instruments used to include piano, saxophone and dulcimer, a vein of experimentation that led to their trademark mandolin sound being adopted on their next three albums. Most importantly, Document broke R.E.M. into the mainstream for the first time with some excellent singles – Stipe’s stream-of-consciousness, word association rant of ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’, and rock radio staples ‘Finest Worksong’ and ‘The One I Love’. The cryptic condemnation of Reagan-ism on ‘Exhuming McCarthy’ and a cover of Wire’s ‘Strange’ make for some less accessible but more rewarding moments that keep the listener coming back for more. Document opened up new vistas of possibility for R.E.M. – in a way, it’s the most R.E.M.-ish of the lot – the sound of a band challenging themselves and their audience and succeeding handsomely.

rem_murmur6) MURMUR (1983)

Produced by Stephen Hague, R.E.M.’s debut record Murmur took elements of folk, country and traditional rock unlike any other band at that period. Brimming with the kind of confidence that comes from being new to the game, Murmur is listed in many music critics’ all-time top debut albums. More than 30 years on, it still sounds as relevant as it did in 1983. Apparently named after the brain’s most creative period in dream stage, R.E.M. suited their moniker. Their non-linear and often incomprehensible lyrics gave a very abstract image whilst Michael Stipe’s vocals added to the sense of altered consciousness. The lyrics are designed so that the listener can interpret as they wish and years on the phrasing is still a cause for confusion.

The record talks perfectly about love, life and loss as Stipe highlights in tracks such as ‘Radio Free Europe’ and ‘Perfect Circle’. The former is an anti-radio hit which kicked against everything that was on the airwaves at the time. The band maintained an interesting musical ethos of a four-person democracy: no member musically overpowered any other in the mix, and song writing credits were given equally. This extended to clipped, economical sound in which there were very few solos, which pushes the style more towards post-punk acts including Gang Of Four and Public Image Ltd. This record changed the musical landscape for future generations. If there was no Murmur we would see no Nirvana, Pavement or Pixies: simples.

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.