It got played a lot on college radio. To the point that when I joined WCBN in '88 we were specifically told to avoid them (and The Smiths) as ithey were too much of a college radio cliche by that point.
4 Likes
Stipe is, to my ears, that rare vocalist who sang with a sensitivity more closely associated with female vocalists, yet whose voice was essentially masculine. The only other vocalist I can think of who’s mastered this is Peter Gabriel.
5 Likes
But yeah, this and Document were my first two of theirs, that I spent the summer of 88 listening to in sweltering Bedford Springs PA.
Well that can’t be, that album never existed 
2 Likes
This is their first album that got a track onto commercial radio. So it’s most people’s first exposure to REM and not surprisingly, a favorite for many.
1 Like
David - thanks for the post. You’ve highlighted two fine songs. Cuyahoga is another highlight on a great album.
Since everyone’s reminiscing, his is my favorite R.E.M. album, though Welcome to the Occupation and Texarkana are among my favorite individual songs.
2 Likes
Yeah, but holy hell does that album rock.
4 Likes
Agreed, I followed the same path with R.E.M and fabels remains my favorite.
1 Like
My favorite, too.
30 years. Man, that just can’t be.
Nobody else likes Up best?
2 Likes
I haven’t heard that one at all. I should give it a go. I dunno maybe I just grew out of them. I didn’t care for Monster all that much. I think it is awesome they don’t do the same ol same ol for each album but then that means I am not going to like every one of them either.
But pulling Fables from the dorm record library (the building used to house the college radio station so a big hunk of stuff stayed there) and listening to that was magic as St. Louis radio was either what is now ‘classic rock’ or pop music. I heard so much cool stuff from KMNR when I was an engineering major and so many cool bands from their abandoned library.
1 Like
I didn’t hear so much of the early stuff so it’s all Automatic For The People and onwards for me.
We did go to Wuxtry records when we lived in GA, mind. And stalked Stipe’s house. We also found the field where the Love Shack used to be…
4 Likes
I’ve been there!
2 Likes
First live concert I saw was R.E.M. during their Fables of the Reconstruction tour back in the 80’s not long before I graduated from high school. But Life’s Rich Pageant remains my favorite of all their albums. Thanks for the memories.
2 Likes
I have a lot of love for parts of both Up and Reveal. Losing Bill Berry pushed them way out of their comfort zone, and the results are rocky but fascinating. “Suspicion”, “Hope”, “At My Most Beautiful”, and especially “Sad Professor” are terrific songs.
Then again, some of my favorite R.E.M. moments ever are on the criminally underrated New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
2 Likes
I loved Up. It had an atmosphere all its own and plenty of earworm melodies that found me singing them any given time of day. Yeah, it’s not Lifes Rich Pageant or Automatic for the People. But R.E.M. were never much for sequels and thank heavens for that.
1 Like
Even though I got into REM early on (Reckoning was new when I first heard of them), I stuck with them well into the later years and found plenty to love on New Adventures, Up and Reveal.
I also like – still – Out of Time and Monster, both of which are pretty widely loathed. I’m still fond of Out of Time probably because I associate it with a particular time and place – a gorgeous Vancouver Island summer, for which it was the perfect soundtrack. Monster because, well, I love glam rock and I love REM, why wouldn’t I be happy? Perfect it ain’t but I don’t think it deserves all the hate. (And if “Strange Currencies” is self-plagiarism of “Everybody Hurts”, I prefer it to the original.)
2 Likes
I have fondness for both, for different reasons. Out of Time came out my freshman year of high school, and it was perfect to listen to at that time at place. “Low”, “Endgame”, “Belong”, “Half a World Away” and especially “Country Feedback” were an ideal soundtrack for the time.
When Monster came out, I was a designer and editor at my college newspaper, and we got advance copies. It was so different than everything else at the time that I reveled in its glam and fuzzed out guitar sound. “Let Me In” and “Circus Envy” are still my faves from that album.
2 Likes
I didn’t realize that until I read an interview with someone from Georgia Satellites. He said they probably couldn’t (and wouldn’t) turn out a song like that.
Maybe someone mentioned it, but that’s whence the “Swan Swan H” footage originates. MTV used to have a show called The Cutting Edge one Sunday each month, and they showed a good portion of that film during one episode. (I think Survival Research Laboratories was the same episode.) Oct. 1986 or so.
2 Likes
