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Post subject: Early R.E.M. songs that haven't aged well
Posted: Tue March 25, 2014 4:20 am
AnalLog
Joined: Wed December 18, 2013 5:27 am Posts: 1009
Longtime R.E.M. fan here. Back in the day, I used to opine that R.E.M.’s first five albums contained not a single bad song. That ended with their major label debut, Green, which I loved but not every single song. From Green onward, every album had at least one or two clunkers, with the number really starting to add up in the later years.
As was the case with so many things I thought when I was young, I was pretty off base. Listening to old R.E.M. again, there are some real clunkers on those first five albums, or at least songs that haven’t aged well.
Murmur We Walk West of Fields
Reckoning Second Guessing Camera Little America
Fables Life and How to Live It Can’t Get There From Here Auctioneer
Life’s Rich Pageant Cuyahoga Hyena Underneath the Bunker What If We Give It Away? Superman
Document Strange
That's a lot of material I could easily live without. Of course, what remains is still as good as ever. But I'm surprised. I once thought Life's Rich Pageant was their best album, but today I'm only interested in about half of it. And I'd probably enjoy Green more than some of these. It's aged better than expected. So for you R.E.M. fans out there (and I know there are some), what are the clunkers from the first five albums, in your estimation?
Post subject: Re: Early R.E.M. songs that haven't aged well
Posted: Tue March 25, 2014 5:59 am
tl;dr
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm Posts: 8568
The only early REM tunes that don't really do it for me are a few from Document ("Strange," "Lightning Hopkins"). I can listen to pretty much all of their first four albums without ever feeling the urge to skip a song.
Post subject: Re: Early R.E.M. songs that haven't aged well
Posted: Tue March 25, 2014 3:29 pm
Poster of the Year
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 2:04 pm Posts: 37156 Location: September 2020 Poster of the Month
Kevin Davis wrote:
The only early REM tunes that don't really do it for me are a few from Document ("Strange," "Lightning Hopkins"). I can listen to pretty much all of their first four albums without ever feeling the urge to skip a song.
Document is probably my least favorite of the pre-Reveal album.
Post subject: Re: Early R.E.M. songs that haven't aged well
Posted: Tue March 25, 2014 3:55 pm
Rank This Poster
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 1:10 am Posts: 3879
I disagree with almost all of those. Cuyahoga, Little America and Life and How to Live It are in particular some of the greatest songs for me.
I'm in the midst of working my way straight through their catalog, and it's pretty remarkable how well it holds up. Also, it's notable how their work ethic or prolific approach to songwriting really paid off. By the time they'd finished their first decade of playing together they were starting work on their seventh record, and had put out an album a year for six years from '83-'88. There's maybe a few clunkers in there, but the sheer amount of classic stuff overwhelms any missteps.
Post subject: Re: Early R.E.M. songs that haven't aged well
Posted: Tue March 25, 2014 4:21 pm
I've been POOSSTTIiiEEnngeeaahh
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:53 pm Posts: 12082
McParadigm wrote:
REM is one of those bands that really intrigued me for about 3 years, and now I almost never have any interest in listening to them.
This has been my experience as well. Maybe a couple years longer. Bill Berry retired and so did I. Not cause he left. I don't really have a reason why.
Post subject: Re: Early R.E.M. songs that haven't aged well
Posted: Wed March 26, 2014 7:01 pm
Rank This Poster
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 3:45 pm Posts: 4151
I would actually say I've had pretty much the opposite reaction (although I only really started getting into R.E.M. about 10 years ago, so it's not like I've been listening to the older stuff since it came out). There were always a few songs on each album that I didn't like and often skipped, but now there are relatively few. Some of them are among my favourite R.E.M. songs now, and I can never figure out how I didn't like them at first.
Post subject: Re: Early R.E.M. songs that haven't aged well
Posted: Wed March 26, 2014 9:18 pm
The worst
Joined: Thu December 13, 2012 6:31 pm Posts: 39922
there are songs I don't like from the early records, but it is rarely a question of aging for me. I didn't like them when I first heard them and don't like them now. There are also songs I used to like more than I do now, but there's a difference between getting tired of them and not aging, methinks.
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