The Definitive R.E.M. Fan's Greatest Tracks Collection

Cafe Society
1

Inspired by the thread announcing their breakup. I know we’ve got tons of fans on the board. I’m less thinking “singles” and more thinking album cuts that have to be on a mixtape for the truest fan. I’ll start, from memory, starting with Chronic Town:

Wolves, Lower (I have a few live versions that kick ass)
Moral Kiosk
Harbourcoat
Camera
Second Guessing
Tighten Up (cover)
Feeling Gravitys Pull
Maps and Legends
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
Green Grow the Rushes
Begin the Begin
Hyena
Disturbance in the Heron House
Fireplace
Exhuming McCarthy
Romance
Pop Song '89
Get Up
The Wrong Child
Texarkana
Near Wild Heaven
Try Not to Breathe
Ignoreland
I Took Your Name
Bang and Blame
Binky the Doormat
At My Most Beautiful

What are your faves? What are the tracks that should be left off any R.E.M. collection (Airportman)? Let’s hear it!

2

I think you need more from Life’s Rich Pageant: These Days, I Believe, What if We Gave It Away? for starters. Actually, I continue to think that was their strongest album, so what the heck --throw the whole thing in (except that one song I don’t like --what was it again?)

3

Here are the most essential tracks from 4 of their albums.

  • means it may be replaced to make room once I go through more albums. Reckoning is their best and needs these 4 (at least).

Laughing
Talk About the Passion
Perfect Circle
We Walk*

7 Chinese Bros.
So. Central Rain
Camera
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville

Losing My Religion
Near Wild Heaven*
Country Feedback

Everybody Hurts
Ignoreland*
Man on the Moon
Nightswimming

4

Probably Cuyahoga or Just a Touch, but it’s my favorite too. So don’t forget Flowers of Guatemala and Hyena and Underneath the Bunker and Superman…yeah, just throw the whole thing in.

5

“Crazy” from Dead Letters

“New Test Leper” and “E-bow the Letter” from New Adventures

6

Oh, wow! I forgot Dead Letter Office. Yes, “Crazy” is a great choice. Also “Bandwagon” and “Ages of You.”

I have grown to like Lifes Rich Pageant but it wasn’t a favorite for a long time. I blame the Don Gehman production. It reminds me a little too much of John Mellencamp but over the years I have grown to appreciate it. On the other hand I hear people complain about how dark Fables is but I liked that album right away.

Good selections from New Adventures, btw.

7

I could just play their 3rd, 4th and 5th albums (Fables, Pageant, Document) in rotation and be perfectly satisfied. Not every track is sublime but they just work together. I love tracks on Green, Time and Automatic but they don’t work together as albums like those3 do.

The first two also work together brilliantly, but their affecting naivety doesn’t quite overcome their innate lack of sophistication.

8

Took out Camera and Everybody Hurts, and I’m stealing Crazy.

Chronic Town
Wolves, Lower

Murmur
Laughing
Talk About the Passion
Perfect Circle

Reckoning
Harborcoat
7 Chinese Bros.
So. Central Rain
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville

Fables
Maps and Legends
Driver 8

LRP
These Days
Fall On Me
I Believe
Swan Swan H

Dead Letter
Crazy

Document
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Lightnin’ Hopkins

Green
Get Up
World Leader Pretend
Orange Crush

Out of Time
Losing My Religion
Country Feedback

Automatic
Drive
Man on the Moon
Nightswimming
Find the River

Monster
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
Strange Currencies

New Adventures
E-Bow the Letter
Leave
Electrolite

9

**Collapse Into Now
**

Uberlin
Walk It Back
Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I

10

Chronic Town
Wolves Lower

Murmur
Radio Free Europe
Perfect Circle

Reckoning
Camera
Don’t Go Back To Rockville

Fables
Feeling Gravity’s Pull
Maps and Legends
Wendell Gee

Lifes Rich Pageant
Begin The Begin
These Days
Fall On Me
I Believe

Document
Finest Worksong
End Of The World As We Know It
Oddfellows Local 151

Green
You Are The Everything
Orange Crush
Turn You Inside Out

Out Of Time
Losing My Religion
Country Feedback

Automatic

Jesus…the whole damn album. But if I have to choose a few, I’d go for Try Not To Breathe, Everybody Hurts, and Sweetness Follows (my all time favourite REM)

Monster
Crush With Eyeliner
Strange Currencies
Let Me In

New Adventures
New Test Leper
E-Bow The Letter
Leave
Be Mine
Electrolite

Up

I simply cannot understand the hate for this album. As far as I’m concerned, everything from track 4 onwards is amazing, and the album as a whole is a (slightly flawed) masterpiece. Anyway, my favourite tracks are:

At My Most Beautiful
Why Not Smile
Daysleeper

Reveal
I’ve Been High
Disappear

Around The Sun
:frowning:

Accelerate
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Houston

Collapse Into Now
Oh My Heart

11

I wish we could edit posts, because I already regret taking out Camera and Everybody Hurts. They should both still be there.

12

Leaving New York and Electron Blue are decent but :frowning: for the rest of it, other than those two Aftermath is the only song I can listen to.

13

Ack! I can’t believe I forgot The Great Beyond!

14

“Just a Touch” – that’s the song I don’t like (the only song I don’t like) from LRP. Everything else is a keeper. On AFP, I’m afraid I have to disagree about Nightswimming. That’s the one song on the album I really don’t like. Anybody else like Drive from that album? I think that’s my favorite.

I have to confess that everything beyond AFP is terra incognita for me. I’m relying on people here to give me good recommendations. So choose wisely!

15

Just a general vote for Pilgrimage

You just gotta love that.

And then that wonderful chorus - so uplifting, but in a soft way - it makes no sense but invokes a big, spiritual word like Pilgrimage…and then you move into the middle 8…

The whole thing just works, but you can’t put your finger on exactly why. That alchemy because the central formula to good indie rock - Kurt Cobain’s songwriting style certainly echoes it. A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito - palomino? And yet it works…

16

Here’s a 20-song imaginary mix CD based on a quick look at iTunes. (I guess I don’t like Green.) I tuned out after Monster, but might obtain a few more recent songs if there’s enough enthusiasm expressed here. I am indeed an old crank. I remember hearing Chronic Town and an interview with them on a NY college radio station like it was yesterday (and it was in fact 30 years ago).

Carnival of Sorts
Wolves, Lower
Radio Free Europe
Sitting Still
We Walk
Harbourcoat
So. Central Rain
Seven Chinese Bros.
Bandwagon
Feeling Gravitys Pull
Green Grow the Rushes
Old Man Kensey
Cuyahoga
What If We Give It Away
Finest Worksong
Exhuming McCarthy
Me In Honey
You Are the Everything
Find the River
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth

17

Driver 8
Fall on Me
(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville
Near Wild Heaven
Bandwagon
World Leader Pretend
Orange Crush
Welcome to the Occupation
Man on the Moon
Texarkana
Walk Unafraid
Imitation of Life (maybe my all time favorite)

18

I’d include **Star 69 **off of Monster.

19

Skipping Chronic Town, this is a chronological list of songs I really like but are lesser known.

Murmur - Moral Kiosk

Reckoning - Little America

Fables - Wendell Gee

Pageant - What If We Give It Away

Dead Letter - Toys In The Attic - I like it better than the original.

Document - Fireplace

Green - Turn You Inside Out - A single, not my favorite album either

Out Of Time - Country Feedback - Jeez, 20 years ago. Maybe my all-time favorite live track.

Automatic - Star Me Kitten

Monster - Circus Envy

New Adventures - Binky The Doormat

Up - Walk Unafraid

Reveal - I’ll Take The Rain

Around The Sun - Electron Blue

Accelerate - Living Well Is The Best Revenge
I haven’t listened to Collapse Into Now yet. This is a band that made at least 50 truly great songs, mostly in the 80’s and 90’s. I’m glad they’re walking away and that they’ve left such a rich catalog behind.

20

Whenever I am really feeling lost or confused I go for ‘Fables’. There is just something so real in that album that it can take me out of my world for a short time. I really like a lot of their work but that one album made me a true fan for life.