Strong first side, mostly weak second side - Stipe stops mumbling, and the music starts to lose its mystery. Still, an overall solid entry in their canon, even if certain songs have been overplayed to death. I chose “Exhuming McCarthy”, which I’ve always considered highly underrated.
Overplayed or not, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” is one of the most iconic rock songs ever. The rest of the album is good, but there’s no question about what’s the best song.
I wavered between “It’s the End of the World…” and “Exhuming McCarthy,” thinking I might be better off not picking the obvious ones, but I completely agree with Justin_Bailey. It would be dishonest of me not to pick that one.
I know this album is not a big favorite with REM fans, but I think it’s MY favorite. And I am an REM fan, so there. 
I picked Strange, and Exhuming McCarthy would be my runner-up.
Agreed too. End of the World is the first song I think of when I think of REM, and I’m sure it’s true for the majority of the world.
“Disturbance at the Heron House”
I like the word play and alliteration and the recurring line “Try to tell us something we don’t know.”
This really came down to three songs: “King of Birds”, “Disturbance at the Heron House”, and “Oddfellows Local 151”, and I ended up choosing the first.
Of course, “Exhuming McCarthy”, “Welcome to the Occupation”, “Fireplace”, and, yes, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” are pretty all right, too.
Not much love for ‘the one I love’ here, except for me, I guess. 
I actually got three REM albums for christmas last year, including ‘Document’, because I’d come across another song called ‘the one I love’ while browsing emusic, immediately thought of the REM melody, and that got me onto an REM nostalgia kick that I mentioned to my brother, who was a bigger fan of them than I am back in the day, and he asked if I had any of their albums, which I really didn’t until then.
I went with Finest Worksong though I really like most of this album. In fact it is one of my favorite REM albums without a doubt. The only songs I’m not crazy about are Fireplace and Lightnin’ Hopkins.
I was a bit disappointed when I saw the poll results and noticed the lack of love for Odd Fellows Local 151. It really has some of Pete’s most interesting playing in it. I remember at the time the album came out he said he had been listening to a lot of Sonic Youth while they were recording and I think the influence is pretty clear in that song in particular.
Plus, they cover Wire!
I think this is my favorite REM album in general. I picked “Exhuming McCarthy” as my favorite, but that could easily shift to a couple other options if the mood were different.
Just out of curiosity, why are people listing these polls as “Best song off of album title” rather than “Best song off of bandname’s album title?” Are you trying to hide from non hardcore fans?
I was following the Beatles threads’ example with the thread titling, but really - if you don’t know the album titles, you’re probably not a fan to begin with, I’d assume.