Good call on picking up Document. So far it’s the only IRS album that I’ve replaced my copy vinyl with a CD version.
I’ll go against the grain here and state I’m actually not that fond of Murmer. My recollection from my college dorm days (83-87) was it consisted of Radio Free Europe, that wierd up in the attic song, and a bunch of jangle-pop songs that mostly sound the same. To me, REM grew by leaps and bounds through the 80s, so I’d work my way backwards through the IRS catalog. Grab Life’s Rich Pageant next (“Fall on Me” - 2nd most beautiful melody in an English language song, right behind The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset”). Green is pretty good, too, although as a former mid-1980s college student I’m supposed to shun it as their major-label sell-out album. But then I like Monster, too (their so-called grunge-bandwagon-hopping arena-rock sell-out album) so my taste is suspect.
Hijack: Anybody know if there is a legal way to obtain the song they performed on Sesame Street a few years back? They reworked “Shiny Happy People” as “Furry Happy Monsters”. I think Bill Berry was already gone. I don’t remember seeing him.
Big push here for the underrated New Adventures in Hi-Fi. It’s R.E.M.'s last great album, IMHO, and features three songs - “Leave,” “The Wake-Up Bomb,” and “How The West Was Won and Where It Got US” - that I would rank up there with any classic R.E.M. track.
First off, I just wanted to gloat a bit about how I just saw R.E.M. live last week. Ok, done.
Definitely get New Adventures in Hi-Fi. “E-Bow the Letter” and “Leave” are absolutely incredible songs (especially the live versions of the former featuring Thom Yorke on background vocals).
I actually never got into anything before parts of Green, so the True Believers will probably disagree with me on most things. (But I hated Monster too! I’m not completely untrustworthy!)
New Adventures in Hi-Fi is quite good. I don’t like a few songs on it, but the majority is great. Up is mostly terrible; there are a couple of pretty good songs (At My Most Beautiful and Daysleeper are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head), but definitely don’t make it a first purchase. Reveal is an album that grew on me; my first impression was more weird than anything else, but I liked nearly all of it after a dozen listenings or so, and it’s actually in my CD player at the moment.
Considering that you can get New Adventures on Half right now for less than $4, including shipping, and Reveal for a total of about $5.50, I’d go for both.
I got a chance to hear Michael Stipe sing Fall on Me with Billy Brag accompanying accoustically at Merriweather Post Pavilion (near D.C.) at an Earth Day show in '90. Just awesome.
Thank you, Chock (ah, Bobo!) for paraphrasing my thoughts.
BTW, Sanibel, agreed with song choice on Document.
Well, there is a legal way, but I’m afraid it’ll cost you. You can get the box set “Songs from the Street: 35 Years of Music” for the low, low price of 39.99 at Amazon (it may be less somewhere else, of course). It is three discs, so if you’re also a Sesame Street fan, it might be worth the money.
Enjoy!