Why yes. Yes, I have. I stand by what I said.

i absolutely 100% agree with Stone here.

New Adventures in Hi Fi is their best album so I consider it a rebound album for a band that had started to go downward, then continued that direction afterwards.

As for Monster, I hated it back in the day but like a few songs now. I could see this being an album that would be considered a renewal for REM if it were released today.

Adventures in Hi-Fi definitely merits repeat listens.

I think Monster has some nice sounds.

Killer greatest hits band.

Good to know I'm not alone in being 100% right. Glad to have you on the team, A-Dub!

It's not "unlistenable" by any means but it's certainly the worst of the REM albums that are still worth picking up (used, in this case). This is where they actually started to "unjump the shark" after 4 crappy albums. "New Adventures" was pretty damn solid, but then they jumped the shark again and immediately drowned.

Hi-Fi bears some editing. There's a few horrible songs on there. Including "Leave" with that stupid zoom-zoom sound throughout the whole thing. There is some seriously lazy songwriting on that record, but I enjoy the scope of it with the live stuff, dressing room stuff, etc.

They probably should've booked a tour, recorded a bunch of stuff, and skipped right over Monster.

Incredible that this record has warranted a thread this long. Peter Buck must be rolling in his grave.

It's obviously a love-it-or-hate-it song; in my case, it opens side 2 of my Best of 1996 tape. Song kills me. But yeah, drop "Zither" and either "So Fast, So Numb" or "Low Desert" and you'd up the album half a star. But I still think it's a very good album--certainly better than Monster.

Overall, Monster is about as good as Out of Time--which means that they're tied for the worst records put out by the original band--but Monster never comes close to the peaks on Time. Or the lows--is there an album with more obvious filler than Time (two instrumentals is three too many)?

That said, they're one of my top 5 bands and everything they've done is brilliant except the last three, which blow. So who'da guessed the MVP in the band was the drummer?

Reveal is good. For true.

1. Reckoning
2. Murmur
3. Fables of the Reconstruction
4. Lifes Rich Pageant
5. Document
6. Monster
7. Green
8. New Adventures in Hi Fi
9. Automatic for the People
10. Out of Time
11. Up
12. Reveal
13. Around the Sun

Sixth best work by one of the greatest bands in rock history. Although I have a pretty big fall off betwen 5 and 6.

Thinking of REM and the other Beck thread. They both are running a race for the most distance between "what I once thought of the artist" and "what I think of them now."

Beck wins, because my disgust with him now colors how I hear earlier work. I listen to Mummur and still love it.

I'm sometimes bewildered by the ardent love of their earlier stuff. I own all their early albums but I listened to Fables today and there's no one track on it that really stands out to me.

Nothing that could stand close to "Imitation Of Life".

nightswimming is one of my top 5 favorite songs ever

I think it was #2 on my CMJ Listmania.

Wow. Fables is, I think, their weakest effort overall.

The second half of Murmur ranks up there with the greatest, most energetic collections of songs ever recorded. Reckoning can be hit or miss, but Pageant is pure joy. I like Fables more than Reckoning, and like Document, Green and all the rest really.

Id rank them thusly

1. Murmur
2. Automatic For The People
3. Life's Rich Pageant
4. Adventures In Hi-Fi
5. Document
6. Green
7. Reveal
8. Monster
9. Fables
10. Reckoning

The rest

Never would I put Reckoning in 10th place. Never.

Therein lies the beauty. Honestly, I cdont consider it 10th, necessarily, but there are 9 other REM records Id rather listen to.

1. Reckoning
2. Murmur
3. Fables Of The Reconstruction
4. Life's Rich Pageant
5. Document
6. Chronic Town
7. Dead Letter Office
8. Green
9. Automatic For The People
10. New Adventures In Hi-Fi
11. Out Of Time
12. Up
13. Eponymous (only this low because it's a comp)
14. In Time (comp, as well)
15. Monster
16. Reveal
17. Around The Sun

It's actually probably in my favorite 10 albums of all-time which is weird since I'm not that big of an REM fan. I just absolutely love this one. "Be Mine" and "Leave" just never get old.

Funny story, Haq hated this album and gave it to me. I still have that copy with no album cover because he'd lost it.

i just put two and two together

for me:

01 automatic for the people
[most of their other albums range in levels of solid]
N-2 reveal
N-1 up
N around the suck

I think Fables could have been great, but it just sounds so flat. And some of the arrangements are really dull.

I guess recording it was a miserable experience

Feeling Gravity's Pull is one of their best songs ever... and I've heard it live enough times in versions that have overhelmed my senses... so to speak. Other songs on FOTR are pretty good too.

I love FOTR. "Auctioneer(Another Engine)", "Green Grow the Rushes", "Maps and Legends" are all great IMO. It's got a very southern gothic vibe throughout that just draws me in.

Mike Mills and Michael Stipe harmonizing was one of the best sounds of the 80's.