R.E.M. - The Warners years

nlgbbbblth

I think that Green, Reveal and Around The Sun are R.E.M.'s three worst records.

CollectingVinyl

New Adventures In Hi-Fi

I went for Monster. Hugely slated but still a great rock album IMO.

I disagree as well about Green. Green is a brilliant album and one of their best.
Reveal is good, not great.
Around The Sun is extremely poor.

(There all just my opinion though!)

cashback

Up

Went for New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
I love Automatic for the people and it's probably the first album I really loved and got me into music.
Monster has some brilliant songs on it such as What's the Frequency Kenneth, King of Comedy and Let Me In, which is one of my favourite REM songs.
But I think New Adventures is great. Maybe with a few less songs it would be regarded as a classic. Electrolite and E-Bow The Letter are two of my favourite songs. Then there's Wake Up Bomb and So Fast So Numb.
It's impressive for an album that was recorded mostly on tour.

Time Magazine

Up

New Adventures is awesome. Better than Monster or Automatic for me.

nlgbbbblth

Reveal

ranking

1 Up
2 New Adventures In Hi-Fi
3 Monster
4 Automatic For The People
5 Out Of Time
6 Green
7 Reveal
8 Around The Sun

I disliked reveal very much, but I did like Green even if only for orange crush, turn you inside out, and the untitled song, though I like some of the others. I remember california seems to be an acquired taste. Monster would be near my top, and hi-fi...

Dudess

Automatic For The People

I went through an obsessive REM phase for a few months back in 1991 when Out of Time was out. After that buzz wore off I've never really been bothered with them except for the occasional song, tbh. Low, the last track (I think) on Out of Time, is so amazing.

I went through an obsessive phase starting 7 years ago, still going strong >.<

Dudess

Automatic For The People

I'm going to say Out of Time is my fave REM album on Warners but that's not really true because I haven't listened to any other albums by them so I don't actually know whether it would be my favourite. It's still a fab album though.
My brother had Green. Thought it seemed pretty good, and Stand is a great pop song.
Actually, was working in HMV when Up was out so we played it a lot. Really good too.

Lunar Junkie

Up

New Adventures and Up are both excellent, underrated records (if New Adventures had been a bit more polished and they'd cut a few tracks, I think it would have regarded as being among their 'classics'). Automatic For The People is great but I heard it so many times when I was 14 that I can't really listen to it on any more. I haven't even given the last 2 albums a full listen, I heard a handful of tracks off Reveal and one off the last album (the blanket negative reviews were enough to put me off). If they don't manage to do something great with their next effort maybe they should call it a day.

blastman

Out Of Time

Green won a tough fight for me. The last three albums have been mostly forgettable, although Ardgillan last summer was a fantastic day out.

iFight

Up

New Adventures in Hi Fi. Agreed that the latest album was terrible (apart from Leaving NewYork) but I thought Reveal was very good.

Earthhorse

Monster

Bwah!?

How anyone can vote for anything other than the first three albums on this list is beyond me.

For me, it has to be Automatic for the People though it's difficult to chose between it and Out of Time. Both were released whilst the band were at the height of their powers: Mills and Buck were experimenting with a wider range of instruments, Berry still coming up with amazing tunes (apparently he wrote Find the River) and Stipe at his lyrical best - brilliant yet accessible.

Out of Time is a more upbeat album I feel but it contains more duds (Low and Radio Song) and Automatic has Nightswimming and Find the River which are basically poems set to music, so it pips it.

Dudess wrote:

Low, the last track (I think) on Out of Time, is so amazing.

Your copy of Out of Time only has three songs on it? Rip off.

lordgoat

New Adventures In Hi-Fi

Earthhorse wrote:

Bwah!?

How anyone can vote for anything other than the first three albums on this list is beyond me.

For me, it has to be Automatic for the People though it's difficult to chose between it and Out of Time. Both were released whilst the band were at the height of their powers: Mills and Buck were experimenting with a wider range of instruments, Berry still coming up with amazing tunes (apparently he wrote Find the River) and Stipe at his lyrical best - brilliant yet accessible.

Out of Time is a more upbeat album I feel but it contains more duds (Low and Radio Song) and Automatic has Nightswimming and Find the River which are basically poems set to music, so it pips it.



Your copy of Out of Time only has three songs on it? Rip off.

I disagree. Monster and New Adventures are both better albums than these three. Those 3 albums have very little progression in them they're very eay to listen to and i loved them when they first came out but i rarely spin them anymore, they have great songs i'm not saying otherwise but i find monster is a stomper of a rock record that will never get the credit it deserves and prob turned alot of radio REM fans away and New adventures is an awesome album i love the fact stipe and co really pushed the boat out and didn't keep making songs that were save. Progression is the way forward.

nlgbbbblth

Reveal

Hmmm

24 votes in this poll but only 9 votes in R.E.M.'s IRS years poll [in my opinion, when the band were at their best]

Earthhorse

Monster

Yeah, I was gonna post in the other thread saying I only had Murmur and The Best of IRS Years (which is a lie actually, it's my sisters), and so couldn't legitimately vote. The Best Of...has kind of made my lazy about picking up their earlier stuff, though I know I should. Still can't see anything topping Automatic though.

nlgbbbblth

Reveal

Earthhorse wrote:

Yeah, I was gonna post in the other thread saying I only had Murmur and The Best of IRS Years (which is a lie actually, it's my sisters), and so couldn't legitimately vote.

If I just owned Murmur I would vote for it.

loyatemu

Out Of Time

I got into REM with Out of Time so have a soft spot for it even though some of the tracks are a bit slight. I voted for Green because I think it balances the crunchy rock sound of pageant and document nicely with the pop-folk sound of out of time, and its packed with excellent songs.

Here's my ranking list

1. Green
2. Out of Time
3. Automatic - great album, possibly the only REM record that hasn't dated at all, but I've heard some of the tracks too many times.
4. Up - really underrated album
5. New Adventures - some great tracks, some very ordinary
6. Monster - a contrived attempt to make a "rock" record, sounds forced, only "What's the Frequency Kenneth" really stands out
7. Reveal - poor attempt to recreate their classic sound, while mixing in the worst elements of Up
8. Around the Sun - MOR toss, no redeeming features whatsoever.

I personally think they've been on the slide since Automatic - up to that point their sound seemed to evolve naturally but from Monster onwards they seem to have been struggling to find a new direction.

Dudess

Automatic For The People

Earthhorse wrote:

Your copy of Out of Time only has three songs on it? Rip off.

Tee hee!!! Ok, it's been 15 years since I listened to that album. Was bloody sure it was the last track...

manonmir

Up

I used to be a huge REM fan, still am bit rarely put the records on anymore.

I went for New Adventures, undertow is an awesome song, it's a great album and they possibly should have given up then, Up was just OK but reveal and around the sun are extremely dissapointing and boring. That said they still put on a great show.

funktastic

Automatic For The People

1.Out of Time
2.Monster
3.Automatic for the people
4.Green
5.New Adventures...

I really dislike the rest :eek: 'Around the sun' has to be their worst album closely follwed by the overly-sunshiney, over-produced 'Reveal'. To be honest I think they should stop because they are just putting out terrible stuff and the last few times I've seen them they were way below par.

deaddonkey

Reveal wasn't too bad. It had 2 or 3 outstanding tracks, but a lot of it was tripe. I heard a couple of songs from around the sun and wished I hadn't.

Either way, they're still putting out better material than 99% of "scene" bands around.

oxegen06

Out Of Time

love green automatic is also a great alb but prob is winning cos its their biggest so its the one ppl r most likely to have. dont really get the big deal wit up, a few gems but as a whole not brill. out of time is also great as is new adventures. reveal isnt exactly bad and havent really listened to the new one since i bought it.and rem r without a doubt one of my fave bands of all time so thats sayin something....oh and monster is very great also!!!

grumpytrousers

Automatic For The People

gonna pitch in and say out of time just pips it for me; partially it's just that the time i was listening to is was a terribly carefree time and it was the soundtrack to a particularly good summer...

'half the world away' is, alone, worth the price of admission. Shiny happy people does exactly what it says on the tin (whatever about the band 'disowning' it - yeah right - you didn't f*cking disown it enough not to shoot a video, release as a single and collect the f*cking royalties, did you!), and Country feedback is great as well....