auto

Ranking the Warner Bros. albums was fun (link) so lets try the IRS years.

1. Murmur - A perfect debut album. Everything to like about early REM. (highlights: 'radio free europe', 'talk about the passion' ever other song)

2. Chronic Town - Their near perfect debut ep (highlights: all of it)

3. Life's Rich Pageant - A great song cycle that still gets better every time I hear it (highlights: the perfect 'fall on me', 'begin the begin' pretty much all the rest)

4. Document - Classic REM on the verge of breaking out of college radio and into the mainstream (highlights: 'end of the world', 'finest worksong', 'one i love' and 'disturbance at the heron house')

5. Reckoning - Another great early record but one I don't seem to find myself spinning as much as I should. (highlights: 'so. central rain' ('dont go back to) rockville')

6. Fables of the Reconstruction - What amazes me is that an album as good as this somehow found it's way to the bottom of the list. (highlights: 'feeling gravity's pull', 'can't get there from here' 'driver 8')

Feel free to throw "Dead Letter Office" on the list as well if you wish.

Wow. These albums were far harder to rate than the warner bros. years. These albums are good in a way that only a young band could have possibly recorded them. It's like listening to early Stones. I guess it's just harder to write great songs after you've become a multi-millionaire. Thats not to say that I dont like the newer material but these albums as a whole seem far more consistent (save 'Automatic').

Well, I'm already doubting my choices so i better wrap it up. What does everyone else think?

Mr. Kite!

I'd prolly say:

1. Murmur- by far
2. Lifes Rich Pageant
3. Chronic Town
4. Reconstruction of the Fables
5. Reckoning
6. Document- still better than 95% of the crap out there

I'd throw Dead Letter Office in the middle somewhere

evenflow

1. Lifes Rich Pageant (fav. song: Begin the Begin)
2. Murmur (Perfect Circle)
3. Chronic Town (Wolves, Lower)
4. Document (It's the End of the World as we know it)
5. Reckoning (So. Central Rain)
6. Fables of the Reconstruction (Green Grows the Rushes)

But they are all great.

wendersfan

This is easy:

Murmur
Chronic Town
Reckoning
Fables of the Reconstruction
Life's Rich Pageant
Document

REM were definitely a band that peaked early and went straight downhill from there. I was lucky enough to see them twice before they started to suck. Once in early '83 (before Murmur) and once in late '85.

Ky-Fi

Reckoning will always be the definitive R.E.M. album for me. I thought their songwriting, guitar sound and overall vision just crystalized on that album---it's in my top 10 albums of all time. To me it's a perfect example of a band being inspired by their influences (60's folk-rock, rural American South, punk/new wave, etc), without being overpowered by those influences.

I also liked Document a lot. I must admit I haven't kept up with much of their Warner releases, even though I pretty much liked most of the singles they've released.

astrochimp

I cant even put these in order cept i would have to list Life's Rich Pageant as #1 because at that time i was listening mainly to heavy metal and i wanted something different,not only in music but in the people i hung around with and i saw the video for "Fall on Me" and went out and bought Pageant and to this day its one of my alltime favorite albums Document would probably be next and Automatic for the People would be my top 3(oops i think i crossed over record labels there )

atlantamoi

Yeah! I like this thread better because I don't have to say anything bad about one of my favorite bands.

1 Murmur
2 Chronic Town
3 Lifes Rich Pageant ("Fall on Me" my fave song)
4 Reckoning
5 Document (Thanks for turning me on to old Wire)
6 Fables of Rec

I think the bottom 3 could be interchanged. I like the Warner material and bands HAVE to grow and change, but it's the little song that are their best. Plus, hearing this music as it was released rocked my world. There WAS a time when "alternative" music truly was that.

Hiro11

1. Document- great from beginning to end. It's tight as a drum and very assured.
2. Reckoning- has probably their best songs.
3. Murmur- classic, ground-breaking sound, but I personally don't like "West of the Fields" and "We Walk". Also, Stipes vocals are at their most impenitrible on this one.
4. Life's Rich Pagent- very inconsistent, but the highs (especially Cuyahoga) are amoung the best.
5. Chronic Town- it's not a full length, and really not very good except for Gardening at Night.
6. Fables- the sound of REM doing to much dope in England. Bloated.

atlantamoi

Okay, you have good taste in music so I won't say more than that!!

Hiro11

...I guess I should emphasize that it's definitely IMO. I personally really don't like 1000000 or A Carnival of Sorts (the latter reeks of english major pretention). Gardening at Night is terrific and parts of Wolves, Lower sound great, but two songs I like out of six isn't enough...

wendersfan

I think, song for song, Chronic Town is the best thing REM ever did. I consider Murmur a better work, but mainly because it's got twice as many songs, of almost equal appeal.

Maybe I should go back and listen to it again...

What really surprised me is how much you guys like Document.

cdollaz

Life's Rich Pageant (Flowers of Guatemala)
Document (Exhuming McCarthy)
Murmer (Pilgrimage)
Reckoning (So. Central Rain)
Fables (This is my least fave all-time REM record)