Murmur: REM (1983)
Fans joked that Murmur should have been titled mumble. The album introduced the world to Michael Stipe’s cryptic and at times undecipherable lyrics and Peter Buck’s jangly guitar sound. The album helped kick off college rock and began the steady build to the alternative revolution of the early 1990s.
Key Tracks:
Radio Free Europe
Talk About the Passion
Perfect Circle
Pilgrimage
Document: REM (1987)
R.E.M. toyed with breaking through to the mainstream prior to Document. However, this album brought commercial success and a platinum certification. Despite the breakthrough with songs such as “The One I Love” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, the band stayed true to itself with such tracks as “Welcome to the Occupation”, “Exhuming McCarthy”, and “Disturbance at the Heron House.”
Key Tracks:
Finest Worksong
Welcome to the Occupation
Disturbance at the Heron House
It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
The One I Love
Automatic for the People: REM (1992)
Out of Time made R.E.M. unlikely rock royalty. The band planned to follow up the folksy sounding multi-platinum monster with a rock album, but abandoned the project. Instead, they teamed with John Paul Jones to craft a subdued album based on mortality. The result, Automatic for the People, and its themes of lost youth and death, has stood up well over two decades and is one of the finest albums of the period.
Key Tracks:
Drive
Try Not to Breathe
Everybody Hurts
Man on the Moon
Nightswimming
Find the River
New Adventures in Hi-Fi: REM (1996)
After releasing their own “grunge” album with Monster, R.E.M. created perhaps the most underrated album in music history. Many of the songs were written and perfected while touring, which is perhaps why some of the tracks deal with travel. Interestingly, the album did not do as well as prior R.E.M. efforts. In hindsight, the decline of the record industry may have actually begun just prior to Napster and the download craze of the late 1990s.
Key Tracks:
Electrolite
Binky the Doormat
Bittersweet Me
E-Bow the Letter
Fans joked that Murmur should have been titled mumble. The album introduced the world to Michael Stipe’s cryptic and at times undecipherable lyrics and Peter Buck’s jangly guitar sound. The album helped kick off college rock and began the steady build to the alternative revolution of the early 1990s.
Key Tracks:
Radio Free Europe
Talk About the Passion
Perfect Circle
Pilgrimage
Document: REM (1987)
R.E.M. toyed with breaking through to the mainstream prior to Document. However, this album brought commercial success and a platinum certification. Despite the breakthrough with songs such as “The One I Love” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, the band stayed true to itself with such tracks as “Welcome to the Occupation”, “Exhuming McCarthy”, and “Disturbance at the Heron House.”
Key Tracks:
Finest Worksong
Welcome to the Occupation
Disturbance at the Heron House
It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
The One I Love
Automatic for the People: REM (1992)
Out of Time made R.E.M. unlikely rock royalty. The band planned to follow up the folksy sounding multi-platinum monster with a rock album, but abandoned the project. Instead, they teamed with John Paul Jones to craft a subdued album based on mortality. The result, Automatic for the People, and its themes of lost youth and death, has stood up well over two decades and is one of the finest albums of the period.
Key Tracks:
Drive
Try Not to Breathe
Everybody Hurts
Man on the Moon
Nightswimming
Find the River
New Adventures in Hi-Fi: REM (1996)
After releasing their own “grunge” album with Monster, R.E.M. created perhaps the most underrated album in music history. Many of the songs were written and perfected while touring, which is perhaps why some of the tracks deal with travel. Interestingly, the album did not do as well as prior R.E.M. efforts. In hindsight, the decline of the record industry may have actually begun just prior to Napster and the download craze of the late 1990s.
Key Tracks:
Electrolite
Binky the Doormat
Bittersweet Me
E-Bow the Letter
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