R.E.M. - "Country Feedback" (1991)

Still probably our single favorite R.E.M. song.

A real stunner!

R.E.M. - "Country Feedback" (1991)

Hello Friends,

I can't believe R.E.M.'s Out Of Time is 25 years old this week.  

It seems like it was only a couple of years ago that my mom came to my high school straight from a trip to Sam Goody to drop off a brand new copy of this cassette on the day it came out (which also happened to be my birthday.)

A quarter of a century later, this song still tears me up.

Crazy what you could've had.

Reconstruction of the Fables

R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction (1985)

Hello friends,

The Reconstruction was a period in U.S. History-- from the end of the Civil War to 1877-- in which the Southern states tried to assimilate back into the Union.  On R.E.M.'s third album, entitled Fables of the Reconstruction, there's a band striving to sound slightly more "grown up" while still maintaining their independent and idealized southern roots.  Assimilate they did not.  

Like its predecessors, Fables is steeped in the sound and feel of America's (gothic) South.  There's more jangly & murky music interwoven with cryptic lyrics, themes & characters.   Making the occasional cameo are string quartets & horn sections (on "Feeling Gravitys Pull" and the single, "Cant Get There From Here", respectively.)

"When the world is a monster, bad to swallow you whole"

Like the best REM songs, deciphering the lyrics is like figuring out a puzzle!  There's a song about a comet, "Kohoutek"; migrant-workers, "Green Grow the Rushes"; an eccentric old timer, "Old Man Kensey"; and a train conductor, "Driver 8"-- which is probably the closest the band has gotten to a straight narrative up to this point.

"The power lines have floaters so the airplanes won't get snagged"

As usual, Peter Buck's guitar provides the perfect foil to Michael Stipe's twangy, surreal lyrics.  And Mike Mills and Bill Berry aren't just along for the ride.  Their rhythm section and harmonies provide the perfect complement to the larger landscape. Just listen to a song like "Life and How to Live It" and you'll see what I mean!

"My carpenter's out and running about, talking to the street"

Found a mint-condition copy of this LP recently at a flea market!  (Yay Flea Markets!!!)  Listening to this on vinyl on a warm spring night really took me me back to younger, simpler times.  I remember listening to this over and over again with headphones on trying to figure out what the lyrics were and what the songs were all about.  Now you can just Google things.  I suppose that's progress.  With all that time I would have saved, I could have been talking to girls!    

"When you greet a stranger, look at his shoes"

5 Man Ray kind of Skies out of a possible 5

(Hey that's three reviews in a row that are third albums!  Pretty neat!-- Ned)