Greatest REM song

[Hiber-nation]

To follow on from the Beatles/Stones/Who threads....I've been listening to REM for the first time in years and I'm blown away by how good some of their stuff still sounds. But to pick one song is almost impossible - for me you could pick 4 songs each of Document, Green and Automatic For The People and there would be little to choose from. Plus there's some excellent stuff in their early albums.

I'll narrow it down to 3 and they're fairly predictable:

Man On The Moon
Orange Crush
The One I Love

[Mibbes Aye]

For me it is the early stuff and nothing, nothing, will exceed “Fall On Me”, just the harmonies, and Mike Mills backing vocals’ to Michael Stipe.

Second up, from the same album IIRC is “I Believe”. It is just pure energy, rambunctionus and has a constant drive.

Third is ‘Carnival of Sorts (Boxcar) from their first album. If you only ever listen to one REM song, that tells you all you need to know about them. Not as pretty as ‘Fall On Me’ though.

The stuff from ‘Green’ is excellent and I would be hard put to diminish the tracks on that. It was how I first heard REM and fell in love with their music but ‘Life’s Rich Pageant’ quickly became my favourite.

[hibsbollah]

Good question. A truly great band; they probably wouldn’t be in my ten favourite acts but they probably should be, they’ve been making great music for a long time.

I needed Spotify to help me a bit, very close run thing but

Strange Currencies (off Monster)
Near Wild Heaven (Out of Time)
Finest Worksong (Document)

Nightswimming and Everybody Hurts (from Automatic for the People) miss out by a baw hair.

[Mibbes Aye]

Good question. A truly great band; they probably wouldn’t be in my ten favourite acts but they probably should be, they’ve been making great music for a long time.

I needed Spotify to help me a bit, very close run thing but

Strange Currencies (off Monster)
Near Wild Heaven (Out of Time)
Finest Worksong (Document)

Nightswimming and Everybody Hurts (from Automatic for the People) miss out by a baw hair.

Some good shouts there.

[hibsbollah]

Some good shouts there.

Yep some great songs from Green as well, probably my favourite R.E.M. album in its entirety. Top ten REM tracks would be a fairer question!

[Hiber-nation]

Good question. A truly great band; they probably wouldn’t be in my ten favourite acts but they probably should be, they’ve been making great music for a long time.

I needed Spotify to help me a bit, very close run thing but

Strange Currencies (off Monster)
Near Wild Heaven (Out of Time)
Finest Worksong (Document)

Nightswimming and Everybody Hurts (from Automatic for the People) miss out by a baw hair.

Yeah good choices and I agree totally with the bit in bold

If I can choose a non-single, Oddfellows Local 101 from Document is a particular fave.

[hibsbollah]

Yeah good choices and I agree totally with the bit in bold

If I can choose a non-single, Oddfellows Local 101 from Document is a particular fave.

You obviously like the grungier sound, that could be Nirvana :greengrin
Documemt is a great collection of songs.

[JohnM1875]

Nightswimmimg for me. Probably in my top 10 songs ever.

[patch1875]

E Bow The Letter

Or

Drive

[Just_Jimmy]

Saw them live in 2005 at loch Lomond. Epic.

Shiny happy people

Everybody hurts.

I know they're cliche but who cares. I love the video to everybody hurts too.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Onceinawhile]

Saw them live in 2005 at loch Lomond. Epic.

Shiny happy people

Everybody hurts.

I know they're cliche but who cares. I love the video to everybody hurts too.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

The zutons and feeder too? That was some week for me.

For me it's probably:

Night swimming or half a world away.

[JeMeSouviens]

I think Document and especially New Adventures in Hi-Fi are hugely underrated. I love Finest Worksong from the former and Undertow, Leave and Be Mine from the latter. Be Mine probably my favourite.

[AFKA5814_Hibs]

Shiny Happy People. The original Friends theme choice from the unaired pilot.

https://youtu.be/Tl5751mttoE

[Mibbes Aye]

I gave my vinyl record colletcion, or at least whar she wanted of it, to my little sister, a few years back. One of them was the 12" of 'Orange Crush' (I think). On the B-side (should pause here to explain what 12"s and B-sides were to younger listeners, while trying not to be patronising :greengrin), Stipe had recorded a very heartfelt version of Syd Barrett's "Dark Globe". It is exquisite though I wouldn't swap it for the top three I mentioned

They also did a commendable version of "Love is All Around", on anither single, again as a B-side I think, and again, Mike Mills was on point with the backing vocals.

[KingFranck]

I'd go for
Finest Worksong
Nightswimming
Driver 8

[Mibbes Aye]

I gave my vinyl record colletcion, or at least whar she wanted of it, to my little sister, a few years back. One of them was the 12" of 'Orange Crush' (I think). On the B-side (should pause here to explain what 12"s and B-sides were to younger listeners, while trying not to be patronising :greengrin), Stipe had recorded a very heartfelt version of Syd Barrett's "Dark Globe". It is exquisite though I wouldn't swap it for the top three I mentioned

They also did a commendable version of "Love is All Around", on anither single, again as a B-side I think, and again, Mike Mills was on point with the backing vocals.

EDIT - memory is a tremendous thing when it works. It is actually Mills who takes a rare lead on the main vocal for 'Love Is All Around' and Stipe takes a back seat, but a great back seat, on the supporting vocal. You get the sense that Mills could have made a solo career in a John Denver sort of style.

[Andy74]

Back in the early 90s I had a night out in Michael Stipe’s company in Atlanta. For what it’s worth his favourite REM song at the time was Country Feedback.

[ac1]

Have every REM album - a great band

Would be hard to pick 3 best albums let alone songs -

You are the Everything
Don't go back to Rockville
Strange Currencies

[Peevemor]

A great band with some brilliant songs. I am a fan but would be more of one except I really don't like Michael Stipes' voice. He has a timbre that starts grating on me after 3-4 songs.

He has a very similar voice to the lead singers from the B52s & They Might be Giants. Both groups I like too.

[G15 Hibs]

For what it’s worth his favourite REM song at the time was Country Feedback.

That's a marvellous number, right enough.

Being an up-my-own-arse music snob I'm very much a fan of their first couple of records, which, fittingly, remind me of a summer working in Leith years ago, more than anything. Pretty Persuasion, Talk About the Passion, Shaking Through and Harborcoat would be up there with my favourites, although you could pick anything off Reckoning and I'd be happy. Diminishing returns for me after that, but still plenty of gems until the mid-90s. They would probably have been best calling it a day about 15 years before they did.

[ac1]

That's a marvellous number, right enough.

Being an up-my-own-arse music snob I'm very much a fan of their first couple of records, which, fittingly, remind me of a summer working in Leith years ago, more than anything. Pretty Persuasion, Talk About the Passion, Shaking Through and Harborcoat would be up there with my favourites, although you could pick anything off Reckoning and I'd be happy. Diminishing returns for me after that, but still plenty of gems until the mid-90s. They would probably have been best calling it a day about 15 years before they did.

For me everything up until and including New Adventures in Hi-Fi were superb. They definitely went downhill after and should have called it a day earlier as you say.

I also liked Reveal as well though - kind of a summer album feel to it

[Hiber-nation]

That's a marvellous number, right enough.

Being an up-my-own-arse music snob I'm very much a fan of their first couple of records, which, fittingly, remind me of a summer working in Leith years ago, more than anything. Pretty Persuasion, Talk About the Passion, Shaking Through and Harborcoat would be up there with my favourites, although you could pick anything off Reckoning and I'd be happy. Diminishing returns for me after that, but still plenty of gems until the mid-90s. They would probably have been best calling it a day about 15 years before they did.

I have to say I've rarely listened to them since the abysmal Around The Sun in 2004. Until last week that is!

Oh and Around The Sun is still pish :wink:

[ac1]

I have to say I've rarely listened to them since the abysmal Around The Sun in 2004. Until last week that is!

Oh and Around The Sun is still pish :wink:


Yeah their worst album in my eyes - liked Electron Blue and that's about it.......

They went downhill after Bill Berry left. They were never the same band again

[G15 Hibs]

They went downhill after Bill Berry left. They were never the same band again

That's pretty spot on. Its like he acted as a kind of quality control filter. They'd said they wouldn't continue if one of them left, so you wonder if a bit of the spirit was lost when he quit and they still went on.

[hibsbollah]

For me everything up until and including New Adventures in Hi-Fi were superb. They definitely went downhill after and should have called it a day earlier as you say.

I also liked Reveal as well though - kind of a summer album feel to it

I liked Collapse into Now as well, I thought that was a return to form. Some good tracks on that, Walk it Back etc.

Id never even heard of some of the early 2000s stuff, There’s one called Up! ? that Passed me by completely.

[ac1]

I liked Collapse into Now as well, I thought that was a return to form. Some good tracks on that, Walk it Back etc.

Id never even heard of some of the early 2000s stuff, There’s one called Up! ? that Passed me by completely.

You might recognise 'At My Most Beautiful' - UP was all over the place as an album - Stipe said they were in a state of shock after Billy Berry told them he was leaving. They were using drum machines and things which would be unheard of for REM

[ac1]

That's pretty spot on. Its like he acted as a kind of quality control filter. They'd said they wouldn't continue if one of them left, so you wonder if a bit of the spirit was lost when he quit and they still went on.

Yeah think is heart wasn't in it after the brain hemorrhage in Switzerland. Wanted to relax on his farm. Fair play

[The Modfather]

Don’t think it’s been mentioned but I liked Bad Day, even if not in the same class as most of the others mentioned.

[Shezza]

Livin Thing
Mr Blue Sky
Last train to London

I’m dyslexic by the way