Rate and Rank All R.E.M.'s Studio Albums

Murmur 5
Automatic 5
Chronic Town 4.5
Lifes Rich Pageant 4.5
Reckoning 4.5
Document 4
New Adventures In HiFi 4
Out Of Time 4
Fables 3.5
Monster 3.5
Reveal 3.5
Green 3
Up 3
Collapse Into Now 3
Accelerate 2.5
Around The Sun 2

 

Murmur 5.0
Reckoning 4.5
Fables 4.0
Lifes Rich Pageant 5.0
Document 3.5
Green 4.0
Out of Time 4.0
Automatic 5.0
Monster 3.0
Adventures 4.0
Up 3.0
Reveal 3.5
Around the Sun 2.0
Accelerate 2.5
Collapse 3.5

 

16) Around the Sun - 1.5
15) Reveal - 2.5
14) Up - 3.0
13) Accelerate - 2.0
12) Collapse Into Now - 2.0
11) Dead Letter Office - 3.0
10) Out of Time - 3.5
9) Monster - 3.5
8) Green - 3.5
7) Life's Rich Pageant - 4.0
6) New Adventures in Hi-Fi - 3.5
5) Document - 4.5
4) Reckoning - 4.0
3) Automatic For the People - 5
2) Fables of the Reconstruction - 3.5
1) Murmur - 5

CAREER AVERAGE: 3.375
CAREER AVERAGE (with Berry): 3.90

 

I should make the point that my ranking of Reveal may be too high. My Reveal playlist on my iPod, removes a number of cuts, uses alternate versions and slightly reorders the album:

The Lifting (demo version from In Time: Best of...)
I've Been High (iTunes Originals version)
All the Way to Reno
She Just Wants to Be (R.E.Mix version)
Beat a Drum (demo version from In Time: Best of...)
Imitation of Life
Disappear
Summer Turns To High
Beachball
I'll Take the Rain

 

Document had the big singles and heavy radio play. IMO, Life's Rich Pageant is their best effort. It's also their crossover to mainstream album. IMO

 

I've gotten to a place where the only R.E.M. album that pulls me in completely is Automatic for the People, which is a seminal album for me. That said, I listen to R.E.M. quite a bit.

I'm no good at ranking but below generally represents my favorite albums in descending order. These are what I listen to most on the studio albums (with my perennially essential songs bolded). Some of my favorite songs belong to my least favorite albums:

• Automatic for the People (Find the River, Nightswimming, Sweetness Follows; {Ignoreland is the only track I skip -- or generally replace with their cover of First We Take Manhattan})
• Lifes Rich Pageant (I Believe, Fall on Me, Begin the Begin, These Days, Flowers of Guatemala)
• Up (Hope, Why Not Smile, At My Most Beautiful, Walk Unafraid, The Apologist)
• Accelerate (Hollow Man, Living Well's the Best Revenge, Man-Sized Wreath, Accelerate, Mr. Richards)
• Document (King of Birds, It's the End of the World as We Know It [and I Feel Fine], Finest Worksong, Exhuming McCarthy, Strange, The One I Love)
• Out of Time (Belong, Country Feedback, Low, Half a World Away, Endgame)
• Murmur (Perfect Circle, Talk About the Passion, Catapult, We Walk)
• Green (World Leader Pretend, Get Up, Untitled)
• Reckoning ([Don't Go Back to] Rockville, So. Central Rain, Camera)
• Monster (What's the Frequency Kenneth)
• New Adventures in Hi-Fi (How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us, Electrolite, E-Bow the Letter, Bittersweet Me, Be Mine)
• Fables of the Reconstruction (Wendell Gee, Driver 8, Feeling Gravitys Pull)

Re: Reveal, Around the Sun & Collapse into Now... nothing has ever really stuck, though I try them on occasion. This time of year, Reveal is pleasant enough in the background. I recently bought the DVD-A of Around the Sun, hoping its 5.1 mix would pull me in -- but its musical monotony (to my ears) and lackluster lyrics (to my taste) still overwhelmed the experience; this time.

I also listen to a fair bit of live stuff (Unplugged, Deluxe Edition live discs, some "ROIO," DVD rips, etc.) and B-Sides probably as much as the albums listed above.

 

I Absolutely loved Reveal! To me it was kind of a return to form. I'm surprised it's so far down on most of these lists.

 

Cronic Town (EP) - 3
Murmur - 4
Reckoning - 4
Fables of the Reconstruction - 4
Life's Rich Pageant - 4
Document - 3
Green - 3
Out of Time - 4
Automatic For the People - 5
Monster - 3
New Adventures In Hi-Fi - 4
Up - 4
Reveal - 3
Around the Sun - 2
Accelerate - 2
Collapse Into Now - 2

 

I was disappointed with Document when it came out as well, but I've grown to appreciate it over the years (over the decades I should say). Songs like Heron House and Oddfellows are low key and strange, but the melodies are nice once you get accustomed to them. The horn mix of Finest Worksong (on Eponymous) is better than the version on Document though!

 

Posting without reading what others have posted:

1. "Murmur" (5)
The acknowledged classic and I think it really is the best one. It's sometimes a little hard to get excited about R.E.M. because their vaguely-folky, Byrds-ish approach became such an alternative-rock trope and because they were at least as likely to follow trends as they were to anticipate them. But this record really does sound like no other record, particularly for the remote, weird-sounding production. It gives the album a dreamlike sound, one that befits the band's name. There's also great, direct pop songs under all that odd production.

2. "Automatic for the People" (5)
Stunning record. A perfect marriage of quiet, understated songwriting and washed-out, almost spectral-sounding acoustic arrangements and production. The highlights aren't the hits (and it's pretty remarkable to note that this album even had hits)! "Sweetness Follows" and "Find the River", which close sides one and two, are the finest examples of the album's strengths.

3. "Reckoning" (5)
Second album abandons the "out-there" sound of "Murmur" (which I think was a brave move). Some of the time, the spare production is replaced by lush and beautiful arrangements, as on "Time After Time" and "Camera". But most of the time, the performances are straight ones that let you hear the pop songs plainly. And the pop songs are great--not a dud on the record.

4. "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" (5)
I loved this one from the minute it came out, reviews be damned. I think it's an electric "Automatic for the People", just as dry and understated, but arranged with a broader sonic palette. I never even noticed how long it was until someone pointed it out on this forum.

5. "Life's Rich Pageant" (4.5)
Really, really great pop album, almost to the point of being definitive R.E.M.

6. "Up" (4)
First album after Bill Berry left, and the one album where there was an advantage to not having a regular drummer: it made it possible to jump into low-dosage electronica of the "OK Computer" variety. As I recall, one of the members of the group (I think it was Mike Mills) described it at the time as a "headphones record", and that's exactly what it's great for. Exception: the Beach Boys homage "At My Most Beautiful" is fantastic in any listening context.

7. "Out of Time" (4)
It's kind of funny in retrospect that this album is the one that picked up so many new fans (including me) and was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy. I love this album, even if it's not an artistic breakthrough, and maybe the least cohesive R.E.M. album. It all comes down to pop songs in the end.

8. "Green" (3.5)
Very good, entertaining record. Like I just said: it all comes down to pop songs in the end.

9. "Document" (3)
10. "Fables of the Reconstruction" (3)
"Document" has strong songs, but it's also got a little bit too much of R.E.M. trying to be a hard-rock act, which was always the one thing they would persistently do that I never thought they were all that good at. "Fables" is a little too oddball for my tastes; I was saving that one up for a long time and only heard it a year ago. Maybe I haven't "gotten" it yet.

11. "Collapse Into Now" (3)
12. "Accelerate" (3)
13. "Reveal" (3)
14. "Around the Sun" (3)
I'm writing this up off of memory, and I don't know if this would exactly be the order these albums would appear in if I were to listen to them all again. I've got "Collapse Into Now" on top because of "Discoverer". I remember "Reveal" being kind of a letdown (though the Beach Boys homage "Summer Turns To High" is great). I also remember "Around the Sun" being much better than the stinker it was made out to be in the reviews. All are enjoyable while you're listening to them.

15. "Monster" (1)
The only R.E.M. album that I categorically don't like; it's the one where they try to be the baddest band on the block, and they're just not so good at that. Credit for experimentation and trying different things.

I've not heard "Dead Letter Office".

If there's a hot "take" from all this, it's that I think that, as a group, the first six albums on Warner are as good as the five albums on I.R.S. Records. "Monster" stinks, but I think "Green", "Out of Time", "Automatic", "New Adventures", and "Up" are a terrific (and terrifically varied) set of '90s alternative-rock albums.

 

I just listened to "Up" for the first time in over a decade. It's still a bit hit and miss for me but there are some very memorable songs on it. "Parakeet", "Diminished" and "Walk Unafraid" to name a few. In my original list, I gave "Up" a 2.5. I think I was probably too hard on it because it just doesn't compare well to all of the R.E.M albums before it. That's not fair, as it should be rated on it's own merit. I'm revising to a 3.

"Up", "Reveal" and "Around the Sun" have always sounded like Michael Stipe solo records to me. Berry is obviously gone. Mill's vocal harmonies are very rare and Buck's guitar's are an afterthought. I know, it's probably unfair, but that's how I've always thought of them.

 

Dang, I forgot about that one--I think I underrated "Reveal"...

 

If I were including it in the ranking, I'd have put the 1991 MTV "Unplugged" (which I don't have the proper album of, but which I did tape off the radio when it was simulcast on WXRT!) somewhere in the top half, maybe below "Life's Rich Pageant" and above "Up". Great alternate versions of a really strong selection from R.E.M.'s catalog, with several being improvements on the studio versions ("Half a World Away", "Disturbance at the Heron House", "Low").

 

I've never been able to get into Reveal (and I have tried). I always place it at the bottom of the ranking and I can honestly say it's an album I don't like, at all. I'm not an enthusiast of Monster either, but if I have to choose between the two, there's no question that Monster (and even Out of Tine) are far superior. Reveal is extremely boring with a few songs that could have been better with less production and lesser running time (an example being "She just wants to be").

On the other hand, I've never had an issue with either Up or Around the Sun. I think Around the Sun is a great album (except for 2-3 "skippable" songs) the problem is the time it needs to "make sense": its songs just grow and grow with each listen until you realise the beauty and depth of its lyrics and instrumentation. Of course it could have been a much better album, the product feels "unfinished" but that doesn't deprive it of its richness -"Aftermath" proves the point.

 

Yeah, never got the hate, and I was disappointed in the band with its forced confession that it sucked and promised that they were "better now" with Accelerate. Around The Sun at least feels focused lyrically. The band doesn't seem to be fully committed on the last two albums, imo.

 

Green - 5
Out Of Time - 4
Murmur - 4
Automatic - 3.5
Document -3.5
Fables-3.5
Reckoning-3.5
Life's Rich Pageant-3.5
Monster-3
New Adventures-3
Up -3
Reveal-3
Around The Sun-2.5
Accelerate-2.5
Collapse Into Now -n/a (I never really listened to the full album proper)

 

Chronic Town E.P. - 5
Murmur - 3
Reckoning - 3
Fables - 4
Pageant - 5
Document - 5
Green - 3.5
Out of Time - 4
Automatic - 5
Monster - 4
New Adventures - 3.5
Up - 3
Reveal - 5
Around The Sun - 0.5
Accelerate - 4
Collapse - 4.5

 

I'm curious if your age may be part of the reason for your ratings. Do you mind me asking your age? I'm thinking your in your 30s or younger.

 

Simple: earlier the better. Note: I went to college in the 80s.

 

On of my favorite bands. Whenever a live band asks for requests I always shout out "REM!"

Murmur = 4
Reckoning = 4
Fables = 3
Life's = 5
Document = 4
Green = 4
Out = 5
Automatic = 3
Monster = 4

They lost me after Monster...

 

Favorite to least:

Life's Rich Pageant
Automatic
Document
New Adventures
Accelerate
Reckoning
Murmur
Monster
Green
Out Of Time
Fables
Collapse Into Now
Reveal
Up

Around The Sun

 

While I've got them hiding amongst the thousands, I haven't really listened to the post Bill Berry albums enough to have any real opinion on them, other than they were short on hits.

 

I had forgot that I had responded to this thread a year ago. I dutifully went about compiling my list again and came up with pretty much the exact same scores. My list today had Adventures in Hi Fi up a half a point and Monster down a half a point but otherwise the same.

For those fascinated by R.E.M. and lists, check this out:

The absolute best of R.E.M.: All 282 songs ranked by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ readers

 

They have "Tongue" at 132 which is about 150 places too high on the list, for my tastes. Can't argue too much with the top 3.

 

• Chronic Town (3)-but only because it is an EP,not an LP-give it an extra 1.5 if rating it as an EP
• Murmur (4)
• Reckoning (3.5)
• Fables of the Reconstruction (4.5)
• Lifes Rich Pageant (4)
• Document (5)
• Green (4)
• Out of Time (4.5)
• Automatic for the People (4)
• Monster (3.5)
• New Adventures in Hi Fi (3)
• Up (3)
• Reveal (?)
• Around the Sun (?)
• Accelerate (?)
• Collapse into Now (?)