The R.E.M. album-by-album Thread (2015)

Do it soon.

 

It's really OK to talk about an album after a thread has moved on! I've seen it done oodles of times here and I know I've done it myself!

 

Ok Reckoning... Similar to Murmur, I used to have them both on one cassette and they blurred into one for me. Gorgeous Rickenbacker guitar throughout, no duff tracks in sight and glorious mumbled vocals.

Harbourcoat - one of my faves, it's a perfect group effort
7 Chinese Bros - another perfect slice of jangle pop. Awesome
So. Central Rain - a country flavour but very Byrdsian. An enduring single.
Pretty Persuasion - great pop track with odd simultaneous vocals.
Time After Time - nice groove to the song and mysterious lyrics. Closes a faultless first side.
Second Guessing - fun fast Jangly number
Letter Never Sent - love Stipes weird vocal hiccups here
Camera - beautiful haunting ballad and deeply moving. Some timing issues but still amazing stuff
Don't Go Back To Rockville - Mills song and it's a class act with, shock horror, normal lyrics that tell a story!
Little America - it's a good song but it's a tad filler for me, like West of the Fields was on Murmur

Timeless album, as good as rock music gets.

 

I've been chasing that 'Rockville' piano part since I was a kid. My producer recently-listened to a piano take and said "That's some great Mike Mills!" Dammit. I almost thought I got away with it. Shoulders of Giants. Mill's piano parts are always wonderful, even if the song in question is lacking slightly: see 'Shaking Through' (I seem to be the only person who likes it) / 'Parakeet' / 'Aftermath'.

How 'Rockville' originally went. It's not really that different, other than the fantastic piano.



An interesting essay by the girl who inspired the song and her place in band history:

http://hilobrow.com/2011/09/23/rockville-girl-speaks/

 

Fables of the Reconstruction is the band's third studio album.




Released on I.R.S. Records June 10th, 1985.

Track listing
All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe except as indicated.

Side one – "A Side"
"Feeling Gravitys Pull" – 4:51
"Maps and Legends" – 3:10
"Driver 8" – 3:23
"Life and How to Live It" – 4:06
"Old Man Kensey" (Jerry Ayers, Berry, Buck, Mills, and Stipe) – 4:08

Side two – "Another Side"
"Cant Get There from Here" – 3:39
"Green Grow the Rushes" – 3:46
"Kohoutek" – 3:18
"Auctioneer (Another Engine)" – 2:44
"Good Advices" – 3:30
"Wendell Gee" – 3:01



Cover & Packaging

On the vinyl and cassette releases, side one was labeled the "A side" and side two "Another side." The "A side" label bore the title Fables of the Reconstruction, while "Another side" bore the title Reconstruction of the Fables. The front cover of all releases shows the words "Fables of the", while the back cover reads "Reconstruction of the". The CD label has the title simply as "Fables of the Reconstruction", while both spines are labeled "Reconstruction of the Fables". The ambiguous title makes possible reference to both the Reconstruction era of the United States and the literary process of deconstruction.

Also, the liner notes list a song titled "When I Was Young" as among the tracklisting, but it does not appear on the album. The song was played live several times during the 1985 "Preconstruction" U.S. college tour (a tour that took place before the release of the album), but it was quickly dropped. However, the song was reworked into "I Believe", and released on the following album 'Lifes Rich Pageant'.

A demo version of "When I Was Young" appears as "Throw Those Trolls Away" on the 25th Anniversary Edition of 'Fables', released July 13, 2010; the CD-Text information on the disc, however, still identifies the song's title as "When I Was Young".


Background

Despite the growing audience and critical acclaim experienced by the band after its first two albums, 'Murmur' and 'Reckoning', R.E.M. decided to make noticeable changes to its style of music and recording habits, including a change in producer to Joe Boyd, and also in recording location to London, England. Boyd was best known for his work with modern English folk musicians, including such acts such as Fairport Convention and Nick Drake.

It was still a conceptual record by R.E.M. standards: lyrically, the album explores the mythology and landscape of the South, and the title and chorus of "Cant Get There from Here", the album's first single (and intentionally misspelled, like most contractions and possessives in R.E.M. titles), is a rural American colloquialism sometimes used in response to a request by travelers for difficult directions. The video for that particular song received airplay on MTV in America, and on smaller programs in many other countries around the world. If you were in Australia like me in late 1985, this song was on high rotation on TV music shows, notably from the more independant non-commercial stations like the 'ABC' and 'SBS'.


The Music & Possible Meanings

The opening song, "Feeling Gravitys Pull", describes falling asleep while reading; Michael Stipe's lyrics also reference surrealist photographer Man Ray, setting the tone for the album. The song was a musical departure for the band, making use of a dark, chromatic guitar figure led by Peter Buck, and a string quartet, while R.E.M.'s previous albums had opened with rhythmic, "jangly" rock songs.

"Maps and Legends" fits the earlier sound and features distinct harmony vocals by bassist Mike Mills, singing different lyrics from Stipe. The song is dedicated to the Reverend Howard Finster, a noted outsider artist whom the band considered to be "a man of vision and feeling—a fine example to all" (Finster created the album sleeve for R.E.M.'s Reckoning the previous year).

"Driver 8" describes the scenery surrounding railroad tracks in somewhat abstract terms. Trains are a frequent motif in rural American music, suggesting the freedom and promise of an escape from one's home environment. Driven by a distinctive guitar riff, "Driver 8" was one of the songs on the album to receive college radio play, and the record company also authorized a music video (again, breaking the band across many new markets overseas for the first time).

Beginning with a soft introduction, "Life and How to Live It" charged through another atmospheric, folk rock arrangement and referenced storytelling. Without mentioning him by name, the song was about Athens, Georgia, author Brivs Mekis, as alluded to in the live performance on the 'And I Feel Fine...' bonus disc. (Mekis wrote a book titled Life: How to Live, and had it printed, only to have all existing copies of it stacked in his closet).

Much of the band's songwriting material in this era also came from the members' own experiences traveling through the country in near-constant tours over the previous several years, as well as an increasing sense of political activism which would find expression on subsequent albums 'Lifes Rich Pageant' and 'Document'. Stipe later said that his previous lyrics never really had any literal meanings, and that by this time, he had begun to write lyrics that told stories.

The song "Green Grow the Rushes" is a prime example of this: it contains the line "the amber waves of gain" and is thought to be about migrant farm laborers and also alludes to the folk song "Green Grow the Rushes, O".

"Kohoutek" (misspelled as "Kahoetek" in the album's liner notes) referenced the comet Kohoutek, and is perhaps one of the earliest R.E.M. songs about a romantic relationship, using the comet as a simile for a lover who, "like Kohoutek, you were gone."

The song "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" deviated from the typical R.E.M. sound of the time, with jagged guitar riffs and more references to old rural ways of life.

The plaintive "Good Advices" contains the following Stipe lyric that has been quoted in musical and literary contexts: "When you meet a stranger, look at his shoes / keep your money in your shoes."

A celebration of an eccentric individual is the subject of "Old Man Kensey" (which has lyrics by Stipe's friend Jerry Ayers) and closing track "Wendell Gee." The latter, a ballad with piano and more harmonies from Berry and Mills, was the album's third and final single in the UK only, although it made no commercial impression there.


Release & Reception

Upon release, 'Fables of the Reconstruction' reached #28 in the United States (going gold in 1991) and was the band's best showing yet in the UK, peaking at #35. Recorded during a period of internal strife—largely due to the R.E.M. members' homesickness and an unpleasant London winter, the band's unenthusiastic view of the album has been public for years, and is often reflected among fans and the press. Drummer Bill Berry was quoted in the early 1990s as saying that Fables of the Reconstruction "sucked"; frontman Michael Stipe once shared the opinion but lately has said he considers it home to some of their more notable songs, telling producer Joe Boyd that he had grown to love the album.

Peter Buck, in the liner notes of the 25th Anniversary Deluxe edition, said, "Over the years, a certain misapprehension about Fables of the Reconstruction has built up. For some reason, people have the impression that the members of R.E.M. don't like the record. Nothing could be further from the truth. [...] It's a personal favorite, and I'm really proud of how strange it is. Nobody but R.E.M. could have made that record."

Fables was often characterized by a slow tempo and an intentionally murky sound, in contrast with the more upbeat and jangly (if equally abstract) sound of earlier R.E.M. material. Nevertheless, the focus on American folk instruments such as the banjo in "Wendell Gee" and a few additional orchestrations (string instruments in "Feeling Gravitys Pull" and honking brass in "Cant Get There from Here") began the band's route toward the layered, acoustic-based sound they adopted for their popular and more commercial breakthroughs in the late '80s and early '90s with albums such as 'Green', 'Out of Time', and 'Automatic for the People'.



Reviews


Pitchfork.com

These days we tend to think of music culture as being almost unreasonably fast-moving. Musicians, however, are generally not as productive as they once were. When R.E.M. were burning through a non-stop cycle of writing, recording, and touring in the 1980s, it was the industry norm. By 1985, the group was midway through the most productive period of its career, and had already released two instant classic albums within the span of 24 months for IRS Records. R.E.M. thrived on this pressure, and critical success seemed only to embolden them, resulting in a series of distinct, increasingly ambitious records that nudged them ever closer to the mainstream without sacrificing their character.
'Fables of the Reconstruction'... is the first [album] to show any sign of strain from the band's relentless schedule. It's a great and inspired album, but not quite as consistent as 'Murmur' or 'Reckoning', or other R.E.M. works to come down the line. Aside from the oddball lead single "Can't Get There From Here", which approximated southern funk via Peter Buck's chiming Rickenbacker chords, 'Fables' is a dark and murky set with a textural palette close to the muted earth tones of its packaging. As the title suggests, it is their most "Southern" album, with a sound that evokes images of railroads, small towns, eccentric locals, oppressive humidity, and a vague sense of time slowing to a crawl. For a bunch of guys who were still new to life on the road, the specificity of setting makes a lot of sense-- it's the homesick pride of people suddenly removed from their usual context.


Rolling Stone

One time, Jack Kerouac asked William Burroughs to read and react to something he'd written. Burroughs did so, and said he liked what he read. But that wasn't enough for Kerouac, who pressed: What do you specifically like about it? Burroughs replied that he didn't know what he liked about it, specifically. He just liked it, that's all.

Fables of the Reconstruction, the fourth record by R.E.M., invites similarly non-specific praise. One absorbs the sound of these songs, one by one, mood by mood, without being greatly concerned with precisely what they might be about. Too much close scrutiny — trying to comprehend singer Michael Stipe's often hazy diction and imposing an interpretive framework upon the few lyrics that can be sussed out — is a self-defeating and frustrating exercise, as a day's worth of listen-guess-replay-guess-again made clear to me. Better to just accept Stipe's dusky voice as an extraordinarily evocative instrument, perhaps the lead instrument in this band, since there are no soloists per se.

Though attempts at analysis will probably be futile, some stray fragment of a lyric — "It's a Man Ray kind of sky" or "When you greet a stranger/Look at her hands" — might set off all sorts of intellectual resonances. Because R.E.M. suggests instead of spells out, leaving you to guess at what tantalizing secrets they're keeping, they have amassed a substantial following among the kind of discriminating fans who spurn contemporary-hit radio and Music Television.


Stephen Thomas Erlewine (Allmusic.com)

For their third album, R.E.M. made a conscious effort to break from the traditions 'Murmur' and 'Reckoning' established, electing to record in England with legendary folk-rock producer Joe Boyd. For a variety of reasons, the sessions were difficult, and that tension is apparent throughout 'Fables of the Reconstruction'. A dark, moody rumination on American folk -- not only the music, but its myths -- 'Fables' is creepy, rustic psychedelic folk, filled with eerie sonic textures. Some light breaks through occasionally, such as the ridiculous collegiate blue-eyed soul of "Can't Get There From Here," but the group's trademark ringing guitars and cryptic lyrics have grown sinister, giving even sing-alongs like "Driver 8" an ominous edge. 'Fables' is more inconsistent than its two predecessors, but the group does demonstrate considerable musical growth, particularly in how perfectly it evokes the strange rural legends of the South. And many of the songs on the record -- including "Feeling Gravitys Pull," "Maps and Legends," "Green Grow the Rushes," "Auctioneer (Another Engine)," and the previously mentioned pair -- rank among the group's best.

 

While I had heard songs off of Murmur and Reckoning on MTV and at record stores, Fables was the first record I bought, largely off of MTV play of "Can't Get There From Here", a track I played over and over. I'm from New England, and "can't get there from hee-ah" is a Mainer expression if I've ever heard one. The whole album is good, with a healthy dab of weirdness.

I was surprised by Buck's comments in the Anniversary Edition, because conventional wisdom at the time was that the band was in a funk in Europe and unhappy, and ultimately unhappy with the murky and dark Fables. Lifes Rich Pageant was the "return to form". Of course it really wasn't, although a great album, but we can talk about that here later. The general point being that up until the jump to Warner Bros., each album was remarkably consistent in quality while managing to be different enough from the albums that came before.

Earlier in the thread I felt, I don't know, maybe embarrassed that my familiarity with R.E.M. was basically gleaned from MTV. But today I read in Rolling Stone that a movie is coming out tracing the history of R.E.M. and MTV, as the two grew up together. And I'm reminded that when I was in junior high/high school and MTV was dedicated to music and music videos, it was in fact "cool". And then, years later, the TV shows and reality shows crept in....

 

Both Reckoning & Fables are ok records sandwiched between REM's two masterpieces: Murmur & Life's Rich Pageant.

Like Reckoning, Fables has a few incredible songs & lots that, in my opinion, would have been cut if the band had more time to prep material. Perhaps an album per year was too tough for them? Even Pageant seems a bit short (and even includes a cover tune).

Feeling Gravity's Pull is my favorite song here. Also, isn't this the same "Jeremy" Ayers that co-wrote the B-52's "52 Girls"?

 

Whereas REM managed to avoid the "sophomore slump" with Reckoning (even if it still wasn't as good as Murmur), Fables Of The Reconstruction definitely falls into the "difficult third" category. But I don't necessarily mean that entirely as a criticism.

I mean, right from the first notes of Buck's angular, off-kilter, slightly discordant guitar riff that opens the album, the listener is immediately aware that he/she is in for a difficult listen, or at least a heavier or darker one. "Feeling Gravity's Pull" is laden, weighed down, as it lumbers along, enveloped in its own murky, downcast atmosphere. It almost sounds labored or stilted, given the airier textures and pastoral melodies of previous works. And yet, again, I don't mean all of this as a criticism, because I actually really, really like this song. In fact, I think it's one of the highlights of the album, and I was pleasantly surprised when I first heard it. It's almost like Pylon on serious downers! Yet, it is an undeniably "difficult" song (going back to that guitar riff, it just sounds like something that Buck came up with after days and days of fruitless noodling in search of something... different - but again, I totally love it!), and I like how they stubbornly and perversely start the album off with such a dark, slower, dirge-y song, after starting previous efforts off with upbeat, energized, rock-out pop tunes. Kind of a bold statement, if you ask me.

But then we get to the rest of the album, and some of the words I used to describe "Gravity's Pull" kind of apply to much of Fables: laden, labored, and downcast. I'd also used the word languid when talking about at least half the record. They sound a little tired or weary here.

"Maps And Legends" is a lovely song, but is another overcast track with a weighty feel. Buck's guitar playing is quite pretty here, especially in the verses, and for me is really the driving force of the song.

"Driver 8" peps things up a bit. It's an undeniably catchy song - but very notably in a minor key, in keeping with the album's darker vibe. For a time this song seemed to epitomize REM's sound, almost like self-parody, but it's still a great tune. And I have to point out here that nearly every guitar-playing REM fan has undoubtedly played this song in his/her bedroom or when noodling at band practice thousands of times, especially that blazing opening riff. It's like the Smoke On The Water of 80s college rock guitar riffs.

"Life And How To Live It" is another uptempo number. Despite a cool opening guitar riff, the song itself sounds like an amalgam of things REM had already done better. Not a bad song, but definitely not a favorite.

"Old Man Kensey" takes us back into dark, lumbering, downer territory, and it's a good song if you're in the mood for that sort of thing. I really like it, especially that chord change after the verse, which almost hints at a slightly sunnier vibe with those lovely notes that Buck rings out, but the clouds never quite part.

"Can't Get There From Here" is clearly the funnest and most upbeat track on the whole album. I've heard some people imply that it's kind of slight or frivolous, but I really dig it. It's catchy, well-crafted, and I love Buck's funky guitar playing in the verses, not to mention the addition of horns later in the choruses. I remember seeing this video a few times on MTV's 120 Minutes back in the 80s and appreciating its utter weirdness.

"Green Grow The Rushes" is another pretty tune, but definitely dips back into the low blood sugar level that seems to permeate most of this album. It's not slow or sluggish, but it certainly doesn't pop or bristle with energy, instead towing a middle line. It's moody, understated guitar pop, and an album highlight for me. Buck's lovely guitar playing is probably the coolest thing about this song.

"Kohoutek" sound underdeveloped to me. It continues the sluggish, laden vibe, and has kind of a cool overall feel, but it doesn't really go anywhere. Not bad, but definitely not stellar either.

"Auctioneer" gives us a final burst of energy with an appealingly minor key chorus, or whatever you want to call that part, but to me it's really not that great of a song. I do quite like that part when Buck starts paying those notes high up the neck at about a minute and a half in. I feel like a broken record, but once again, not a bad song, but a far cry from the coolest thing they'd ever done.

"Good Advices" is yet another languid track, and it realllly drags, but again, Buck's thoroughly gorgeous guitar playing saves the day and makes me enjoy it regardless.


So, in summary, Fables to me sounds like a band trying very hard not to repeat itself, to do something new, yet sort of failing (or at least straining) to really come up with a fully successful new path forward. Nearly every song is at least good - there's really not a bad tune on here - yet the band at times sounds kind of tired, drained, or run down, like they were in a bit of funk.

I get that perhaps they wanted to make a much moodier record - and many of my very favorite records are moody and I love them because of it - but here REM sometimes comes off more bogged down and drag-y than moody. It may be a fine line, but they're definitely straddling it. On their previous albums when they did moody, they still injected it with an intriguing sense of freshness or mystery. But here they sometimes sound like they pooped out and collapsed just short of the finish line.

Also, for me, with hindsight this album marks the beginning of their slow, gradual descent into mediocrity.

But in the end, I do quite enjoy this record, in spite of its flaws. Kind of a strange beast, but still better than every single album of theirs that came after it (in my humble opinion of course)!

 

I agree with everything you say here, and you've saved me writing my own long-winded opinion (thank you) as I re-listen to the record today, for the 150th time in my life.
BUT, I cannot agree this is the beginning of the end... their greatest triumphs lay ahead, for mine.

Love the album despite it's flaws - but this is just a small blip on a dominant, gigantic, diverse landscape, sketched in with growth, age, knowledge and increasing craft over the coming years.
And some damn fine songs too....

 

Well, I of course didn't mean to imply that everything after Fables is just bad! They clearly had a lot of great ideas and some good albums left in their system after this one. But overall, I just prefer this album, from beginning to end, over all the subsequent ones. For me it's a gradual decline, albeit speckled with some peaks and valleys along the way.

 

I had no idea how miserable it was recording Fables until I read Fiction.
This album is one of my favorites from R.E.M., the sound and the feel simply appeals to me.

 

I absolutely love this album, definitely prefer it to the next two. I get why some people don't like it - I didn't either at first. But it's grown on me so much that I think it's my second-favorite after Murmur now. I don't have time to post more at the moment, but will try to later.

 

Probably my favorite REM album. Joe Boyd's production really shines on songs like "Green Grow the Rushes," the final chorus could almost pass for Fairport Convention circa "Fotheringay". This song and "Kahoutek" (or however you spell it) really nailed it. Too distracted atm to form coherent thoughts but will try in the coming days...

 

Did you all know that Joe Boyd produced Pink Floyd and Eric Clapton sessions back in the day? Regardless, R.E.M. teaming up with this "folk producer" seems to have been a good match. Though I'm not familiar with most of Boyd's other records, listening to Fables I hear a good blend of Stipe and other musicians, engineering wise. So, the mixing works for this album. The album is still new to me, but the impressionism combined with straight ahead folk rock country songs keeps the stew interesting and moving along. I agree with others in this thread that their previous album had some clunkers that disrupted the album somewhat. The result with the new producer here is more of a streamlined affair, despite still often relying upon an abstract impressionistic style.

 

I suspect they decided that Boyd was a good choice based on his work with Richard and Linda Thompson.

 

This is where I came in.

REM might have been on ABC or SBS, but you would never have seen them in Regional Australia. I don't remember Rage - where you would definitely see this sort of song - starting until '87, and my area didn't get SBS until after that.

I was a few years off driving, but had already saved money to buy a car, and purchased an old Datsun 180b cheap to do up for when I was old enough to drive.

I was too young to recognise the stink of pot throughout the car, but did find two cassettes under the driver's seat: The Velvet Underground and Nico, and Fables, neither of which had covers.

I couldn't compare the album to what came before from the band, so loved every single part of it. I suspect it gave me a lifelong love of weird, insular records that create their own private world since they sound so far from what is currently popular that they might as well be on another world, and, as such, invite you to escape this one - XTC's "Skylarking", the Triffid's "Calenture", King Radio's "Are You The Sick Passenger?", Grandaddy's "The Sophtware Slump", Great Lake Myth Society's self-titled, "Spring Hill Fair" by the Go-Betweens. Hell, I just bought one the other day - "Beyond the Silver Sea" by Dr. Cosmo's Tape Lab - where you just wonder where did this come from and how is this happening?

Fables was one of those. It didn't sound like Madonna and Huey Lewis. I was happy to follow it down the rabbit hole, and it's low-key nature in a time of overstated / in-your-face / massive commercial juggernauts like "Thriller", "Born In The USA" and "Brothers In Arms" was fascinating. You had to work harder to understand it, and it was worth the effort. I'd say this album made me a College Rock kid, and I rate it as the first of their three Masterpieces, (even if they ended up rewriting it 'Old Man Kensey' more-successfully as 'Oddfellows Local 150', and then rewrote that one less-successfully as 'I Remember California').

This is when I started seeking out stores in the cities where I could buy this sort of thing, including the previous records.

I can also see why I don't think much of 'Reckoning' compared to the two albums it sits between. 'Murmur' is another insular world offering escape, 'Reckoning' is just a straight-forward collection of songs.

I can understand why people might find it draggy and boring - even underproduced, but think about this:

Writing string scores, the producer says to me "What do you want at the end?"

I said "Ngyyyyyyyerrrrrr" and made a motion like spiralling down a drain.

"Oh, you want Feeling Gravitys Pull."

Isn't that great? That feeling of suffocation, draggy rural heat and humidity, suspicion caused by isolation, and slowly-sinking into murk is this album's strength. I still don't care that 30 years later that I have zero idea what exactly the Carpenter is doing in 'Life And How To Live It'. "The carpenter tries run example walking to the stream?"

 

One thing I will say about Fables in relation to Reckoning is that it's probably more cohesive. Even though I like Reckoning more because of the strength of its songs, Fables has a certain flow to it.

 

Rock Around The World with Basia (SBS)
Rock Arena with Suzanne Dowling (ABC)

 

A track like 'Wendell Gee' sums up this album for me : relentlessly morose.
And yet... it is so addictive.
"..wasn't even time saved.." (sniff - kill me now).

 

Great post!

Although we disagree about Good advices (I think it's a lovely, melancholic, tender song) and Life and how to live it (I love the energy on this one and how it foreshadows the next album), the rest I pretty much fully agree with.

 

My thoughts on Fables of the Reconstruction...

As a college freshman in 1985 who had heard of REM, but yet not knowingly heard anything by REM, this album was my introduction to them. Some friends and I saw them play at a 1000 seat lecture hall in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus:

16 November 1985 - Foelinger Auditorium, University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
support: 10,000 Maniacs
set included: Feeling Gravitys Pull / Harborcoat / Pilgrimage / Driver 8 / Can't Get There From Here / Letter Never Sent / Green Grow The Rushes / Sitting Still / So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Old Man Kensey / Life And How To Live It
encore 1: Second Guessing / See No Evil / Toys In The Attic / Pills
encore 2: (Don't Go Back To) Rockville / Last Date / Bandwagon

The album had been out since early summer, but I hadn't heard anything from it until I went to school. My suburb didn't have cable yet, so no MTV, no 120 Minutes on Sunday night, etc. Looking at the set list, it seems kind of short, and remarkably light on Murmur material. The show was a real "event" on campus and and I think it was most people's introduction to 10,000 Maniacs, who were completely unknown at the time, but whose set was VERY well received by the audience. Interestingly, they were touring behind an album, The Wishing Chair, that was also produced by Joe Boyd.

Driver 8 is surely the reason that Fables sold better than its predecessors, Murmur and Reckoning. That song is the perfect example of a "generic" REM song from the time period, and is so easy for anyone to listen to and enjoy. The rest of the album though, is a little bit tricky. Though it was my intro to REM, I had a hard time getting into it, and continue to have that trouble to this day. Make no mistake though, I do indeed enjoy this album. It's just a much different enjoyment compared to the other early ones.

What's good about it: Fables is a brief, self- contained set that evokes a consistent mood and quality for the length of its running time. For me, there are no dogs on this album.

What's tricky about it: Fables seems to be entirely recorded in some kind of insular, minor key and mixed in such a way that the guitars generally don't reach out and grab me the way they do on Reckoning. The guitar has an oily sound to it instead of something that rings out and echoes a bit with some air behind it. Also, Stipe's vocals seem to have regressed back to Chronic Town levels of mumbling and indecipherability.

Is there a great sounding mix of this album? I haven't heard it yet, and I've listened to the original LP, the original CD and the recent remaster. I guess the mix is the mix that REM wanted. I suppose they wanted to break out of the mold of being a group produced by Mitch Easter and expand the range of their sound in other dimensions - it just feels to me like this was more of a step back instead of a step forward here. Taken in light of the more typically 80's guitar and drum sound that we hear on the next two album with Don Gehman and Scott Litt though, maybe in retrospect Fables should be viewed as a retrenchment before moving on to try to become a "major" band.

I agree with all of the above.

Can't Get There From Here is surely the most whacked-out of their early videos:


The garish lighting, the really bad green screened special effects, the lyrics actually printed on the screen so you can read along AND still be confused.

Random Question: As the horns fade out of the end of Can't Get There, Stipe can be heard saying "Thank you Ray", which I always assumed was a comment to the horn player, but yet he says the exact same thing in the demo of the song which has no horns at all, so who is Ray?

Reviewing some of the rest of the songs on the album:

I'd say that Feeling Gravity's Pull is one of the most un-REM songs in their early catalog, and that the guitar line is very much in the mold of Television, whose song See No Evil they were including in their set list at the time and would later record for one of their Christmas singles. Listening to it now, I really like the introduction of the strings in the latter half of the song and I like the composition. Listening to it when it came out, I didn't care for it that much. Opening the album with it, opening shows with it, and even making a video for it, REM clearly felt this was an important song for themselves. In retrospect, it really sets up the album and makes you stop what you're doing and pay attention. This song cannot be enjoyed at all as background music.

Green Grow The Rushes is lovely, but isn't it kind of weird to recycle the riff from 7 Chinese Brothers for the bridge?

Auctioneer (another engine). I dig this one. I like the way the vocals overlap from multiple sources at various points, in a Harborcoat-type fashion, and the odd way the song chugs forward gaining and losing momentum, then ending with that guitar solo of sorts before clunking to a stop.

Kohoutek - I remember the fuss about this comet growing up, and how it didn't pan out to be the glorious spectacle that was anticipated, so this wistful tune about disappointment perhaps strikes more of a chord for me. I love the lyrics:

"Kohoutek"

Who will stand alone

She carried ribbons, she wore them out
Courage built a bridge, jealousy tore it down
At least it's something you've left behind
And like Kohoutek you were gone
We sat in the garden, we stood on the porch
I won't deny myself, we never talked

She wore bangles, she wore bells
On her toes and she jumped
Like a fish, like a flying friend
You were gone, like Kohoutek, can't forget that
Fever built a bridge, reason tore it down
If I am one to follow who will stand alone

Maybe you're not the problem, scissors, paper, stone
If you stand and holler, these prayers will talk
She carried ribbons, she wore them out
Michael built a bridge, Michael tore it down
At least it's something you've left behind
Like Kohoutek, you were gone

Michael built a bridge, Michael tore it down
If I stand and holler will I stand alone

 

I'm behind here, I just started listening to R.E.M. for purposes of this thread last night. So far I'm up to "Catapult" from Murmur, and last night I started with Collapse Into Now, and then went back to Chronic Town from the Dead Letter Office CD, vintage 1987! Yeah, I know that's the only CD version but I'm jazzed by the fact that I've owned that CD since 1987. Incidently, I think Chronic Town off that CD sounds great. Way to go Mitch Easter, that's all I can say.

Listening to the early stuff as the music fan I am now, and not the one I was in the early 80s, all I can say is it is beyond clever and inventive how these guys were able to mix what was really a time-worn Byrds-ian/Jim McGuinn Rickenbacker guitar sound with an inventive but spare "modern" post-punk rhythm section and production to produce something entirely new, but so damn accessible, really. As a kid, in the 80s, I had no knowledge of the Byrds or "post-punk" or any other element these four guys were mining, so it seemed that much more new and, I guess, mysterious. Out of left field for me then, for sure.

Arguably, in my opinion, they would never top "Wolves, lower" and "Gardening At Night". Those are five star songs. I saw them perform "Wolves, lower" in 2009 and almost lost my s**t.

 

"Driver 8", great song, yet Buck & Co. could write this song a 100 different ways. It's almost as if R.E.M. is the AC/DC of alternative rock. They can write a song that sounds like almost every song that you've heard from them, yet manages to be different enough to merit its creation. I'm not a guitar player at all, but it seems to me like Buck gets a lot of color out of a very limited palette.

It's amazing to me that "Can't Get There From Here" was the song that pulled me into R.E.M., because it sounds like almost a goof on their part. Like they said, "Hey, let's write a single!", and then proceeded to perform as a hyper version of themselves. Really, the power of these guys musically was incredible. From early on they knew what buttons to push to attract the attention of an ever-wider swath of rock listeners.

 

imteresting comments. I much prefer Fables to Reckoning, which did not engage me at all and in which all the songs sounded like they are a minute too long. I much prefer the atmosphere of Fables - I must like the "murk". To me it sounds much more akin to Murmur than the Reckoning as well

 

I am a guitar player and that's quite the cogent observation about Buck. He's a bit like George Harrison in that he's not flashy, just very tasteful and good, with an unmistakable sound. Credit also should go to producers such as Mitch Easter (Murmur and Reckoning) and Joe Boyd (Fables), both of whom lay on multiple tracks of Buck's guitar often.

Well, they weren't exactly the first band to have a breakthrough hit with a novelty number; they'd do it again with "End of the World as We Know It" and "Shiny Happy People" which I'd just as soon not think about. There's a difference between a good song that becomes popular because it's good, and a song that becomes popular because it's calculated to become popular, which is how I'd describe "Shiny Happy People" as well as some of their later hits. But "Can't Get There from Here" is a legitimately good song; whether it's a "real" REM song is debatable...