What do you guys think of R.E.M?

I think they're incredible. They have such a vibrant and ethreal depth to them that radiates with everything they made. They're the prettiest Pop group I've ever heard

 

I love R.E.M. Ever since I heard Radio Free Europe on the radio in the early 80s I've thought they were great. Still my favorite band. Even their last album had a few flashes of brilliance on it. I've almost got everything they've ever released on CD except for a few CD singles. An incredible band! IMO one of the best rock bands in the last 40 years.

 

Good.

 

We can be friends.

EDIT - Decorum likely demands a bit more ornamentation (rather than just showing up at the dinner party with flowers picked outside the host's front door): Murmur, Reckoning, and Fables are masterpieces of the post-punk scene that, with brilliant historical co-defendants like Du and the Puppets, set an alternative course for music in the early/mid 80s apart from New Wave, Metal, and unmistakably bighaircocainesplashyboldshoulderpad FM pop.

Also, Stipe's ability to create vivid imagery, either in the abstract (Driver 8) or with a dark literalism (Rockville), is spectacular. For me, the catalogue is quite nearly unimpeachable through OOT, when the last strands of unpolished garage DNA were purged from the double helix.

 

They don't make 'em like that anymore.

 

I don't think much of them,they are o.k i guess

 

The early stuff ("Eponymous" album) is excellent (imo).

 

The songs of theirs I like, I like a lot. One of the few shining stars in the doldrums that was the 80's.

 

One of my favorite bands ever. But I hate to say, they lost a lot when they lost Bill Berry.

 

Liked them a lot in their day but I don't think they've held up that well. Thumbs up overall, though.

 

Favorite band that comes from the US.

That 8 album run might be only second to Genesis for me, and while there ARE songs I don't like, I can easily listen to any given REM album until Automatic For The People in full. Mills kicks so much ass with his playing and he's a very under appreciated player - not to mention arranger. Stipe can always make me think, and Peter and Berry do just fine... neither have really stuck out to me as amazing players, but either way such a good group. Fables and Green are my favorites.

 

One of the great essential alternative bands. Seem them about 6 times in their later years (after '99). So much to explore from Murmur through to Collapse into now. My fave album is New adventures in HiFi. That album just had a mood like nothing else they did.

 

When I was a kid in the 80's, and already a complete Beatles freak, I remember Michael Stipe saying that the Beatles were "elevator music" that "didn't mean ****" to him.
I lost total respect for him then and nothing after ever changed my mind.

 

One of my all time favorite bands! Still hoping for a reunion. I mean, breaking up and not reuniting is completely overrated. Grow up already, Stipe!

 

Greatest band in the history of ever. No contest.

BTW I think what Michael meant is that the Beatles never really grabbed him the way they did other people and that he wasn't going to be tied down to working in the ways they did as so many had with a sense of reverence. He definitely appreciates their artistic side as there were some interviews where he said he loved "Michelle" from childhood.

 

Liked 'em enough not to change the station whenever they came on the radio.
Never liked 'em enough to buy any of their music.

Is Stipe still wearing that silly nose-ring thingy?

 

Yeah he was somewhat arrogant back when they were the critics' darlings. I'm with you.

 

I have their I.R.S. albums in my collection. Murmur and Reckoning are my favorites.

 

First half dozen albums (up to Green) were superb. Next 2 were fairly decent but rapid decline after that IMHO.

 

I love the IRS albums and Out Of Time. I could live without the rest of their music though.

 

Those first few LPs are still some of the best music of the '80s.

Those "middle period" LPs have some pretty good stuff.

Those last few LPs are still awful.

 

One of my favorites. Love all of their albums. First heard of them by seeing a live performance of South Central Rain on some tv show in the early to mid 80s. Then upon seeing videos for Fall On Me, It's the End of the World As We Know It and The One I Love, decided I'd heard enough to dig further into this band.

Checked out Document from the local library. Mom picked up Green from Columbia House and I ended up with Reckoning, Eponymous, Lifes Rich Pageant and Dead Letter Office in a shoebox full of cassettes that Grandma and Grandpa brought me home from a garage sale sometime in 1988. I love the music those R.E.M boys made. I love it.

 

Now you know how the Christians felt, when Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. A little juvenile bragging, that's all.

 

Legends.

Their run from Murmur to Automatic for the People is one of the best ever for my money.

 

I thought that their farewell single, "We All Go Back to Where We Belong", was the absolute best song they ever recorded. That's probably not a common opinion. I'm also not sure that my favorite album of theirs isn't "Up".