Night Garden: Berry, Buck, Mills, Stipe [R.E.M.]1981-1996 Song-by-song*

@Lance LaSalle

 

@prymel

To our new leader...

 

Top Ten rated songs:

1. Fall On Me 4.9444
   
2. Driver 8 4.9
3. So. Central Rain 4.8939
4. Wolves Lower, 4.8913
5. Find The River 4.8684
6. Begin the Begin 4.8333
7. Radio Free Europe 4.8077
8. Gardening AT Night 4.7841
   
9. Losing My Religion 4.7613
10. Maps And Legends 4.7333

 

Interesting list. The order makes sense, except for one song. I thought Wolves would be lower!

 

Lance, did you happen to keep track of which albums/songs had the most voters rating them? People have been in and out of the thread but I have the feeling a graph would show a peak in interest during the "Out of Time"/ "Automatic" years.

 

Pleasantly surprised to see Maps And Legends there.

 

Wiping a tear from my eye. Thanks, @Lance LaSalle .

 

No. It was about 30-35 for the early albums 40- 45 for the middle albums and about 25 for the last two but I didn’t keep records.

 

I am very glad that a song from Automatic made the top rated list

 

Posting the updated schedule for the final five albums and extras. The three songs recorded after Collapse Into Now have been moved to their proper temporal spot from my previous draft. As mentioned previously, I’ve added several “rest/catch-up” days. These are designed as brief breaks from the thread for those who want a respite, but also for bringing up songs or other discussion items that aren’t part of the schedule. These are essentially open discussion days and can even venture off-topic if you want.

We will commence with Up on Wednesday Jan. 26. I intend to hold up each day’s song or album on the dates indicated between 7-11 p.m. U.S. Central Time. If the clock strikes midnight and nothing is posted, consider that day skipped. I’ll post the song during the next day’s window and adjust the schedule accordingly. The chances of a skipped day are remote, but life happens and I wanted to have this caveat. There’s a better chance that, if I’m away from home, I may be delayed collating ratings from the most recent song, but I will get to them eventually and try not to fall behind.

I’ll be posting links to supplementary material in lieu of extended intros for each album and song. Feel free to add on to my daily posts with information and anecdotes you think are helpful or worth sharing. While I am trying to make the flow and management of the thread as similar as possible as to what everyone is used to, this is the one area I acknowledge upfront will look and feel different.

Finally, many thanks to Lance for starting and curating this unbelievably awesome thread. Posting here has been one of the joys in my daily life from the first day, and I’ve loved getting to know everyone.

Thanks all, see you tomorrow!

Begin Up

Jan. 26 – Airportman
Jan. 27 – Lotus
Jan. 28 – Suspicion
Jan. 29 – Hope
Jan. 30 – At My Most Beautiful
Jan. 31 – The Apologist
Feb. 1 – Sad Professor
Feb. 2 – You’re In The Air
Feb. 3 – Walk Unafraid
Feb. 4 – Why Not Smile
Feb. 5 – Daysleeper
Feb. 6 – Diminished
Feb. 7 – Parakeet
Feb. 8 – Falls To Climb
Feb. 9 – Up Album

Feb. 10 – Emphysema (extra)
Feb. 11 – Surfing The Ganges (extra)

Feb. 12 – The Great Beyond (MOTM single)
Feb. 13 – Miracle (MOTM track – Mike Mills and orchestra)
Feb. 14 – This Friendly World (MOTM track – Michael Stipe and Jim Carrey duet)
Feb. 15 – Man On The Moon (soundtrack album)

Feb. 16 – Draggin’ The Line (Austin Powers – The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack)

Feb. 17 – Rest/Catch-up day

Begin Reveal

Feb. 18 – The Lifting
Feb. 19 – I’ve Been High
Feb. 20 – All The Way To Reno (You’re Going To Be A Star)
Feb. 21 – She Just Wants To Be
Feb. 22 – Disappear
Feb. 23 – Saturn Return
Feb. 24 – Beat A Drum
Feb. 25 – Imitation Of Life
Feb. 26 – Summer Turns To High
Feb. 27 – Chorus And The Ring
Feb. 28 – I’ll Take The Rain
Mar. 1 – Beachball
Mar. 2 – Reveal Album/r.e.m.IX

Mar. 3 – Fascinating (extra)
Mar. 4 – Yellow River (extra)
Mar. 5 – 2JN (extra)
Mar. 6 – No Matter What (extra)
Mar. 7 – Bad Day (In Time version)
Mar. 8 – Favorite Writer (extra)
Mar. 9 – Animal (extra)

Mar. 10 – Rest/Catch-up day

Begin Around The Sun

Mar. 11 – Leaving New York
Mar. 12 – Electron Blue
Mar. 13 – The Outsiders (f/ Q-Tip)
Mar. 14 – Make It All Okay
Mar. 15 – Final Straw
Mar. 16 – I Wanted To Be Wrong
Mar. 17 – Wanderlust
Mar. 18 – Boy In The Well
Mar. 19 – Aftermath
Mar. 20 – High Speed Train
Mar. 21 – The Worst Joke Ever
Mar. 22 – The Ascent Of Man
Mar. 23 – Around The Sun (song)
Mar. 24 – Around The Sun (album)

Mar. 25 – Indian Summer (extra)
Mar. 26 – Magnetic North (extra)

Mar. 27 – R.E.M. Live (album)

Mar. 28 – Rest/Catch-up Day

Begin Accelerate

Mar. 29 – Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Mar. 30 – Man-Sized Wreath
Mar. 31 – Supernatural Superserious
Apr. 1 – Hollow Man
Apr. 2 – Houston
Apr. 3 – Accelerate
Apr. 4 – Until The Day Is Done
Apr. 5 – Mr. Richards
Apr. 6 – Sing For The Submarine
Apr. 7 – Horse To Water
Apr. 8 – I’m Gonna DJ
Apr. 9 – Accelerate (Album)

Apr. 10 – Red Head Walking (extra)
Apr. 11 – Airliner (extra)

Apr. 12 – R.E.M. Live At The Olympia (album)

Apr. 13 – Crazy Like A Fox (extra)

Apr. 14 – Live From London (album)

Apr. 15 – Rest/Catch-up day

Begin Collapse Into Now

Apr. 16 – Discoverer
Apr. 17 – All The Best
Apr. 18 – Überlin
Apr. 19 – Oh My Heart
Apr. 20 – It Happened Today
Apr. 21 – Every Day Is Yours To Win
Apr. 22 – Mine Smell Like Honey
Apr. 23 – Walk It Back
Apr. 24 – Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
Apr. 25 – That Someone Is You
Apr. 26 – Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando And I
Apr. 27 – Blue
Apr. 28 – Collapse Into Now (album)

Apr. 29 – We All Go Back To Where We Belong (extra)
Apr. 30 – A Month Of Saturdays (extra)
May 1 – Hallelujah (extra)

May 2 – Unplugged: Complete 1991/2001 Sessions (album)
May 3 – At The BBC (box)

May 4 – Open discussion – Share your best of/worst of songs and albums, rankings (make up your own categories!), WB vs. I.R.S years, pre-/post-Berry opinions, any stray songs missed, compilation albums, untold stories and anecdotes, thread reflections, rants, anything at all!

May 5 – “And in the end………”

 

Thanks. Pretty much lines up with the common perception of the band's trajectory, doesn't it..

 

@prymel ... Are we just continuing on in this thread, or will there be a new, separate thread created?

 

Good luck @prymel and thanks so much for continuing the thread!! Looking forward to discuss Up & beyond with all of you.

 

I was planning to continue on in this thread. The only drawback to this is that possibly participants that are only interested in the post-Berry years might be dissuaded from joining based on the thread title. But I'm guessing that population is pretty small.

If others would prefer to start a new thread, let me know. I'm fine either way.

 

Might be able to get a moderator to update the thread title?

 

For posterity (he said assuming his most lawyerly voice) it would be nice to have the whole body of work in the same place.

 

I like that there is not a single one of those songs that I don't consider top tier REM.
But the surprising thing is there are probably only two (Losing My Religion and South Central Rain) that would be in my top 10.
My other 8 would be: We Walk, Wendell Gee, Green Grow The Rushes, It's The End Of The World As We Know It, Half A World Away, Nightswimming, and Electrolite.

 

I agree with this. I've messaged a Gort to see if I can get the date on the thread title changed from 1996 to 2011. If that can't be done, my plan is to keep the future discussion in this thread, unless there is a groundswell to start a new one.

 

I think keeping it in the same thread is the best move. The party is already going

 

Agreed. Keep it all in one place.

 

To that end, the Gort just replied and recommended starting a new thread. Rather than going back and forth explaining the reasoning for changing the title, we'll just keep everything here under the existing thread title.

 

I'm sure that lovers of nocturnal horticulture will find you either way...

 

This thread's about to accelerate and become very revealing...

Thanks to Lance for taking us this far, and to prymel for keeping us going.

 

Me too. Bill would be happy, since he said in an interview at the time that it was his favorite song on Fables and that he thought he would be alone in that opinion. Clearly not!

 

I actually think a separate thread with new title would make most sense, but, regardless of the way, thanks @prymel for getting us there from here.