Saturday, 12 March 2011

Top tracks - REM

This week REM released their 15th album - Collapse Into Now.  With this in mind, here is list of the best tracks from REM, in my humble opinion, up to but not including this new album (previous blog postings for other artists here).

I first got into REM along with most of the world when they released Green in 1988, having signed to Warner Bros.  Although there is a common thread in their music, they do take risks and create some stunning sounds.  Their style ranges from simple acoustic to full on grunge. I appreciate that Michael Stipe's vocals may not appeal to all, but sometimes you need a crazy singer and I personally think he is brilliant.

I have seen them play live 3 times and was impressed each time.  Your comments on my top 30 list are welcome, but as usual, keep in mind that I had to make a cutoff somewhere.

  1. Leaving New York (Around The Sun)
  2. Imitation Of Life (Reveal)
  3. Losing My Religion (Out Of Time)
  4. The One I Love (Document)
  5. Supernatural Superserious (Accelerate)
  6. The Great Beyond (Best of R.E.M.)
  7. Everybody Hurts (Automatic For The People)
  8. What's The Frequency, Kenneth? (Monster)
  9. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight     (Automatic For The People)
  10. Man On The Moon (Automatic For The People)
  11. Fall On Me (Lifes Rich Pageant)
  12. The Wake-Up Bomb (New Adventures In Hi-Fi)
  13. Drive (Automatic For The People)
  14. Stand (Green)
  15. Bad Day (Best of R.E.M.)
  16. Orange Crush (Green)
  17. E-Bow The Letter (New Adventures In Hi-Fi)
  18. Hollow Man (Accelerate)
  19. She Just Wants To Be (Reveal)
  20. All The Way To Reno (Reveal)
  21. Aftermath (Around The Sun)
  22. All The Right Friends (Best of R.E.M.)
  23. The Lifting (Reveal)
  24. It's The End Of The World As We Know It (Document)
  25. How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us (New Adventures In Hi-Fi)
  26. I'll Take The Rain (Reveal)
  27. The Outsiders (Around The Sun)
  28. Bittersweet Me (New Adventures In Hi-Fi)
  29. Half A World Away (Out Of Time)
  30. Monty Got A Raw Deal (Automatic For The People)

You can also see this list on iTunes and hear clips of each of the songs here.
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Posted by Stephen Chapman at 06:40
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5 comments:

  1. Raybeard12 March 2011 at 08:28

    A very useful list indeed. I don't know most of these which weren't released as singles so I'll store the list, follow them all up and find out what I've been missing. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous13 March 2011 at 09:24

    Great choices - a couple in there I dont know, but will take a listen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Allen Lulu13 March 2011 at 14:28

    Interesting that there isn't a single song from Chronic Town, Murmur (generally considered the greatest debut album of its era), reckoning or fables of the reconstruction.
    Those first 3 albums and ep represent the most creative time for the band and are the reason so many people embraced them as THEIR music. The voice of that generation.
    So, I am stunned to see a list like this and recommend you go out immediately and purchase the above mentioned records.
    Because there can be no best of list of REM without Radio Free Europe, Pretty Persuasion, Wolves Lower, 1,000,000, etc.
    Also interesting that you include nothing from Up, which contains a couple tracks that are wonderful, more so than anything from Around the Sun or Reveal.
    Well, to each his own.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stephen Chapman13 March 2011 at 21:59

    Thanks for your comments. I didn't think that Up was a good album and Murmur was too 'indie' for me.

    Great to hear other views.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous15 March 2011 at 11:03

    I dont like the early stuff or the later stuff!

    ReplyDelete

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