Check here for the last time I ranked R.E.M.’s 15 album oeuvre, way back in 2013: Ranking R.E.M. albums from 1983 to 2011
It’s now been 12 years (!) since R.E.M. packed it in. Their first album, Murmur, was released 40 years ago (!) when vinyl was more than hip, it was one of only two real formats for buying music (the other was cassette tape–the kind that any tape deck eventually ate).
Here is my re-revised list of R.E.M. albums–from #1 to #15.
First, the chronological list of albums as released:
- Murmur, 1983
- Reckoning, 1984
- Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985
- Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986
- Document, 1987
- Green, 1988
- Out of Time, 1991
- Automatic for the People, 1992
- Monster, 1994
- New Adventures in Hi-fi, 1996
- Up, 1998
- Reveal, 2001
- Around the Sun, 2004
- Accelerate, 2008
- Collapse Into Now, 2011
My 2023 ranking (numbers indicate position relative to the 2013 ranking):
- Automatic for the People, 1992 (-)
- Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986 (-)
- Murmur, 1983 (+2)
- Monster, 1994 (-1)
- Out of Time, 1991 (+4)
- New Adventures in Hi-fi, 1996 (+1)
- Green, 1988 (+6)
- Reckoning, 1984 (-2)
- Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985 (-1)
- Collapse Into Now, 2011 (-6)
- Up, 1998 (+3)
- Document, 1987 (-1)
- Accelerate, 2008 (-3)
- Reveal, 2001 (-2)
- Around the Sun, 2004 (-)
Observations:
- Only three albums didn’t change positions, and they are at the extremes: #1, 2 and 15.
- The gap between #14 (Reveal) and #15 (Around the Sun) is the biggest between any two albums. ATS is easily the worst album R.E.M. put out. It should probably be at #20.
- The biggest slide is Collapse Into Now, their final album, dropping from #4 all the way to #10. It’s a fine album and a worthy send-off, but it just doesn’t shine as bright as the others ahead of it, in retrospect.
- Four of the bottom five albums are four of their last five–not a good trend for a long-lived band!
- Green leaps from #13 to #6. Why? While it may not have been the band’s artistic peak, it captures them in an experimental mood, expanding their sound and–importantly–sounding like they are having a lot of fun while doing it. Especially after Automatic for the People, the band appeared to have sent its collective sense of humour into the universe’s largest black hole.
- Murmur and Monster, despite being very different albums, are basically interchangeable, ranking-wise.
- Sometimes I like it when R.E.M. rocks out (Monster), and sometimes less so (Accelerate), although to be fair, the latter is an excellent album to jog to.
- If the second half of Up (#11) was stronger, it would probably rank near the top five.
- In hindsight, Document is a good but not great album. I feel like the band was shifting gears and the album catches them midway through. If you think of it as the first half of Green, it makes more sense, in a way.
Also, when you look at the albums in chronological order, you may ask yourself: Did R.E.M. alienate a large part of its fan base with Monster being the follow-up to Automatic for the People? Yes, yes they did! Observe:
- Monster (which I think is one of their most inventive and creative albums–if you like that feedback-laden, wall of sound approach) was the utter opposite of Automatic. It still sold well, probably propelled at least in part by momentum.
- New Adventures in Hi-fi probably hit many people as a weird blend of the previous two albums, with loud rockers like on Monster, combined with hushed meditations like on Automatic–and being neither fish nor fowl, it began their first real decline in sales.
- Up: With Bill Berry (drummer) leaving the band, they began to experiment more openly, using sequencers, drum machines and noodling around with atmospherics, resulting in an album that was part R.E.M. and part whatever-they-were-turning-into.
- Reveal is a weird one, too. It mixes sunny, Beach Boys-style songs with classic R.E.M. (“Imitation of Life”) and goes fully experimental on other songs, like “Saturn Return”. The production is intricate, and the sound is dense. This is not an album designed to hit the top of the pop charts.
- Around the Sun: Or “What a band completely uninterested in being a band anymore when they are 3/5ths of the way through a record contract sounds like.” This one managed to put off everyone: the experimentation was replaced by a bunch of limp songs that generated no heat, didn’t sound like classic R.E.M.–or any other version–and featured lyrics by Michael Stipe that were so straightforward they were just bland. An impressively lacklustre outing.
- The last two albums turned things around, preventing them from destroying their legacy, but it was pretty obvious after Collapse Into Now that they were done.
My 2013 ranking:
- Automatic for the People
- Lifes Rich Pageant
- Monster
- Collapse Into Now
- Murmur
- Reckoning
- New Adventures in Hi-fi
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Out of Time
- Accelerate
- Document
- Reveal
- Green
- Up
- Around the Sun
