So why is R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I can’t quite recall the first R.E.M. song I ever heard but it was tucked away somewhere in my pre-teen years, that age when music fuses into your body’s chemistry, tangling up with identity and the people we’ll become.
Anyway, if I had to guess, it was probably “The One I Love,” off of Document (#344 of best 1,000 albums ever), by way of its music video getting heavy rotation on MTV. While I liked that song well enough, and still do, I later stumbled across a copy of Lifes Rich Pageant and was thunderstruck the first time I heard “Fall On Me,” off of Lifes Rich Pageant.
It quickly became one of my favorite songs that I’ve ever heard, and I still feel that way to this day.
“Fall On Me” might just be the perfect R.E.M. amalgamation of beautiful pop song and jangle pop rocker in one single song. And then it’s also one of the most striking and poignant alarm bells about the coming climate change calamity – produced during the mid-‘80s when no one really took this stuff seriously – ever recorded.
Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky
That line alone builds upon Michael Stipe’s and the band’s satirical and striking rocker, “Exhuming McCarthy,” off of Document, showcasing the dangers of capitalism run rampant and unchecked, and turned to the consequences for one and all of us: that the sky above will literally fall upon us based on our actions.
It’s gorgeous and tragic and electric and catchy all at once, and makes me emotional when I listen to it to this day.
Not bad that a song produced nearly 40 years ago as of this writing can still do that.
Lifes Rich Pageant traded the murk and mystery of early albums Murmur and Fables of the Reconstruction for a cleaner, brighter sound, an album where the guitars jangle brightly, the drums punch through the mix, and perhaps most importantly, Stipe’s vocals are clearer than ever — a shift that helped accelerate R.E.M.’s transition out of college rock cult status and edge closer to breaking through with mainstream rock fans.
What’s so cool about R.E.M. is that they can drop “Fall On Me,” as though from the sky, on Lifes Rich Pageant, but then close it out with the bubble gum pop bliss of “Superman,” a song originally recorded by The Clique in 1969. Mike Mills takes lead vocals on it, a rare treat that expertly deploys his harmonizing tone.
And perhaps the wide palette that those two songs represent helps explain the album title – there’s darkness and there’s life.
Things to think about as I write these words in the first year of Trump 2.0, on the very day when the president of the United States ordered the military into Portland, Oregon with authorization of “full force” – located in my beloved Pacific Northwest – which he deems “war-ravaged.”
Back on the sun shiny, driving rocker side of the spectrum, let’s use “These Days” and “I Believe” to shake off the blues and celebrate R.E.M. at its jangle pop peak.
All the people gather, fly to carry each his burden
We are young despite the years
We are concern, we are hope despite the times
All of a sudden, these days
Happy throngs, take this joy wherever, wherever you go
A pretty good message from “These Days” to help us carry on right there, I’d wager.
I also dig that the album finds space for the quirky, Latin-flavored interstitial of sorts, “Underneath The Bunker.”
“Swan Swan H” is a slower folk rock jangler with strange, evocative lyrics that tie to the legacy of the Civil War. Its chorus has the feeling of a dirge, perhaps. Overall, it adds yet another color to the album’s palette.
As a whole, Lifes Rich Pageant for me is peak early-ish era R.E.M. Now, for many R.E.M. purists and rock critics, Murmur (#70) or perhaps Fables (#638)easily take this slot. And for many R.E.M. superfans, Automatic for the People (#546) qualifies as the “other” or post-IRS Records era high point for the band.
But as my best 1,000 albums rankings and Lifes Rich Pageant at #43 signal, I see the band’s legacy differently… and that’s not even counting my “controversial” selection of Around the Sun at #92!
Some stats & info about R.E.M. – Lifes Rich Pageant
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, College Rock, Jangle Pop, Alternative Pop, Indie Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Lifes Rich Pageant released? 1986
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #43 out of 1,000
R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Don’t fall on me.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.