So why is R.E.M.’s Live at the Olympia on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
In covering a bunch of R.E.M. albums for this here best 1,000 albums ever project, I often had a gnawing feeling in the back of my mind.
The reason for the gnaw was that I’ve become so attached to the versions of songs on Live at the Olympia, to the point that many of them now feel more definitive to me than the original studio cuts.
But that’s not even a strong enough way to put it. The 39 tracks and two and a half hours of Live at the Olympia are so good, so vibrant and energetic that in many cases I’ve come to think of these versions as the “official” versions of R.E.M. songs.
Heretical stuff for many R.E.M. superfans, I know. Almost as heretical as placing a live album ahead of 984 other albums on this audaciously insane project, I’d imagine.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the one time I caught R.E.M. live in concert was on the Accelerate tour, a sublime and transformative experience at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008. So even though this moment in time was relatively close to the end of the band’s run, over a quarter of a century after the band formed in Athens, Georgia, they absolutely were at the top of their form.
And there are even cases – and I’d dare to say “many” – where I flat-out enjoy the live version on Live at the Olympia more than the original studio version.
To take a step back, Live at the Olympia was recorded at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland across five warmup shows of sorts in 2007 ahead of the Accelerate tour.
“This is not a show!” a band member playfully announces to the crowd (I swear it’s Mike Mills but couldn’t confirm), in fact, and the entire album has the fearless, freewheeling spirit that we are privileged to be able to listen in on.
Let’s start with “Harborcoat.” The Olympia version sounds way sharper, more urgent, harder rocking, and the sound production – as is the case throughout the live album – is crisp, bringing the feel of being in the front row.
I know some will be in stark disagreement with me here, but the Reckoning version of “Harborcoat” is just not as good. It’s not. It’s muddy-sounding (yes, I know them’s were the early vibes, R.E.M. purists, so please don’t R.E.A.C.T.) and much more sluggish-sounding in comparison.
The same sentiments go for “Pretty Persuasion” – it’s simply dynamite in live form here.
I challenged myself to come up with my favorite track on Live at the Olympia, and I landed on “Wolves, Lower.” I enjoy the Chronic Town (#273) version quite a bit, but the Olympia version absolutely crushes. It’s perfect in that live form, captured in an Irish moment in time.
In writing this piece, I realized how much Olympia allowed me to connect with R.E.M.’s early material in a much deeper way. It wasn’t until Green (#180) that R.E.M. was fully on my radar as a kid, so my insane runs of listening to Olympia on repeat – with its exquisite live cuts – locked in so many of the band’s early classics into my R.E.M. adorned soul.
Because these shows came just before the Accelerate tour kicked off, there are a bunch of songs pulled from that (at the time) new album. These all sound fresh and muscular, and you can tell the band takes particular pleasure in rolling out the new material. “Man-Sized Wreath” is a great example… and another one where I far prefer Olympia to the studio cut.
Here’s what I wrote about “I’ve Been High” in the piece on Reveal (#220):
I was lucky enough to catch R.E.M. in concert just once in my life, and it was magical, a summer outdoor concert at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. When Reveal came out, I enjoyed “I’ve Been High” well enough but didn’t really give it much consideration past that.
That opinion changed based on Michael Stipe’s showstopping performance of it during the concert. It wasn’t flashy at all, just a simple spotlight and arrangement that allowed his voice and personality to shine. And it blew me away. Ever since, I’ve viewed the studio version of it quite differently and continue to adore it to this day.
The Olympia version proves out that my sentiments were not hyperbolic.
Deeply gorgeous and affecting.
The little snatches of Michael Stipe and other band members speaking in between songs are super fun. It’s clear that the environment is quite intimate, and Stipe frequently expresses his anxiety about not being as prepared as he would like to be… which invariably leads to yet another astonishing performance.
“This is absolutely terrifying for us, we hope you enjoy it,” Stipe says, before launching into an exceptional version of “Kohoutek,” off of Fables of the Reconstruction (#638).
I’m not at all trying to assert that R.E.M. doesn’t have countless incredible and in many cases iconic songs that were recorded in studios. “Electrolite,” off of New Adventures in Hi-Fi, is but one example. The Olympia version is even looser and freer in spirit than the exceptional studio version.
Every track builds in that way, one on top of another, for two and a half hours. I’ve returned to this album an insane number of times while working or reading or doing house projects, and it’s like a Best of R.E.M. But Way Better every single time.
I swear I feel like I live inside this album sometimes.
To put it another way: I like to say that, depending on the day, R.E.M. is my single favorite band of all time. Live at the Olympia is a significant reason for that.
Some stats & info about R.E.M. – Live at the Olympia
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, College Rock, Alternative Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Live Albums
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Live at the Olympia released? 2009
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #15 out of 1,000
R.E.M.’s Live at the Olympia on Spotify
A snippet from R.E.M.’s Live at the Olympia that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
This is not a show.
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.