Okay, here’s what we know: if you care about R.E.M. at all, you’re going to have opinions about which albums and which bands are “better” or “worse” than others.
And more than likely: you’re going to have strong opinions.
I know I do. They’re my favorite band of all on some days, and/but I’m acutely aware that I have some, let us say, outlier opinions versus the standard R.E.M. hivemind.
So before we move forward, my fellow R.E.M. superfans, here are some important things to consider:
- All of these albums made the vastly more expansive best 1,000 albums ever. Every single R.E.M. studio album. And some others besides.
- That includes four in the Top 100.
- That also includes New Adventures in Hi-Fi at #2 of 1,000.
- The official R.E.M. Instagram account heralded my inclusion of Live at the Olympia at #15, which was extremely flattering and gratifying.
- More on my acute awareness: the relative placements of Around the Sun (so high!) and Automatic for the People (so low!) will most raise the hackles of some. But again, I’d just maintain that all of these albums were included in the best 1,000 albums ever, with almost all of them being quite high at that!
So here we go: the best 19 R.E.M. albums ever
#1) New Adventures in Hi-Fi (#2 of the best 1,000 albums ever)
Here’s a quote from this one to give you a flavor for how this pop culture-meets-memoir project operates:
Listening to New Adventures in Hi-Fi from my house in Seattle, I’m brought back to the rainy afternoon at that Binghamton mall parking lot, my muddy rugby boots in the backseat. And it also gives me the same feeling that long journeys do – that strange, speeding-up sensation where life and space and time slide around us, and we do our best to take stock, capture meaning, live.
#2) Live at the Olympia (#15)
I swear I feel like I live inside this album sometimes… 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.
#3) Lifes Rich Pageant (#43)
Okay, here’s a little tease on this piece as well:
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.
From here on out, you just get a little lyrical flavor from each album. I encourage you to check out the full piece associated with ones that catch your interest.
#4) Murmur (#70)
It’s so much more attractive inside the moral kiosk.
#5) Live at the BBC (#74)
Don’t talk to me about being alone.
#6) Around the Sun (#92)
Leaving New York, never easy – I saw the light fading out.
#7) Collapse Into Now (#106)
Yes, I will rhyme that, after, after all I’ve done today, I have earned my wings.
#8) Reckoning (#156)
Did you never call? I waited for your call. These rivers of suggestion are driving me away.
#9) Green (#180)
Hello, my friend, are you visible today? You know I never knew that it could be so strange.
#10) Reveal (#220)
You want the greatest thing, the greatest thing since bread came sliced.
#11) Chronic Town (#273)
Suspicion yourself, suspicion yourself, don’t get caught.
#12) Up (#287)
Say, haven’t you noticed? Oh, I ate the lotus.
#13) Out of Time (#296)
I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing, I think I thought I saw you try.
#14) Accelerate (#306)
It’s an experience, sweet, delirious, supernatural, super serious.
#15) Document (#344)
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
#16) Dead Letter Office (#357)
Look at all the flags and all the banners waving – open up our arms, a magic kingdom, open-armed and greet us all.
#17) Monster (#449)
You know with love comes strange currencies, and here is my appeal.
#18) Automatic for the People (#546)
Smack, crack, bushwhacked, tie another one to your back, baby. Hey kids, rock and roll, nobody tells you where to go, baby.
#19) Fables of the Reconstruction (#638)
Maybe these maps and legends have been misunderstood.