Every REM album ranked from worst to best
There is a mystic space where REM belong in a realm of their own. Like the draw where you keep everything from sellotape to takeaway menus, lightbulbs and strange spare door knobs, their sound had a little bit of everything. And, much like this mishmash drawer, there is something oddly nostalgic about their amalgamated contents—unlike the drawer, not of it is throwaway.
The legendary Athens, Georgia band, consisting of Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Mike Mills and Peter Buck, rose to prominence in 1982 with the release of their Chronic Town EP. A hit on college radio, this strange new sound became the soundtrack to skateboarders and surfers eking out their own fresh culture in the wake of the bold 1970s. More filagreed and dainty than what came before, REM boldly reinvented rock.
Thereafter, their success never stopped, and their identity never wavered. They remained in the same artistic lane, somewhere just adjacent to the mainstream. Perhaps the most indicative facet of the band is what they said about each other. When the chains of success started to clang, Stipe recalled: “Peter was sick of being a pop star, the guitar god, and so he decided to teach himself other instruments. Among the instruments that he picked up was the mandolin”.
This kept them fiercely artistic throughout their back catalogue, which ceased to expand when they called it a day in 2011 after 30 years together. This constant pursuit of something more, some nebulous and freeing, makes ranking their records particularly different. From the proto-dream pop to the slacker cuts, like that bloody old drawer, their albums are hard to rummage through without getting snagged by something unseen.
Every REM album ranked from worst to best:
14. Up
Up seems to be one of REM’s more divisive albums, as it was the first that the band made without Bill Berry, and his absence can very much be heard. For many listeners, the use of much subtler drum machines and a mish-mash of session drummers with a slight reluctance to give the record their all gives it an added touch, but not here.
Up is the band’s worst album because it struggles to back itself. Berry’s absence is all too apparent, and while some might think it adds another layer to REM, it actually just produces a record that is hard to connect with on any level. The deep and profound aspects of the band that are often so appealing are lost on this record, and it’s very hard to say much else about it.
13. Collapse Into Now
The curse of the indefinite is something that plagues creatives constantly. Adding a “last” to something puts too much pressure on the project. Anything that is produced by an artist should have an authentic feel to it and be completely honest and true to the person who is making it. That can’t happen when the artist knows they won’t get another chance at creating, and it means that when a band, writer, or any form of creative decides something will be their last before going into it, they plague themselves.
That’s precisely what happened with Collapse Into Now. The band decided this would be their last outing before going into the writing and recording process. They intended to put absolutely everything they had into the project, but instead, they ended up with a messy and directionless record. While there are some charming elements, the indifference that this record was met with is a pretty fair assessment, as it does very little to spark much else in those listening.
12. Accelerate
One of the most enticing things about REM was the versatility with which they could approach a record. It didn’t feel like there was anything that the band couldn’t do, and subsequently, there are albums that veer on the electronic side and rely more on guitar music. Similar to Monster, Accelerate is one of the band’s albums that focuses on rock, but the time it came out meant it wasn’t as much of a hit.
It didn’t feel like there was as much riding on this album as there was with Monster, and as such, the rock sound didn’t feel as gritty and exciting. That being said, there were some positives that came from this record; for instance, Michael Stipe’s ageing vocals gave the record a much more organic feel. Also, drummer Bill Rieflin managed to add a bit more atmosphere that seemed to invoke the classic Berry feel.
11. Reveal
For a lot of fans, Reveal marked a sad turning point for REM. People left that record deeply disappointed and worried that their first album in the 21st was also a sign of the inevitable fact that even your favourite band will lose it at some point. It’s easy to see why fans weren’t happy; the record was lacklustre and boring. It all felt a bit too safe for REM, and it was hard to even listen to the album enough to let it grow on you.
That being said, this album has moments of brilliance and more creative ideas than some of the band’s other outings, which is why it doesn’t find itself at the very bottom of this list. The main saving grace of the record, though, has to be the opening number, ‘The Lifting’, which is arguably one of the band’s best songs.
10. Green
When you are a cutting-edge band starting to gain traction, there is inevitably going to be a period where you start to butt heads; this could be within your band, but a lot of the time, it’s with labels. Innovative bands gain interest from keen fans who want more of those innovative sounds, and often, labels want to capitalise on that interest while being worried about taking significant risks.
REM didn’t seem to have this issue when they made the leap to a major label, and their effort with their second album, Green, became a shining example for other indie bands looking to sign with big companies. They kept the rights to their songs and still had a lot of creative control, but they also had more resources available to them. As such, Green is a more emphasised version of their debut. It’s a great record and a great example of how commercial success doesn’t have to mean sacrificing integrity.
9. Monster
For all the different avenues the band had gone down, they never seemed to find their edge all that often. They certainly had the respect of their peers, but being able to make something that hit with the same aggression as Sex Pistols or The Clash seemed to be outside of their reach. Now that they were in the midst of a genre they helped invent with grunge, Monster told the rest of the world that they could get heavy if they wanted to.
Outside of having some of their most radio-friendly songs to date, Monster seems to be the best-case scenario if someone asked them to jump on the alt-rock bandwagon. Instead of sounding like they were following a trend, ‘What’s the Frequency Kenneth’ and ‘Bang and Blame’ sound like they are trying their best to expand their horizons while working in the confines of the pop sphere. While ‘Let Me In’ stands as one of the more stirring tributes to Kurt Cobain, this is probably the only record in their catalogue you can throw on and rock out from cover to cover.
8. Document
A lot of REM’s best-selling and most successful albums have a common denominator. Yes, while the band’s mindset at the time, their creative approach to an album, and the dynamic within the band will all have been important, another absolutely crucial factor was Scott Litt, who produced some of their very best work.
This can be heard clearly on their album Document. Without taking away from what made REM unique, Litt was able to give them a much bigger and brighter sound. As a result of his tweaks to tracks like ‘The One I Love’ and ‘It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’, he achieved charting success for the band. Those songs have stood the test of time, and it’s easy to see why.
7. Fables of the Reconstruction
While the bright sounds that accompanied some tracks like ‘It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ are great, REM could also deliver when it came to gloominess. It can be hard hearing some slow and mopey songs, but on Fables of the Reconstruction, they’re a delight to listen to.
Ironically, this album seems incredibly gothic, similar to many made in the South of America, and yet it’s the only album the band ever made that was recorded entirely outside of the US. It could well be that their time in London and the grim weather that a British February brings with it helped with the tone of the record, but this change of pace remains one of the band’s most ambitious, and it pays off in spades.
6. Life’s Rich Pageant
There was a very distinct shift in the band around 1986 when this album was released, and it came from Michael Stipe and his newfound confidence in being less abstract in his lyricism. Sure, there are some lines on this record surrounding time and coyotes that still leave listeners scratching their heads, but as a general rule, Life’s Rich Pageant marked the moment that Michael Stipe was becoming a pioneer of music and the voice of a generation.
This is one of the most emotive offerings REM ever made, and it still feels raw to listen to today. Stipe packs a great deal into his lyrics, as he is much more literal with his words and much clearer in the way he sings them. This is a career-defining record for Stipe.
5. Out of Time
REM were never accustomed to taking the “easy” route. Even when they were making their acclaimed classics, what came directly after was usually focused on working out the bugs of their sound and trying something entirely new. Even though Green took everything great about their 1980s sound and synthesised it, Out of Time is where they started to move beyond alternative rock altogether.
While this record, unfortunately, is home to the chipper ‘Shiny Happy People’, tunes like ‘Texarkana’ and the collaboration with KRS-One on ‘You’ are among some of the greatest experiments they had ever done. And when it comes to their classic songs, ‘Losing My Religion’ should stand alongside ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ as one of the most important tunes that alternative music ever made. It can be a disorienting listen at times, but as soon as some of the classics hit your eardrums, the air almost tastes different.
4. New Adventures in Hard-Fi
New Adventures in Hard-Fi is almost bittersweet in terms of how good it is. Sure, the album is great, and as rock bands struggled to do the same numbers in the dwindling face of grunge, it held its own very well, but it also marked the last time the original line-up would work together and also saw an end to REM’s hit-making tenure under Litt.
The whole record was written during the Monster and feels like what they might have been trying to achieve with Collapse Into Now. It takes from the band’s past, present, and future and throws it onto one record, but in a much more cohesive and enjoyable way. The whole record is a chaotic blend of different sections of the band, but it is easily one of their best.
3. Murmur
Picture it in your mind. The year is 1983. The hottest thing in music is probably either Madonna or Def Leppard, and the older side of Generation X is about to head off to college. Though the styles on MTV were enough to blow people’s minds, a small little band from Athens, GA, released this album that turned the entire world on its head.
While Murmur earns its reputation by being a fairly unassuming rock album, every syllable that comes out of Michael Stipe’s mouth is pure gold, even if people couldn’t automatically tell what any of the words were. But no matter. The alternative generation was only getting born, and even if no one quite knew what Stipe was singing about, it felt like you lived through every emotion of ‘Laughing’ or ‘A Perfect Circle’.
2. Reckoning
Even though the band probably knew their first record would do well, no one could have predicted it would make all-star numbers. Suddenly, this little group from Georgia had a major hit on the radio with ‘Radio Free Europe’, and everyone was clamouring for what the hottest new band from the underground would do. While other acts of their ilk, like Pixies, got much more ferocious as they got older, Reckoning takes everything that made the first album great and doubles down.
Despite having a few radio-friendly songs like ‘Don’t Go Back to Rockville’, very little has changed, but when the first album is aces from back to front, that’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, tunes like ‘Time After Time’ take all that pent-up emotion and turn it into a shamanic exercise for a few minutes. While far from the first album any prospective fan should pick up, this is an absolute treat to dig through once getting the classics under your belt.
1. Automatic for the People
By the 1990s, REM had to deal with all rock bands’ greatest nemesis: age. As much as people like the idea of being 25 for the rest of their lives, they were all wondering if they still had something to say after all these years. Although Automatic for the People is one of the more downtempo albums in their catalogue, it’s still among the finest works that the age of irony ever spat out.
While everyone knows ‘Everybody Hurts’, the majority of this album is a case study of what it means to get older, whether that’s watching a woman die of old age on ‘Try Not To Breathe’ or looking back on one’s youth on ‘Nightswimming’. Most of REM’s output doesn’t need to be mulled over for years before everyone “gets it”, but despite sounding fantastic right away, this is a record that manages only to get better once people start realising that they’re dealing with the same problems Stipe is talking about.
