How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us: An REM Thread

[Anders]

Joey, have you heard this?



Their last single (from a GH compilation) which is a really good song and doubly compelling when you know it's their last song

Nice song.

[VinylGuy]

I remember really liking the song when it came out. It’s a very nice farewell song but I agree that everything in colapse is better.

[PHATJ]

Collapse is sweet. That song is meh.

[Jorge]

I just revisited Collapse (well, the first six songs) and yeah, I am just not feeling this album. These songs feel rote and static, like the kind of thing the band could've written in their sleep. It's the album that everybody accused Around the Sun of being.

[Blaine Ryan]

I liked Collapse more when I started to view it as essentially a love letter and farewell to the fanbase. I'm not sure how much that was intended in reality, but it makes the familiarity of the whole thing feel more endearing.

[Kevin Davis]

I think "Collapse" has some good songs (I especially like "All the Best," "Uberlin," and "Oh My Heart"), but it's not surprising to me that it was the record that left them feeling like they'd said everything that they had to say. It's probably my least favorite REM album. But I also think it feels like a more appropriate coda than "Accelerate" would have (though "I'm Gonna DJ" would have been a funny song to go out on).

[PHATJ]

I love Discoverer, It Happened Today, Mine Smell Like Honey, and Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter. There are several others on the album I like a lot too, but those four are great. I think I enjoy Collapse into Now more than most people.

[digster]

I liked Collapse more when I started to view it as essentially a love letter and farewell to the fanbase. I'm not sure how much that was intended in reality, but it makes the familiarity of the whole thing feel more endearing.

I'm pretty sure Collapse was written and recorded knowing they were calling it quits afterwards (I remember reading somewhere that they knew they were done after one more album by the end of the Accelerate tour).

[epilogue]

I love Discoverer, It Happened Today, Mine Smell Like Honey, and Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter. There are several others on the album I like a lot too, but those four are great. I think I enjoy Collapse into Now more than most people.

There's not a dud among the bunch. And several contenders for my favorite all time REM song. I goddamn love that record so much.

[PHATJ]

I love Discoverer, It Happened Today, Mine Smell Like Honey, and Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter. There are several others on the album I like a lot too, but those four are great. I think I enjoy Collapse into Now more than most people.

There's not a dud among the bunch. And several contenders for my favorite all time REM song. I goddamn love that record so much.

me too.

[stip]

Alligator... is a really good song, and one of the few ones on that album that actually feels fresh.

[Anders]

I just revisited Collapse (well, the first six songs) and yeah, I am just not feeling this album. These songs feel rote and static, like the kind of thing the band could've written in their sleep. It's the album that everybody accused Around the Sun of being.

Agreed.

[Blaine Ryan]

I think I've finally got my ranking down.

Automatic for the People
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Fables of the Reconstruction
Reckoning
Green
Monster
Up
Lifes Rich Pageant
Murmur
Out of Time
Document
Accelerate
Collapse Into Now
Around the Sun
Reveal

[Blaine Ryan]

Those middle ones are tough as shit to rank and I might want to rearrange them later, but that's pretty close.

[Jorge]

I watched this concert DVD before I owned a single REM album. Michael Stipend is pretty fun to watch on the more upbeat songs

[Jorge]

That said, go to 31:30 for the most shockingly awful harmonica playing in the history of mankind

[BootsToAsses]

That said, go to 31:30 for the most shockingly awful harmonica playing in the history of mankind

Indeed, but it actually works perfectly with the energy of the performance. I adore his crap dancing at the end too.

[epilogue]

Alligator... is a really good song, and one of the few ones on that album that actually feels fresh.

Perhaps I'd feel the same had I grown up with the albums instead of diving in late.

[epilogue]

I'm making a career retrospective playlist. Here are the fist 15 songs:

1. Finest Worksong
2. Radio Free Europe
3. Begin the Begin
4. These Days
5. Orange Crush
6. It's the End of the World...
7. Stand
8. The One I Love
9. What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
10. Bittersweet me
11. Losing My Religion
12. Uberlin
13. Oh My Heart
14. Bang and Blame
15. Man on the Moon

[Rangi Guy]

*14 BANG and Blame


- Gardening at Night should be in there too