Red Mosquito

vote

ugh, this is basically a tie. Gonna give it How the West Was Won

"Rockville" is a blast but I'm going to go with "How the West Was Won" -- not necessarily the better song, but probably the more creative arrangement and ensemble
performance.

What the heck does this forum have against the irs albums?
2 wonderful songs, I like Rockville better myself.
I'm okay with How the West Was Won winning this, but how this is nearly a blowout makes me sad.

In general, REM's '90's albums display a sense of craftsmanship and employ a range of textures that their '80's albums do not, wonderful though it all ultimately is. My votes are coming from all over the place, but I'd identify this as a loose trend in my voting motives.

Plus there's probably some "soundtrack of our lives" stuff going on given the age group of folks on this board.

I'll tell you one thing, Hi-Fi is one of my very favorite albums of all time. It's almost perfect. And I think I probably wouldn't listen to much REM at all if not for that record. So pretty much any song from Hi-Fi, in my mind, is gonna have a giant leg up on the rest.

I love the IRS stuff, and it (that quick shot in the arm of indie rock goodness) often fits my mood better than some of the more overwrought middle era stuff, but this is isn't one of those cases. HTWWWAWIGU is sublime and I'm not a big fan of "...Rockville".

durdencommatyler wrote:I'll tell you one thing, Hi-Fi is one of my very favorite albums of all time. It's almost perfect. And I think I probably wouldn't listen to much REM at all if not for that record. So pretty much any song from Hi-Fi, in my mind, is gonna have a giant leg up on the rest.

I feel this way too. My favorite is Hi-Fi (by a lot), followed by Accelerate, Collapse into Now, Automatic, Reckoning, and Monster. It's kind of a weird mix, I know. But it suits me.

ROCKVILLE!!