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R.E.M. on ITMS

As an R.E.M. fan, it's interesting to see how their work comes up in the ITMS:

Of the 14 albums, the top 10 (in order) are:

  1. Automatic for the People
  2. Reckoning
  3. Murmur
  4. Out of Time
  5. Life's Rich Pageant
  6. Green
  7. Document
  8. Eponymous
  9. Reveal
  10. Monster

Not a bad list, and in what I'd call a fairly correct order as well! 🙂 Automatic for the People is one of the few albums to have gotten 5 stars from Rolling Stone (unless that's changed in the past four years), and is worth it.

Singles, let's see:

  1. Losing My Religion
  2. It's the End of the World…
  3. Everybody Hurts
  4. Stand
  5. Man on the Moon
  6. Shiny Happy People
  7. Orange Crush
  8. The One I Love
  9. What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
  10. Superman

I'm a bit surprised to see one of my favorites, Orange Crush, so high. It's a great, rockin' song. Some of the others, well… Let's just say they're parodies, and I'm guessing most people who downloaded them don't know (and probably don't care), so I'll let that slide.

5 Responses to "R.E.M. on ITMS"

  1. "Everybody Hurts" is a parody? Want to explain that? The other nine I can believe. In fact, that's why I like them.

    BTW, those 10 songs are exactly the same ones I downloaded from the ITMS. 😉

  2. Hey now, I said some of the others! Shiny Happy People? Stand? They're jokes. One of those was written because someone said R.E.M. couldn't make a radio hit, and so they did with a stupid, silly song just to prove how easily it can be done - the real work is in crafting art. They've only played that particular song in concert about fifteen times - ever. AFAIK.

  3. Automatic for the People is my favorite R.E.M. album. Truly a masterwork.

  4. P.S. When I say they're "jokes" I think I mean that in the manner the songs were originally intended. I love those songs - albeit for different reasons - than R.E.M.'s other, uhh, "more serious" stuff.

  5. Yeah, I'd say I agree with the albums more or less, but I'd put Green way lower. Like off the list :-). Just never been a big fan of that one (so much of it seems like filler to me) although I do like Orange Crush a lot.

    As for the singles, I'd switch It's the End of the World and The One I Love. In fact, I don't even think I'd put ITEOTW on the list (again, just me though :-). Oh, and Imitation of Life would be very high on my list.