R.E.M. on ITMS
Posted July 10th, 2003 @ 09:58pm by Erik J. Barzeski
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:
- Automatic for the People
- Reckoning
- Murmur
- Out of Time
- Life's Rich Pageant
- Green
- Document
- Eponymous
- Reveal
- 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:
- Losing My Religion
- It's the End of the World…
- Everybody Hurts
- Stand
- Man on the Moon
- Shiny Happy People
- Orange Crush
- The One I Love
- What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
- 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.
Donate Life
Posted 10 Jul 2003 at 10:53pm #
"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. 😉
Posted 10 Jul 2003 at 11:06pm #
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.
Posted 10 Jul 2003 at 11:10pm #
Automatic for the People is my favorite R.E.M. album. Truly a masterwork.
Posted 10 Jul 2003 at 11:10pm #
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.
Posted 11 Jul 2003 at 12:03am #
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.