This page represents only my own views, and not those of any university or other body.
Posted Thursday 15th November 2011 at 11.05pm
Part heart
There's a good review of REM's latest best of here. I won't be buying it, because I have the albums and could never agree with any best of. How can you include Talk About the Passion and not Shaking Through? Why Electrolite and not Departure? Oh My Heart instead of That Someone is You? What were you thinking?
And if I wrote this post again tomorrow, the songs I chose for that little gripe would be different. There's 30 years' worth of music here. REM made about 8 classic albums. If you asked me to make a best of, there'd probably be 75-100 songs on it. Getting it down to 40 would be a nightmare. You can't leave out Exhuming McCarthy! Just a Touch is essential! In one sense you can't get it right. But in another you can't get it wrong. Heck, you could make an incredible album just from lining up track 1 from each of their albums.
Wolves, Lower
Radio Free Europe
Harbourcoat
Feeling Gravity's Pull
Begin the Begin
Finest Worksong
Pop Song 89
Radio Song
Drive
What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us
At My Most Beautiful
The Lifting
Living Well is the Best Revenge
Discoverer
What an album! (And yeah, the omission was deliberate.)
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Comments
Posted Tuesday 15th November 2011 at 11.34pm
Matt Roberts says:
And if you want to hear where REM went wrong, listen to I'll Take the Rain, and then listen to Find the River. Hear the distortion on Michael's voice in I'll Take the Rain, and the synths, and those horrible strings. And then hear how the instruments snake in and out of Find the River - Peter's guitar, the melodica, piano, drums, and Mike and Bill's stunning backing vocals.
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