Fables Of The Reconstruction (25th Anniversary 2-Disc Re-Issue)

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:44:00 +0000

Call it what you will: alternative rock, guitar pop, college radio. For better or worse, R.E.M. were responsible for making it—and making it big. Even a casual listener knows when they hear an R.E.M. song. Theirs has always been a definitive sound: Bill Berry's frenetic drums, Peter Buck's jangly guitar, those literate stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and, of course, Michael Stipe's vulnerable voice, leaping from plaintive wail to cooing croon to murmur (pun intended), often within the same song.

They started out weird. Pretty, sure, but still weird. Then they got famous and became dogmatic, showing up at award shows with serious faces and message t-shirts. R.E.M. relinquished their indie status long ago, leaving behind I.R.S. Records and signing with Warner Brothers in the late '80s. They're now a renowned cornerstone of contemporary American music. R.E.M. was inducted in the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007, and the 1981 song “Radio Free Europe” was recently added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

Yet just before super-stardom and the soapbox, there was Fables Of The Reconstruction. R.E.M. originally released Fables Of The Reconstruction in June of 1985. Today, it's back—as a 25th anniversary 2-CD re-issue. R.E.M.'s first two albums, Murmur and Reckoning, have both already received the deluxe treatment. Fables Of The Reconstruction is another shining example of R.E.M.'s early-career aesthetic.

The Athens Demos, included as the second disc on the re-issue, stand on their own as excellent alternates to the (now classic) originals. There's precious little variation from demo to album version, yet still just enough difference to be noticeable. They show a band, confident as a collective, fine-tuning these already well-honed songs. Stand-outs include “Can't Get There From Here,” which felt much more playful than the original; “Green Grow The Rushes,” with demo vocals that sounded warmer and more intimate; “Driver 8,” which, although a little off-key and possessing more prominent background vocals, was still charming.

Of the thirteen tracks on The Athens Demos, three were not on the original release. Two of them, “Bandwagon” and “Hyena,” went on to be released on other albums; “Bandwagon” was also a bonus track on the import version of Fables Of The Reconstruction. Then there's “Throw Those Trolls Away,” the much-hyped previously unreleased track that, sadly, is completely forgettable and altogether expendable. It's also worth noting that the songs on the second disc are both out of album sequence (not that odd), and curiously, listed in alphabetical order.

Over the last several years, re-releases have become standard among bands of R.E.M.'s status; deluxe edition re-releases are to today what box sets were to the '90s. Listeners are granted greater access to a band's oeuvre. Plus, if they're die-hard fans and/or music snobs, they're also granted a sense of collection completion—not to mention bragging rights.

Written by: M. Brianna Stallings, July 13th 2010

Accelerate

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:53:00 +0000

By R.E.M.

Warner

Recently I was in my car listening to Raw Power and cringed to note that Iggy Pop's music is now being used to promote cruise lines. Therefore, Accelerate might be an ironic title, or wishful thinking, although others crow that it is their most charged effort in years.

I haven’t listened to REM for some time (though I bear them no ill will), and perhaps I’m not enough of a fan to critique them fairly. To me, this band is positive aural wallpaper that inevitably appears in one room or another - sometimes it’s ironically flocked, sometimes it’s tinfoil retro. I preferred it when it was half torn off.

One party-house-wormhole-in-the-space-time-continuum host (the inevitable fedora-wearing chemical casualty with a symbolically random playing card tucked in the hat’s band) described “Stand” as “living instructions for stupid people.” REM? I remember Chronic Town. REM is one of the few arena shows I’ve seen (others include Culture Club and Prince).

Music inevitably becomes personal, a distinct sensory layer of anyone’s recollections. Some of my own associations: “Talk about the Passion” is the memorial song for a friend’s failed suicide attempt. She didn’t mean to take quite so many pills, really. She never woke up, but it took her years to die. Apparently when they came through town a few years later, Stipe sat down on the stage and refused to play “Radio Free Europe.” “Superman” was on the soundtrack for a real relationship, and “Swan Swan Hummingbird” was on the soundtrack for an imaginary one. “Losing My Religion” spoke to me at a bad time. Glad to hear that they’re still doing their thing. If you want to take a drive back to Rockville, go ahead and pick this up.

Written by: Erika Mikkalo, July 23rd 2008