PAUL NATKIN/GETTY IMAGESReviews Music
Automatic
for the People
1992
“I will try not to burden you,”
Stipe sings on the elegantly
lifting “Try Not to Breathe.” But
their most powerful LP is about
helping us carry our burden —
be it depression (“EverybodyMust-
Haves
Murmur
1983
Coming out of the college-rock
hothouse of Athens, Georgia,
R.E.M. landed in producer Mitch
Easter’s North Carolina studio to
craft their monumental debut LP.
Michael Stipe’s mumbled lyrics
felt like secrets shared, blurring
with Peter Buck’s pastoral
guitar poetry, bassist Mike Mills’
reassuring rumble, and drummer
Bill Berry’s empathetic thwack to
create music that felt post-punk
arty yet folk-rock friendly. The
result — from the mysterious
sleekness of “Radio Free Europe”
to the elusive grandeur of “Per-
fect Circle” — was alternative
rock’s foundational statement,
and a code to crack for a jillion
jangling imitators.
Hurts”), apathy (“Ignoreland”), or
the fragile dream of making our
own destiny (“Find the River”).
The mostly acoustic melodies ra-
diate midsummer bliss, as Stipe
delivers his finest lyrics, medita-
tions on the pleasures and pains
of this all-too-fleeting life.Monster
1994
In late 1993, Kurt Cobain told
ROLLING STONE’s David Fricke
that R.E.M. were “the greatest,”
adding, “They’ve dealt with
their success like saints.” A few
months later, Cobain was gone,Out of Time
1991
R.E.M. opened the Nineties
sounding like a band that could
do anything. They collabo-
rated with New York hip-hop
philosopher KRS-One (“Radio
Song”), excavated desire and
rage (“Country Feedback”), and
tapped Athens buddy Kate Pier-
son of the B-52’s for Stipe’s foray
into children’s music (“Shiny
Happy People”). Mills sang the
Beach Boys-buoyant “Near
Wild Heaven,” and “Losing My
Religion” took a mandolin-driven
tune about embarrassed lust into
the Billboard Top Five.Lifes Rich Pageant
1986
Buck compared their fourth LP,
helmed by John Mellencamp
producer Don Gehman, to Eight-
ies cornball Bryan Adams. From
pleaful environmental anthems
“Fall on Me” and “Cuyahoga” to
the back-porch sermonizing of
“I Believe” and “These Days,” its
earthy directness was a perfect
neo-traditionalist rejoinder to
Reagan-era slickness. And the
slamming take on the Clique’s
Sixties garage-psych obscuri-
ty “Superman” stands as this
phenomenal cover band’s finest
cover tune ever.Document
1987
“We’re the acceptable edge of
the unacceptable stuff,” Buck
said of the band’s status as
underground ambassadors. Ac-
ceptability finally came on their
fifth album, thanks to the big-
riffed radio hit “The One I Love.”
But Document was a brilliantly
weird commercial breakthrough,
with its cryptic takedowns of
right-wing politics, its beer-o’-
clock cover of ’77 punk heroes
Wire, and “It’s the End of the
World As We Know It (And I Feel
Fine),” a motormouth vision of
partying at the apocalypse.Further
Listening
Chronic Town
1982
Before they became an odd
staple of the streaming era, EPs
were Eighties indie rock’s killer
app, and R.E.M.’s five-song debut
rivals the Replacements’ Stink
and Hüsker Dü’s Metal Circus
among the greatest. With a
cover that sums up the band’s
knack for cleverly mutating
familiar art forms, Chronic Town
hot-wired Byrds-y beauty to cre-
ate taut, haunting dorm-kegger
bangers that perfectly split the
difference between ruminating
and rocking out.Reckoning
1984
Murmur’s artisanal allure had
a lot to do with Mitch Easter’s
atmospheric production. For its
second album, the band wanted
a tougher sound and got it, with-
out losing a bit of exotic mystery
(see “7 Chinese Bros.”). Stipe
showed off his country-singer
chops on “(Don’t Go Back to)
Rockville,” Buck peeled off glori-
ously cascading leads on “Pretty
Persuasion,” and Berry was an
agrarian-disco groove machine
on “Harborcoat.”The arty
little bar
band that
blew out
of Athens,
Georgia,
to invent
alt-rock
and
in flu ence
decades’
worth of
artistsBy JON
DOLANGUIDE
R.E.M.,
1983: Berry,
Buck, Mills,
and Stipe
(from left)