Essential R.E.M.: Their 40 greatest songs, ranked
In honor of the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.'s debut album, Murmur, we count down the best songs from the beloved alternative rock giants
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Since R.E.M.’s breakup in 2011, there have been many opportunities to reflect upon the band’s staggering legacy. From tribute shows to 25th anniversary album reissues to the increasing frequency of bands covering their songs, it’s almost like R.E.M. is still active. But they aren’t—and they steadfastly deny all reunion rumors. And while the entire band may attend tribute shows, they intently pass on opportunities for all members to appear onstage together.
Will Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Bill Berry, and Mike Mills ever reunite? They certainly don’t need the money, and seem content to be largely out of the spotlight, focusing instead on their sundry individual projects. Still, there are plenty of opportunities to look back at their incredible run, and The A.V. Club is going to do just that as we mark the 40th anniversary of their epochal debut album Murmur. Here, we rank the 40 songs which best define this great band’s elusive appeal.
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Stand appears to be the performative omission here, but I’d also argue this deserves a high placing (particularly this bonkers performance).
I was wondering myself why Stand made no appearance. It’s goofy fun and reminds me of something that would have come out of They Might Be Giants (another great band of my youth).Maybe it was too mainstream….but it was my stepping stone to really appreciating their catalogue.
It’s also the theme song to Get a Life, which means it will always have a special place in my heart.
Its not listed because ITS THEIR WORST SONG.
Stand is hugely divisive, and really disliked among the IRS Records-era fanbase. I pretty much put myself in that bucket but do like a lot of the Warner albums. Regardless, there’s no way it’s one of their best 40 songs. best 100, maybe.
“Crush With Eyeliner” is a great song. I felt like it should’ve been a single earlier in Monster’s cycle. By the time it was released, as the fourth single maybe, everyone seemed to be sick of R.E.M., and it was hardly played by MTV or radio. I think the only Monster songs I included were “Kenneth” and “Strange Currencies.” “Let Me In” came very close to making it. Was one of the final two cuts I made.
I get to tell my REM stories again.1. I know Don Dixon! We frequent the same restaurant in the small city we both live in/near. Mrs. F. and I have become friendly with Dixon and his wife the talented Marti Jones. He is as friendly and gracious as you could ever want someone to be. I’ve never brought up his work with REM. We usually talk about stuff around town.2. I saw Mike Mills waiting on what turned out to be a tour van outside a hotel in Cleveland a few years ago. He was just hanging by himself with members of his band (not REM) hanging around far behind him. I so wanted to approach him and thank him and blah blah blah fanboy all over him but resisted. Then the van showed up and whisked them away and I regretted not taking the opportunity. I just always think celebs would rather be left alone.
If someone’s work means a lot to you, fuckin’ TELL EM while you have the chance. Don’t interrupt their dinner, obviously.
No.
Mrs. F. had no idea who he was and told me to just stay put and not bother him. So I did. Afterward when I told her who he specifically was and that we had a common friend/acquaintance she told me I should have approached him. Can’t win!! : )
I’ve met Mike a couple of times after shows, and he’s always been very nice. I once saw the Minus 5 in the early 2000’s in Hoboken. After the show I asked Scott McCaughey about a guitar he was playing (it was a cheap 12 string Danelectro re-issue). Scott said the guitar was great, then called Peter Buck over to talk about it. Pete agreed, and recommended the guitar. Obviously, I bought one the next day. I also went to see them in NYC the following day and brought a woman along as a first date. As we were standing at the bar, Peter Buck walked by. He saw me, stopped, and said, “Oh hey! You made it another night!” I said something dumb, I’m sure. He asked if I got the guitar, I told him I did, and he gave me some tips on setting it up. When he left, I turned to my date and she was greatly UNIMPRESSED. I think she left the show early. I still have the guitar though.
That is an awesome story. Not at all surprised by Peter remembering you. He’s supposedly a true mensch.
Mike is almost up for conversation, probably spend a couple of hours talking to him over the years. We had mutual friends in the Athens band Kilkenny Cats in the mid 80’s, but he still remembered me when I was him at their peak in the mid 90’s.
I met Mike Mills once and I ended up putting him inside a big jar in my basement.
Must have been a while ago or very recently.
So…Your Amazon order for a human-sized jar did NOT raise any red flags with the authorities??
*Rubs chin…pondering the possibilities…*
Oh, no, the Guy Who Plays Mr. Belvedere Fan Club has broken containment!
Oddly enough , French band Air also captured Mike Mills , to extract his essence for their music , but it was the wrong Mike Mills , so they let him go.
I actually do think artists appreciate being told their work is meaningful so long as you’re not weird about it. My favorite semi-celeb meeting with Matt Gourley and Mark McConville involved a brief chat about LA eating spots and me briefly expressing my enjoyment of their work. It was nice and I’m relatively sure I didn’t make them uncomfortable. Much better than when I was 14 and cornered Chuck Jones in a stairwell when he was clearly trying get away from a crowd. As an adult I still feel bad about that one. It’s so much better just to be normal and considerate, talk a little, then be on your way.
It can go either way , my brother ended up in a shouting match with Joe Pernice of The Pernice brothers over 9/11 ..so there’s that . Never discuss politics with your heroes folks!
I found my old copies of “Most of the Girls,” “Romeo at Julliard,” and “Chi-Town Budget Show” recently. Dixon’s stuff doesn’t sound dated at all.
That’s cool. His wife’s (Marti Jones) solo work from 80s is also very good and not dated. Mrs. F. listens to it sometimes while she works.
I checked Mike Mills into my hotel a few months ago and gushed over him for a few minutes. He was super nice about it and I like to think I stopped short of making it weird. He’s playing a show with the local symphony of REM music this Saturday. I can’t wait.
Oddly enough, my cousin is married to Mike Mills. I see her only about once every 10 years so I don’t consider this a close familial connection or anything, but this is the closest I’ve come to having some sort of interesting celebrity story so I gotta roll with it.
My brother saw Michael Stipe wandering around Dublin years ago , he’s a massive fan , but in Ireland we don’t bother people for being famous ( ‘ a howaya or head nod is allowed)but he said Stipe looked he knew where he was going . Best I managed was Elvis Costello.( my younger brother beat us all by doing work for Sinead O Connor , interviewing and being mates with Donovan and being occasional pub going mates with a Gallagher Brother..admittedly not Noel or Liam , but their nicer , more clever brother Paul .)
Great selection of songs but I’d also add Kohotek.
I always wonder if “Kohoetek” resonates with people who weren’t around when the comet made its half-assed appearance. After all the hype about it being the biggest thing since Haley’s comet, it was mostly a non-event. That feeling of “is that all there is?” really informs the song.
I wasn’t born until the mid-late 80s, long afterward but I’ve always adore the song. Finding out that it was about the decline and end of Stipe’s romantic relationship with Natalie Merchant made it even more poignant.Fables of the Reconstruction overall is a ridiculously underrated REM album. It’s really terrific.
I knew nothing about REM and was in the nearest music store (about 20 miles) where they knew me. The owner gives me a promo copy of Fables on cassette saying he doesn’t know how he can sell such awful music. I’ve been a fan ever since and Fables remains my favorite album (followed closely by Reckoning).
““Fretless” would have to wait to find an audience until 2003, when it was included as a bonus track on R.E.M.’s greatest hits album In Time.”It was on the (best) soundtrack (of all time) album for the film Until the End of the World in 1991.
And on the CD single version of Losing My Religion, not an obscure poor-seller in their back catalogue…
Correct. I wrote that initially but it was cut in an edit. I first heard “Fretless” when it was included in the “Automatic Box.” But it was first released on the Wenders soundtrack.
Orange Crush! Orange Crush!
Shiny Happy People deserves recognition. Mainly for Kate Pierson reasons.
And also for this…
A lot of people (including the band) like to shit all over this song. I think it’s a great tune and in their top 40, even if isn’t “mystical” or “deep” or whatever else folks associate with R.E.M. (And I bought every album they put out in real time during the course of their entire career.) And this Sesame Street version is epic.
I feel like “Shiny Happy People” has a very similar trajectory as the Beasty Boys “Fight for your Right”. Neither are deep songs and both bands distanced themselves quickly from them in the 90s. But by the 2000s they all kinda came around and were like “Yeah it was dumb, but it was dumb fun so what the hell”
Stipe still hates it.He and Mills gave a really funny interview back in 2019 for the 25th anniversary of Monster when it came up. The interviewer brought up that the Friends producers wanted to use Shiny Happy People as the show’s theme song and his reaction to that and talking about what that would have been like was hilarious.
Yeah, but 40 years? Unfuckingpossible. Mark Walker was ripping the shrink wrap off of Murmer like, what, six or seven months ago? I remember we were out of cleaning fluid.
No, any shitting on it is COMPLETELY justified.
I’m a huge rem fan and have been most of my life and I love Shiny Happy People.
The list’s otherwise enjoyable but it’s funny, I never think I’m into deep cuts or anything but as I kept advancing through the list I thought “wait, These Days REALLY isn’t gonna be here?”
(I’m a freakazoid whose top ten includes these days, can’t get there from here, bang and blame, and ignoreland among other accepted hits, though)
These Days, 1,000,000, Little America, and a bunch of their other early frenetic cuts are better than many of the songs on this list. But I doubt most casual fans have ever even heard those songs.
That was the weird period when huge acts were doing songs on Sesame St ..like Prince , during his slave/symbol no communication with the media , popped up being very chatty on ‘the street’ singing ‘raspberry sorbet’
Are you thinking of when he did Starfish and Coffee on the Muppets Tonight?
I don’t know how true this is, but (supposedly) the Muppet version isn’t Kate Pierson, but rather one of the actresses who later played Kate Monster in Avenue Q.
Yes, for Kate Peirson reasons, but I would submit “Me in Honey” instead.
This is the correct answer!
This ! Purely for her amazing backing/harmony.Given that both bands are from Athens Georgia, I’m always surprised the B52s and REM never collaborated more …but I’m happy for those 2 songs.
Love Kate, but dear god do we disagree about this song.
And this outfit
Goddamnit he looks like Blippi
Do you think Stipe also made a video of himself taking an explosive shit on his friends bare ass?
I am going to assume so
Just, no.
It deserves recognition as maybe the worst REM track ever, or at least up to that point. Complete dreck.
“Drive” is my number one, just love how menacing it is and how it kinda meanders and doesn’t go anywhere. “Orange Crush” would be second – my dad was a Vietnam vet, so that one hits with me. I’m also a fan of some of the goofy, breezy songs like “Star 69″ and “Pop Song 89″ but I can understand those not being among the best 40.
Funny how so much of Out of Time that was popular doesn’t rate – “Shiny Happy People”, “Radio Song”, “Half a World Away”.
Half a World definitely needs to be in there. Breathtaking song.
Love that one. My fiance and I were separated by borders during Covid with her overseas at the time that travel stopped. I listened to that song so much during 2020.
Radio Song bugs the hell out of me. I love both REM and BDP, but KRS-One does not belong here. An admirable attempt by Stipe to freshen up their sound to be sure, but I’m glad they didn’t do any more rock/rap crossovers.
I think when it first came out, I thought it was kinda corny, but it’s grown on me over the years. In my head I can hear what KRS-One’s part would have sounded like a little slower, with more verses and over a Scott La Rock (RIP) beat as a BDP song.
Agreed. It’s either an REM song or a BDP song, but mashing them together makes it less than the sum of their parts.
FWIW: they did another rap/rock crossover with Q-Tip on Around the Sun.
Yes, but it doesn’t count because no one has ever heard that album.
(I kid, I kid. I forgot about that one 🙂
They did another rap crossover with Q-Tip on the track “The Outsiders” from 2004’s Around the Sun.
There’s not many bands — if any — that can match R.E.M. for such a sustained period of consistently great songwriting, performances, and albums. You could easily add another 40 to this list. Some that I would have included are Disturbance at the Heron House, These Days, Half a World Away, Try Not To Breathe (the most glaring omission here, in my opinion), Bittersweet Me, At My Most Beautiful. (I’d also include Stand or Shiny Happy People, because you need that side of R.E.M. to tell the whole story.)Thanks for including a couple from their last two albums. They didn’t make much of an impact culturally, but they’re worth revisiting if you haven’t heard them in a while.
“Can’t Get There From Here” should also be considered (it at least got a stealth name drop). It’s just kind of silly, but it’s got some great word-smithing, if only for incorporating the town of Philomath, Georgia. It’s also the first R.E.M. song I ever heard. Before they were on a major label, they seemed to crank out a new album at least once a year. By high school, it was like I could set my clock to it. Or my calendar, at any rate.
Not long after Fables came out, my record store/music store boss paid me $5 to figure out what the lyrics to “Can’t Get There…” were so his band could cover it. I have no idea what I came up with, but years later saw the subtitled video and almost felt like I should give him his money back.
YES, thank you. Can’t Get There From Here is so great. That bridge is one of my favorite things in the world.
At My Most Beautiful is #14. But yeah, I agree – there are WAY more than 40 great R.E.M. songs. I wouldn’t even know where to start, much less finish.
Oops, you’re right.
It wasn’t easy. The only correct list is your own.
agreed with Try Not To Breath. Should be in the top 5 in my opinion
They’re my favorite band hands-down, and the one that dragged me out of the cock-rock gutter as a kid. I came into this list prepared to gripe but it’s pointless for exactly the reason you site – the list could be twice as long. So I’d add only The One I Love if only because people use it as first dance songs at weddings apparently without having listened to the lyrics. It’s one of their absolutely meanest songs.
It’s there at #8
Oh shit – how’d I miss that? OK, comment retracted.Redirect: I’m glad to see New Test Leper and Electrolite in there. Both have been climbing my personal REM chart for years. If I could as Stipe one question it would be what he thinks the subject of NTL had said or done to draw such opprobrium.
One of the few bands where every member was capable of writing hits. Can’t think of very many more.
And I would add that their longevity was partially due to the fact that they all seemed to appreciate each other’s contributions. They really functioned as a unit.
I love “Half a World Away” so much — terrible omission!
“Man On The Moon” should be taken down a number of positions, and in place of it should go “Harborcoat” and “Try Not To Breathe”. Sorry, I’m not taking questions at this time.
IMHO the list went too heavy on Automatic For the People.. but to imply Man on The Moon is the best of the bunch that is there AND skip “Try Not To Breathe” is just crazy.
Yes, it seemed heavy on Automatic For the People & New Adventures in Hi-Fi for my taste. I still bought all their albums, because there were still usually a couple of good songs on each, and I probably liked Monster more than a lot of critics, but REM was on a downward trajectory for me at that point.
Try not to breathe is a beautiful song, but there’s always that odd , ‘the old making way for the young’ vibe to it .Unless I totally got it wrong .
Came here for this. The other Automatic for the People songs—to say nothing of the post-1999 selections on this list—pale in comparison to “Try Not to Breathe.”
Thank you. Came here to post the same comment. Awful song.
I love “Try Not to Breathe.” Came close to including it, but the list is very heavy on Automatic tracks. I think five made it.
“Driver 8″ isn’t in the top 5?
Also, “Strange Currencies” and “Find the River” are both better than “Nightswimming.”
Once again, “Leave” never gets the credit it so rightly deserves.
Came to say this
Also came here to say this
One of my favorites. “Leave” fucking rules.I thought maybe “So Fast, So Numb” would also get on there from New Adventures. Another one about a dead friend of Stipe’s, I believe this time more River Phoenix than Kurt Cobain.
“Departure” was written about River Phoenix. Stipe’s said so in interviews. I don’t think he’s ever said the same about “So Fast So Numb,” but it’s been widely speculated that it and “E-Bow” are both about River as well. Either way, “So Fast So Numb” came close to making the list. Great song. Should’ve been released as a single. I love nearly all of the songs on New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
Ah, I missed that about “Departure” somehow. I wrote about New Adventures a couple of years ago— it’s my favorite R.E.M. album, although Fables and Lifes Rich Pageant are close— and I discovered the “So Fast, So Numb” trivia while doing a little research for it, but I didn’t find anything about “Departure” to that end.Another favorite tidbit of mine about that album is that the producers and record label thought “Be Mine” could be a smash hit if they produced it the right way; the band’s response was “Well, then, let’s not produce it the right way.” (Much like “The One I Love,” it’s easy to misinterpret as a love song even though all the lyrics are really self-centered.)https://www.the-solute.com/20th-century-go-to-sleep-r-e-m-new-adventures-in-hi-fi/
Here’s what Stipe said about Departure in an interview w/Stereogum a couple years ago—”Well, it was inspired by a storm that I’d seen from an airplane. I can still picture it, and I can tell you what seat I was in. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. And I was really upset when I landed. I was also insanely jetlagged, but I was really upset that I couldn’t reach out to River and just tell him about it. That’s the kind of thing that he would have really dug. So the lyrics just fell out of me, from all that regret.” I’m not aware of any interviews in which Stipe admits “SFSN” is about River, but I could’ve missed it.
As for “Be Mine,” I think they said it could’ve been like Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” if recorded properly, so they decided to rough it up instead. Not sure it had THAT much mainstream appeal…But it’s a beautiful song. Ironically they smoothed out the rough edges on “The One I Love,” which is why it was a huge hit. Early live versions were just fucking evil. The chorus then kinda reminded me of what Jonny Greenwood did to “Creep.” It’s very intense and emphasizes the parts of the song that dwell on the dark side of humanity and relationships. Just so caustic and cruel and kinda mock the notion that there can ever be a true “one I love” for anyone. Dark, dark, dark. The finished studio version had that subtext, but jettisoned the dissonance, and really, did a pretty good job of deceiving listeners listening only at a cursory level. And I’ll read your piece shortly. Thanks for the link!
Yeah, I don’t remember where I found out about that note on “So Fast, So Numb,” and it might just be speculation.I also don’t know if “Be Mine” really had a lot of commercial appeal, either, and the interview I remember that from is probably contemporary and I don’t remember exactly what they said 25 years ago or more. Your version is more specific and is probably right.I wrote about Document, too, not that long ago, if you’re interested. (I’ll admit I’m not sure I had a lot interesting to say about albums that have been so thoroughly discussed by this point, but I tried.)
Perhaps the list person is as annoyed by that “noise” part of Leave as I am. I wish I had the technical ability to get it removed.
Listen to the version from the A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack. It’s amazing.
Nah, I dig “Leave” as it is. Almost made the list. That siren noise is a synth played by Scott McCaughey. They could only play it every other day on the Monster tour, during soundcheck, as Scott’s wrist would go numb after playing it.
Disappointed that “Ignoreland” didn’t show up on the list. This 30 year old line could have been written 15 minutes ago:“TV tells a million lies
The paper’s terrified to report
Anything that isn’t handed on a presidential spoon
I’m just profoundly frustrated by all this
So, fuck you, man (fuck ‘em)“
The lyrics are fine, but the tune is meh.
One of their most alternative tracks- mainly, or possibly, because guitar is in double drop tuning(E=D)?, it’s anyhow in my top ten OAT.
The only redeeming song on Automatic is that one. Just kidding. But yeah, i’m not.
They were an enormously important band for me because Reckoning was the first real “alternative” album I bought. Until then I was listening to pretty much whatever was fed to teenagers by the corporate rock world. Then I bought Reckoning, mostly because I was intrigued by a review in RS. That’s where I learned that the best music isn’t always obvious right away. There must have been something intriguing about it because I kept listening until hooks starts coming out of the music and I was just gone. I’ll admit I pretty much lost interest in them around ‘88 but the albums from Chronic Town to Document were very very special. I doubt I’d be such a big Sonic Youth fan now if it wasn’t for REM.I’m listening to Reckoning right now in my bookstore.
I agree with the love for Seven Chinese Brothers but it’s weird they didn’t mention it’s funnier doppelganger Voice of Harold.
Impossible to truly make a list of the best REM songs, but great to see Strange Currencies get some love here. Such an amazing song that has always been overlooked in my opinion.
I was getting worried “Country Feedback” was not going to be listed, but you got there just in time.
Yeah, on some days it’s my favorite R.E.M. song.
Hottie and the Blowfish do an absolutely stunning cover of “Driver 8″ look it up..you won’t be disappointed.
The greatest American band of all, perhaps.No major issues with this top 10, even though it doesn’t match mine – their catalogue is simply too vast and too brilliant.Good to see that Electrolite has cemented its reputation as one of their top tracks, it’s definitely their best post-Automatic for the People song
Electrolyte has that fantastic line ’20th century go to sleep” that always reminds me of the millennium celebrations ( even if it was released in 96)
Heh, I used that line as the title for my article on New Adventures a couple of years ago.
Good list. Never will forget listening to Radio Free Europe for the first time. I also saw them on Letterman in 83 when they played So Central Rain and had no title for it. “Catapult” is a personal favorite of mine and I seem to recall (I am sure that this is way way wrong) that I read somewhere that it was about the Carol Burnett show! Sounds insane, I agree, but I then always heard the lyrics as “Its nine o’clock don’t try to turn it off, Carol’s on.” Good, good times.
1. “I’ve Been High” does not get enough love.2. “Losing My Religion”: the part that goes “I thought that I heard you laughing…” is the chorus. It’s discernible.
I always thought of it more as a bridge without a chorus.
This is Kinja after all. The writer probably first heard about R.E.M. while being asked to write up this enormous slide show.
Actually, I drew the black egg from the pickle jar and was assigned this. That’s how it goes when you’re a freelancer. You don’t work hard for little to no pay for over 2o years just because you love music so much and wanna maybe expose readers to stuff they haven’t heard before, or remind people of bands they used to love and maybe gave up on too soon. No. Not that. I heard about R.E.M. while being asked to write up this enormous slide show. After drawing the black egg.
The chords change up and everything!
“As we’ve said, it’s a five-minute song with no discernible chorus, and the mandolin is the lead instrument”–Mike Mills. But what would that guy know about the song? Definitely not a whole lot more than the moron who put together this list, who seems to have tin ears.
“As we’ve said, it’s a five-minute song with no discernible chorus, and the mandolin is the lead instrument”—Mike Mills. But what would that guy know about the song?
“As we’ve said, it’s a five-minute song with no discernible chorus, and the mandolin is the lead instrument,” says Mike Mills. But y’all would obviously know better than him. Maybe take it to twitter and write the same things to him that you did to me. He needs to hear from you so he doesn’t continue making such a fool of himself publicly.
1. “Sitting Still.”Saw these guys in 1986. Yes, I’m incredibly old.
Come now, I’d seen them twice by then. I turned 66 today, yippee!!
And I too young, unfortunately.
Yeah, but 40 year anniversary? Un-fucking-possible. Eddie was ripping off the shrink wrap like, what, six or seven months ago? I remember we ran out of cleaning fluid.
One of my favourites too.
I saw them in 1983. Even older
95 ..but I am old .( and I missed out on a local The Police , with U2 and REM supporting gig , on the grounds I was only 6 at the time)
And here it is, in Spotify form!https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7HuHU1Vkb7uNedpGaGnDEo?si=a678e67590d64cdd
Nice list. I agree it’s pointless to argue ranking and there are a few subs I would make. I won’t argue that it’s their best song at this point in my life but “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)“ will always be me favorite. Document was the first R.E.M. album that I heard when it came out as probably an 11-year-old (I doubt I even heard “Fall on Me” prior). Without any older siblings or something influencing me in this direction, it was probably the first “alternative” music I heard. I was mostly into classic rock, early hip-hop, and *gulp* hair metal at the time, along with whatever mainstream stuff MTV might have still been playing. This song smacked me and was definitely the hook that got me interested in the album and then the band. It sounded (to me) like absolutely nothing at the time and it’s still one that brings a smile to my face and makes me need to get up an move somehow. The video played a huge part in this. Anything with skateboarding (used very loosely here) had a strong gravitational pull to me and my friends and the seemingly bored kid in a random dilapidated house filled with junk might have well as been one of us wasting a summer day away with our board. I’m pretty sure burgeoning closeted adolescent me also subconsciously felt some sort of way about that kid by the end—I wanted to be him, hang out with him, and make out with him. Definitely a randomly influential pop culture moment from my youth.
Negative points for no “Crush With Eyeliner”.
I realize I’m not So Much In Touch With The Kids These Days, but I do find it striking that such a major band as R.E.M. has mostly, kinda, essentially disappeared from the wider cultural consciousness– sure, their big hits show-up here and there in movies/tv but I’ve yet to randomly stumble upon social media vids set to their music or see A Youth rocking R.E.M. merch in the same way you still see kids discovering The Ramones or Talking Heads or Nirvana.
I think because they were never really cool or countercultural. They certainly may have been counterprogramming, hence the college-rock into alternative “genres,” but the bulk of their awareness and popularity comes from the Out of Time/Automatic for the People MTV video era which was their most “VH1″ era, compared to those other bands which captured something in the youthful zeitgeist of their times to change music sonically in some way that allowed it to belong to kids of the time (i.e., your parents or the local top-40 DJ weren’t playing it). They were making relatively familiar rock music just with their own refined craft and personality. I’m now an old and among my 10 or so friends who I think have the best and most diverse musical taste, maybe one will even tolerate them and most actively dislike them the way they would U2. The ones in this groups who have kids getting to be the age you’re referencing probably won’t really know of them or won’t think they are cool or underground (or ironic) enough to “discover” or otherwise associate with.
If you were into the college music scene in the 90s, they were huge. If you weren’t–and younger people aren’t obviously–then they’re a band with a few notable songs.
“Perfect Circle” and “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” are my sentimental favorites but really almost anything from the first two albums works for me. After that my interest nose-dives severly with the exception of Stipes cameo on The Golden Palomino’s “Alive and Living Now,” my go-to song for when I need to blow off steam and just belt along to something loud and rousing (it’s also your one chance to hear Stipe backed by Richard Thompson:I got to go backstage to a couple of their shows in the mid-eighties. Mills and Berry were both really sweet, going out of their way to ask the wallflowers if they’d like to meet Stipe. Buck sat off to the side drinking while Stipe harassed the frat bros about their sexist t-shirts.
Little disappointed Bad Day didn’t make the list
I was just thinking that. I wonder if some people just consider it a lesser ‘End of the World As We Know It’, which I can kind of see. But the way Stipe sings, “It’s been a bad day, please don’t take a picture” just always hits me really hard.
R.E.M. is my all time favorite band, so I’m sure i could spend hours debating this list. I won’t however, because that would be annoying.All I want to say is that I always imagined (with nothing to back this up, except it’s what I would have done lol) that Michael included the lyrics to World Leader Pretend in the Green liner notes because he felt the song was the heart of the album and wanted to make sure people knew how to differentiate when he used “raised” and “razed”. That’s all I got.
How is Stand not on the list?
“Stand” is a really good song. I honestly hate the fact that so many form an opinion of R.E.M. based upon songs like it and “Shiny Happy People,” though.
I know it’s unpopular, but I must speak. I absolutely do not understand Everybody Hurts. The extremely shiny, polished production. The cloying, middle of the road tempo. The obvious lyrics. Throw in a line or two about God or Jesus and it’s essentially indistinguishable from a Christian “rock” song you’d hear at one of those contemporary churches with the big projection screens and stuff. Just thinking about how mysterious and urgent they were in their IRS years and it’s extremely disappointing to hear something as blunt and turgid as Everybody Hurts.
The whole point was to not be mysterious for a song and to say something straightforward on behalf of people who are in pain. Stipe the queer kid was reaching out to fellow misfits like him and telling them as clearly as possible that they are not alone. It’s beautiful and moving, and probably helped a whole lot of people (at least in a small way). I’m far from a Christian and there is absolutely nothing “Christian rock” in this song–it’s the opposite. It says that you are included, and you belong. It does not tell you that you are going to hell because we don’t approve of how you live.
Honestly, I find the lyrics to be the least annoying part about that song, even if they are a little on the nose. With respect to the Christian rock thing, it’s more just the sound in general. I can almost hear the worship leader talking then to turn the house lights down and everyone is swaying with their eyes closed. I think Automatic for the People in general has this problem, where all the tracks were polished to within an inch of their life. Everything is midtempo, edgeless, and bland. I listen to something like Harborcoat or Radio Free Europe or Driver 8 that absolutely crackle with energy and they may as well be a different band.
Understand the POV. I was and am an REM fanatic, especially through Automatic, and loved those earlier albums. That said, Automatic is my favorite of theirs. I don’t find it overly polished, more like perfectly polished, and I find the overall mournful, elegiac tone just hits a sweet spot. The most high-energy song on the album, Ignoreland, is my least favorite. It’s really a listen-all-the-way-through album, and, when I do, it kicks me in the gut. Not to mention that it concludes with Find the River, the most beautiful sing they ever wrote.
I’ve always thought the problem that led EH to blandness, and I think it comes down to the strings for me. It makes everything too syrupy. I like the feel of the spare triplets on the piano. What I would have done is replaced the strings with horns, like a Memphis horn sound. I think the song and message were dying for a more soulful interpretation.
“Queer” lol
That was exactly what it was for me when I was a teenager.
Oldhead bias lol, no “Walk Unafraid” no “Daysleeper”
I’m mistly happy with the list , but I love daysleeper so much.‘The whole lullaby feeling and lines like ‘my bed is pulling me …gravity ‘ just work so well .
Many years ago a radiostation was sold? and changing format and on its last day played It’s the End Of The World As We Know It for 24 hours or something like that. I know it was like 30 years ago, I thinkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KXXR
Thoughts: Out of Time doesn’t go from strength to strength, it careens from sublime songwriting to odd poetry recitations to goofy missteps. It was a very weird album to be as big as it was, which is of course a thing to celebrate. I do wish they’d just hired a drummer after Berry left and decided to be a band band instead of a meticulous studio outfit. There’s a very good album hidden in Reveal, but everything is just so fussy. I mean, whatever, they figured it out on their last two albums, but that relatively lost period is frustrating. I did not realize until now that Orange Crush is Agent Orange. That unlocks what’s always been kind of a strange song for me. It’s anthemic quality seemed to get lost in the obscurity of the lyric but, yes, got it, anti-war call to arms. Please understand before you criticize that I am very dumb. Hi-Fi has become my second favorite album of theirs, behind Murmur. Other greats worthy of listing: Tongue, Sitting Still, How the West Was Won…, Swan Swan H, Me in Honey, untitled from Green, Try Not to Breathe, Walk It Back.
REM’s early 2000s are very weird.Reveal has a few great tracks on it (Imitation of Life and All the Way to Reno both come to mind) and Around the Sun has the amazing Leaving New York.But particularly on the latter album they just sound incredibly flat, bored and over it, with the notable exception of that single.
I’m glad you appreciate Leaving New York. I find it good, not fantastic. Of course you’re right that Around the Sun is overall bereft of energy. It seems to have the elements of a good album but it just can’t take flight so it sinks into a bland, creamy mush. It’s really Up that starts that whole phase. But the thing with Up is that it’s an idiosyncratic-take-on-a-genre exercise in the same way Monster is, but with electronic/ambient stuff instead of hard rock/grunge/glam. The album is it’s own thing and can be appreciated as that. Unfortunately it became the template for the direction the band took over the next several years and it ended up just draining them of life.
Yeah I’d largely agree with all of that.Leaving New York probably emotionally resonates with me heavily because it came out about seven weeks before I graduated from high school and its themes hit home hard given the mixed feelings, fears of going forward and all that.I’d been a huge REM fan since 1996/1997 (same with U2) and was so excited for Around the Sun. It’s not a good album but it (and U2’s Atomic Bomb) both have a place in my heart because they are what I was listening to at a major life turning point in October/November 2004.
I love almost all the songs on Out of Time, aside from “Radio Song.” I even like “Shiny Happy People,” but I wish it hadn’t made the album.
Not sure about this listShiny Happy People not even on itBoth Everybody Hurts and The End of the World as you Know it should be in the top ten. No mention of Wayne and Garth’s suggestion for a sequel song called “I found my religion now where are my keys?”
How does “You are the Everything” not make this list, Criminal!
That and “The Wrong Child” are two favorites from Green that nearly made the list. I tried to include at least a couple songs from every album they released when Bill Berry was in the band. “Orange Crush” and “World Leader Pretend” made the cut for me here. For their last five albums, post Bill, that went down to one song, bar Around the Sun, which received no mentions.
No Stand. List fail
Man, we need Mills and Stipe solo albums. Peter’s stuff has been all over the map since the break-up, and Bill Berry’s new group the Bad Ends is surprisingly good.
I know his whole shtick is vinyl only, but I really wish Peter Buck would make his stuff easier to stream.
We had a Zoom talent show at work yesterday, because it’s 2023 and of course we did. I played some covers, including “So. Central Rain”. There’s lots of REM songs that could be the greatest REM song of all time, but I’m glad to see you put it at #1. (I also played “Game of Pricks” and “Ana Ng”.)
I have long held that ‘Alien Lanes’ is a lesser bands Greatest Hits.
Absolutely.
Game of Pricks is genius distilled in 1:33.
Everything is subjective, I know, but this list is lacking so many of their – in my opinion – best. Leave, Belong, Pretty Persuasion, Bang and Blame, Walk Unafraid, Lotus, The Outsiders, Stand. I’m going to have to create my own list of “R.E.M.s 40 greatest songs” now (with blackjack and hookers, obv).That said, I was initially shocked and appalled that Losing My Religion wasn’t #1, but when I saw what was I kind of just shrugged and thought, “Of course.”
Eh, it’s all subjective. I have every REM album and I’ve seen them live four times and I probably only agree with two songs on your list. It’s fine. These lists are designed to drum up comments. Kinda surprised “Stand” is getting so much love, though (not just from you). I must have been 10 when it came out so you’d think I’d be more nostalgic, but it didn’t even remotely occur to me that it was missing.
I watched a documentary on that song on netflix last year , and I was amazed when Stipe , talking about the title and chorus mentioned that ‘losing my religion’ was just a slightly obscure Southern U.S. phrase similar to ‘he just lost his shit’ .. so it’s not nessarily about faith. Although he pointed out that around the time it was released in Ireland it perfectly described a young people , who sick of the church’s control of the country had started to turn from that religion.( And he’s right ..plus they spent a lot of time here in the 90s and 2000s , so he knows his stuff).Anyway . .here’s ‘ losing ‘ but in a major key ..so it sounds happy.
Good list and great #1I kept waiting for “Swan Swan Hummingbird” though
I would include here 1998’s Daysleeper. Nevertheless, this is indeed a solid list.
“I am Superman” – the song that started my journey.
Maybe disqualified because it was a cover?
That would make sense.
…only possible reason, and not really fair, if so.
Deleted, I was wrong (thought it was on Dead Letter Office..sorry)
yep. this was the one for me
The omission of ‘Leave’ invalidates the whole list.
I love Leave …but I think the musical carbomb intro ( complete with screaming car alarm style backing ) divides people a lot.
Lots of great songs on this rather clever idea for an ad-baiting slideshow; but without “Stumble” from the ‘Chronic Town’ EP this list is just an initiation for this band that the millenials probably call “classic rock” nowadays, and not entirely incorrectly.Truly a band of their times, all of them.
Two songs from Chronic Town made the list. “Stumble” is actually my least favorite song on the EP. But it’s still a great song.
John, please learn the difference between “that” and “which.” I saw the word which used incorrectly at least eight times in this slideshow.
To be fair, its a well constructed list. I would have put Fall On Me at 1 and might have plopped Radio Free a bit higher, but everything else on this is kind of a crap shoot when the task is ranking a catalog like this. Well done to you.
Thank you. “Fall on Me” was in contention for the number one spot. Definitely a personal favorite of mine. The 1991 MTV Unplugged version is where I first heard it I think. Incredible performance, particularly by Stipe. It was also nice to hear it played live the Accelerate tour with Johnny Marr guesting on guitar. Great memories.
That would’ve been something. I envy you. I remember hearing about him playing a few gigs with them, and Fall On Me seems exactly in his wheelhouse to guest on. I only got to see them twice, and the last time The National second of three openers, so I appreciate the video drop of So. Central Rain to remind me that Stipe had hair at one time.
Embarassingly recently, like just a couple of years ago, I learned that the cover of Reckoning was not a painting of an intestine, as I’d thought for many, many years (not that I ever thought it was anything but a great album).
Another super underrated REM track is Texarkana from Out of Time. Great, great song.
Came here to say this. Texarkana from Out of Time, These Days from Life’s Rich Pageant, and Try Not To Breathe from Automatic For the People are my glaring omissions from this list.
Oh yeah These Days is great too. Good call on all those tracks.
I agree.
How great is that “Imitation Of Life” music video? It must have been a bitch to film, but the results were worth it.
I’ll add to the people who wanted to see “Leave” on here, although honestly I’m pleased so many people mentioned “Leave” as deserving, at all. (New Adventures in Hi-Fi is my favorite R.E.M. album.)Beyond that, my favorite omitted song is “These Days.” I almost certainly would find a place for “Time After Time (Annelise),” although I reckon it’s not as widely popular or beloved. “Exhuming McCarthy” probably gets a slot on my list too.I’m also glad “Supernatural Superserious” made it on here. While I agree it’s the best song on Accelerate, I also think those first three tracks as a whole are such a killer opening punch coming from a band so late in life.
Oh, “Finest Worksong” belongs on here, too.
“Time after Time” was Stephen Malkmus’ least favorite song.
“Leave” nearly made the list. “These Days” was also close. “Let Me In” and “Welcome to the Occupation” were the last two cut.
Thanks for the reply, nice to hear some insight into the process! Those are all very deserving almost-made-its.I’m never going to be too mad about a list like this, because R.E.M. has so much goddamn good music to pick from that the list can never really be that bad (unless you do something insane like just put every track from Around the Sun and Collapse Into Now on there and nothing else). But that also means some favorites won’t make it, so I had to give a shout-out to some of mine.“Begin the Begin” / “These Days” / “Fall on Me” is one of my very favorite 1-2-3 tracks to start an album ever. Might even be #1, although I don’t want to say that definitely without thinking it over more. (“Astral Weeks” / “Beside You” / “Sweet Thing” might be the real #1, although that’s boosted heavily by “Astral Weeks” being possibly my favorite song in the history of popular music.)
Agreed on the beginning of LRP. Amazing opening salvo! I’ve seen them open live with both Begin the Begin and These Days, and they were both phenomenal choices to kick off shows. “These Days” in particular was maybe the best opening song choice for the band, at least out of the 14 times I saw them live. It made me wish they’d opened with old songs on earlier tours. They didn’t really start doing so until the ‘03 In Time tour.
I am sad to say R.E.M. is almost certainly my single biggest “never got to see them live” missed opportunity. (Admittedly, I don’t know when I would have; I was 15 when Berry left the band, and they already weren’t a cheap ticket even then.)
“Wait… is this an episode of R U Talkin’ R.E.M. RE: ME?”
“No.”
how AV Club has changed, had to scroll to bottom of the barrel to find a REM Re: ME reference. I’m also here to mention how thanks to David Wain, I will never hear carnival of sorts the same again!
see
Pretty great list, but I can’t abide you omitting “Finest Worksong”. Kicks off Document and just bangs.
I was going to unleash some fury about the inclusion of “Near Wild Heaven,” which makes me grit my teeth every time I hear it, but “So. Central Rain” in its rightful place at #1 has saved you. This time.
Tipping out a little coffee for my favorite missing REM song, Bang & Blame
I’ve never liked “Bang and Blame.” Always hated that delay effect on it. I feel like the band don’t like it much either now, as it wasn’t on either of the “greatest hits” albums, and they never played it live again after the Monster tour.
Since we’re all mentioning songs we felt were left off the list, I’ll throw in “Living Well is the Best Revenge” which is basically just Stipe as grumpy old man and I love it so.
Nightswimming sucks.
Three of my Top 5 R.E.M. songs are not here. Wow! to leave out Harborcoat, I Believe and These Days.
All three would likely be in my top 100. This was a very difficult list to make. They’ve got so many great songs.
“Cuyahoga” is about the actual Cuyahoga River catching fire.
I’m weird; Fables of the Reconstruction is my favorite REM album. It’s almost…Southern gothic. Cold and distant, but informed by tragic romance and half-remembered dreams while travelling. There’s such a feeling of movement through the record. There’s no other REM record like it.
Mine is Lifes Rich Pageant, but I absolutely understand where you’re coming from. It was weird — I was on the fence about it when it first came out; when the CD was released it made a lot more sense — maybe it flowed together better without having to flip a record (or a cassette copy) over? Maybe the CD was just a bit more sonically clear? I dunno.
I get it. Compared to REM’s other work, it doesn’t click at first. Like reading a book with a page missing. But it slowly unveils itself the more time you spend with it.
Monty Got A Raw Deal got a raw deal.
lot of problems with this list but also it correctly has “So. Central Rain” at #1 and has “Country Feedback” in the top 5 so I guess today I will be handing it to ‘em
This list is immediately invalidated by the fact that “Radio Free Europe” isn’t included in the top 10.
Eponymous has an incredible version of “Finest Worksong” that is my go-to R.E.M. song. Shame that it didn’t make this list.
AV Club should just stop doing lists. Every time they do its always so horribly, horribly wrong.
I think we forgot “Little America,” also, unless it’s in the comments and I’m just missing it.
I remember hearing them for the first time in the early 80s, “Sitting Still” was everything a kid who had faint memories of early Beatles growing up and missed good guitar rhythm and harmonies music could ever want in a song. I was smitten. Others that didn’t make the list Pretty Persuasion, Letter Never Sent, Chronic Town, What if We Give it Away. The list seems to rely almost solely on the “deep meaning’ of the lyrics. I have always thought music should stand as music first, and meaning and lyrics second, of course that is highly subjective, but so is ranking based on meaning and lyrics, and I will add if that is your criteria, perhaps you should focus on ranking literature and poetry.Lots of other good suggestions here. I sort of checked out from them after the early nineties, so the newer stuff I don’t know as well. But their catalogue of work from start to “Automatic for the People” has to be one of the most amazing runs by any group in the history of modern pop music. About the only one I can think of that had so many good quality albums from start to finish, with most every song listenable and not filler or throw away, is the Beatles.