Release Date: 1987
Previously Owned: Yes. On vinyl.

Impressions: I started liked R.E.M back in junior high when my cool music friend Matt, who hipped me to Hüsker Dü and The Clash, also got me into R.E.M.’s Life’s Rich Pageant. Michael Stipe’s mumbly, cryptic singing took me a while to get warmed up to, but I started to enjoy their and catchy Big Star-meets-Byrds guitar jangle. I remember picking this one up when it came out and being surpised at how extroverted and confident it sounded, like these music dorks decided to move out of their parents basement and start playing at school dances. “The Finest Worksong” opens things off with a big (at least, for them) grinding guitar riff that lets us know they are looking to move beyond their little college niche and onto bigger audiences. Not quite a sellout album though, since the text of Stipe’s songs is still pretty inscrutable. It’s just now he sings his oddball lyrics (“Listen to meeeee…”) more directly. Peter Buck is sort of like the American answer to Johnny Marr, just casually cranking out gorgeous guitar lines that jangle, strut or buzz in accordance with whatever the song needs. Political without being preachy, I don’t know of too many albums that reference McCarthyism, Operation CHAOS, and, in the case of the careening, fast-talking “The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine,)” everything else in between (“Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce, and Lester Bangs.”)  Listening to the lovely, circular “Fireplace,” I have no idea how they pulled off a saxophone solo in an ’80s song that doesn’t annoy me. A lean, mean 40 minutes with a startling consistency, these guys keep their old college rock weirdness, but melded with pop smarts energetically played by a full-blooded rock band that got over their shyness.

Starred Songs: “Finest Worksong,” “The One I Love,” “The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine.)”
Sneaky Track: “Fireplace”
Should this album be on the list? Yes
Will you listen to this again? Yes
Verdict: Breakthough album that took R.E.M. from minor college act to a band that could compete with other huge acts, yet still retain their strangeness.

Rating:  ★★★★★