A list. Nobody here likes lists. Perish the thought. Have at it I’ll make some popcorn.
The ones we love: all 16 of REM’s albums – ranked! https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/jun/05/pop-indie-music-all-rem-albums-ranked?CMP=share_btn_url
The One I Love. The guardian lists R.E.M.
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OK the link wouldn’t post in the place designated for links. So probably this should be removed and consigned to an outer ring of purgatory.
It’s been one of those days.
I think this should work
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/jun/05/pop-indie-music-all-rem-albums-ranked
Thanks Steve. My hero. Am I correct in surmising that hacking off in a brutal yet winsome and winning way everything in a link before the https is the magic here or are you in fact an awesome alien super being hiding out from intergalactic pirates in Cambridgeshire?
I dunno about that, but a ? and anything after in a URL is surplus to requirements.
OK I doubt I’ll ever have use of that being effectively illiterate in these matters but I think I understand that…a bit….well a tiny bit…maybe.
That’s pretty close to being correct
At first glance I think Green should be a lot higher, but then I haven’t listened to it for years and the observation that it hasn’t dated well could be true for me as well. I’ll give it a spin tomorrow.
I would swap it with Monster
Years 83-86 would be my personal preference. Then it’s not quite the same after that. Reckoning is one of their best along with the debut. Seven Chinese Brothers is wonderful. 87 onwards is clearly not too shoddy either at least up to and including Monster. The list is nearly right. I am a bit tired of AFTP. Over familiar. Favourite track Drive maybe.
The Guardian can’t be right or even nearly right it will tear a hole in the space time continuum.
You are right in assuming that the Graun is wrong. Automatic for the People should be lower down, New Adventures should be higher up, and Murmur should be much lower down. I realise that Murmur is regarded as untouchable in the R.E.M. canon, but I’ve never rated it.
*ducks*
Phew! That was a close one.
AFTP no. 1 forever. A complete masterpiece. And Murmur is also a masterpiece, LRP close behind. Document and Fables may be a little high.
Opinions innit?!!
Yup. and mine is that the one I listen to the most is Reckoning.
I’m not saying it is the best – its just my go to
Whenever The One I Love is invoked I feel I must point out this, few more blatant lifts in the history of Rockular Music, “I heard one today about The One I Love”. Genius steals… so goes the phrase
Minutemen Stories)
And Drive is quite close to Rock On by David Essex.
Top 3 are about where they should be, but for me Up should be in the top 7 or 8, probably instead of Fables, which I never got on with.
Of them all, I like Up and Around The Sun, so I’d be happy to see the poll reversed.
I’m far from qualified to comment much about REM as I haven’t really bothered listening to them for some time, just the occasional song here and there but I have no issues with the top three in this list. I’ve always liked Reckoning and would swap that with Fables which I’ve only ever sort of got along with. Apart from that I don’t have anything like a solid opinion about the rest of it.
I would move Automatic For the People down to 3, with Murmur and Life’s Rich Pageant being 1 and 2, respectively.
I would then have Fables Of The Reconstruction (or Reconstruction Of The Fables, as it is on the reverse), Reckoning, Green and Document as my next four, but I find it hard to say in what order.
My R.E.M days started to fade after Automatic For the People and I have not listened to New Adventures or Monster enough to have an opinion. And as for the rest … dunno (although – being a completest – I have them all). Maybe I should go and give them a listen.
Fables… would be my number one.
Pleased to see Monster makes it to mid-table (and above Out Of Time) – most lists place this near the bottom (despite the relatively poor 21st Century offerings – Up is the best of that period I believe).
What is so great about Automatic For The People anyway?
If you have to ask you don’t get it
Having given it some thought …
1. Automatic for the People
2. Murmur
3. Life’ s Rich Pageant
4. New Adventures in HiFi
5. Out of Time
6. Green
7. Document
8. Reckoning
9. Fables of the Reconstruction
10. Monster
11. Reveal
12. Up
13. Collapse Into Now
14. Accelerate
15. Around the Sun
Didn’t include Chronic Town as that isn’t an album
1. Life’s Rich Pageant
2. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
3. Document
4. Out of Time
5. Automatic for the People
6. Fables of the Reconstruction
7. Monster
8. Collapse Into Now
9. Green
10. Accelerate
11. Reckoning
12. Murmur
13. Reveal
14. Up
15. Around the Sun
I need to give this some thought…at least my number one is fixed!
Remember now, Afterworders – there’s no apostrophe in Lifes Rich Pageant.
There SHOULD be one, of course.
But there isn’t.
That’s how Michael Stipe wanted it.
Lifes with no apostrophe.
And who are we to argue with the mercurial R.E.M. frontman?
Well, it took me a while – but I got there in the end. I’m guessing no-one will agree with my number one…however, it remains my absolute stone cold favourite by them.
1. Fables of the Reconstruction
2. Lifes Rich Pageant
3. Murmur
4. Green
5. Document
6. Reckoning
7. Out of Time
8. New Adventures in HiFi
9. Automatic for the People
10. Monster
11. Reveal
12. Up
13. Collapse into Now
14. Accelerate
15. Around the Sun
I agree with 1 and 2.. stopped listening to them after Monster so couldn’t comment on 11-15.
Good gracious! Splendid!
In my experience, Fables gets a bit of a kicking. Even on this thread, there are comments suggesting that it should be lower down on the Guardian list…
…and Feeling Gravity’s Pull is certainly in my top 5 REM songs – so it’s not all about Driver 8, perfect though that might be…
Of course it’s their best, it’s got Green Grows the Rushes on it!
It’s also where I got sucked in, lured by the Joe Boyd connection. Wasn’t there a “news article” type piece on OGWT about it being made?
@retropath2
Tis an absolutely beautiful song.
I agree with the list 100%.
😀
My top ten
1 Murmur
2 Life’s Rich Pageant
3 Green
4 Out Of Time
5 Document
6 Reckoning
7 Up
8 Out Of Time
9 Reveal
Joint 10
Automatic For The People
Around The Sun
Accelerate
Collapse Into Now
I sort of like REM like I like Rush. Really early stuff, no ta, then they were ace, then their later stuff no ta.
By early stuff I just mean Murmur and Reckoning…sort of missed the boat. From then on to (just about) Monster not arf. After that, diminishing returns. But crikey, for a while, weren’t they good?
Rush, I really only love their synth period though have a soft spot for Hemispheres etc.
They are so much a charidee regular now, even the later ones (which I suspect may have been grossly overstocked), I wonder how much you’d have to pay to get all of them on CD?
Yesterday, I went into a charidee doing a 3 for 50p deal and so for a just a oncer half of U2’s back catalogue was yours. That’s ‘yours’ not ‘mine’… a full Lady Godiva less than I paid for a pint when the bus didn’t come!
Have you considered that it’s a reflection on the average age of charity shop record buyers, rather than any perceived artistic merit? Just a thought.
Charity shops are full of albums that sold a lot obviously.
REM have been a bit forgotten, which is a shame. Almost all their albums are good or great, and it’s possible to argue the ranking almost endlessly.
The IRS Years compilation “…And I Feel Fine” is one of the best CDs ever produced. It stayed in my car CD player for years, never got tired of it.
Have an “Up” (see what I did there?) for the IRS compilation comment – it’s a perfectly sequenced record that just sounds like a great album rather than a stitched-together comp…
I’ve got that one with a second CD, printed matter, and a DVD.
REM and the Smiths have been a bit forgotten I reck. Time was when they were super influential.
Basically, the first 3 albums in the order they were released, then Chronic Town (which as an ep doesn’t really count). After that I lose interest rapidly. But those first 3 albums were, at the time, magical.
Bit of a blind spot for me R.E.M. Genuinely don’t think I’d heard a full album of theirs before now, even though I know and like someof their songs and it’s the kind of music I would normally love. I was too young for them in the 80s and prejudiced against pretty much all American rock music during their peak in the early 90s and since then there’s just been too much other stuff to listen to and they seemed a bit worthy.
But since yesterday, using this list as a guide, I’ve been listening. What a surprise, they’re rather good. 🙂
If Stipe got his skates on completing the solo album he has been making for years, perhaps they would be less “forgotten”. It’ll certainly lead to a surge in back catalogue.
Whenever the subject of REM arises, I always find myself defending the honour of Around The Sun (usually alone, but I remember Disappointment Bob/hedgepig also standing with me in its defence). I still, and will always, maintain that it’s at least half of a very good album, with some beautifully affecting songs. I’d take it over, say, Accelerate every day; one or two outstanding tracks aside, I feel that album received undue praise at the time because it was basically ‘a bit noisy.’
The Around the Sun songs do sound better played live without their electronic studio sheen.
Around The Sun has been on “heavy rotation” chez Mickey lately, and it’s a completely fine album – not a classic, not a desert island disc, but totally listenable and enjoyable. (I’m actually happy to defend most of the latter years albums, they’re hardly total duffers, I just think the world had “enough” R.E.M. …)
REM seemed to have had enough REM too
How many top notch, imperial phase albums by one act can we expect or need? The rest which may be decent or not too bad really, or not as bad as some people make out, I think I can manage without or take a chance on missing out on.
Super Furry Animals had the problem where the critics and even fans got bored with how good they were. Album after album of endlessly listenable, eccentric stuff. Hey Venus suddenly was the drop off for everyone, despite it being basically perfect. The reviewers liked the next one better because it showed the band trying less hard, somehow…?
Anyway, a diversion, sorry! But seriously. REM were too good.
Me too, I have defended this album on here numerous times & it will always be my ‘go to’ REM album. To my ears it is a very good album, not a classic, but it is wholly undeserving of the ire that gets thrown at it.
Make It All Okay & I Wanted To Be Wrong are fantastic songs & is Stipe & Co. on scintillating form
I did my own list recently and came up with (starting from best/favourite):
Reckoning
New Adventures In Hi Fi
Life’s Rich Pageant
Automatic For The People
Murmer
Collapse Into Now
Monster
Out Of Time
Fables
Accelerate
Green
Up
Around The Sun
Document
Reveal
I pretty much love all their albums with the exception of ‘Reveal’. I revisit it every few years to see if I can find anything new in it, but bar a couple of goodies, I find it a total slog to listen to.
Agree with @Black_Type, Around The Sun is given a rough time unfairly. Some great songs on that.
Live at Olympia is also something I listen to a lot, probably my favourite release outside of the studio albums.
Looking forward to the Michael Shannon UK shows this summer, will be great to see Fables live.
Document second from bottom…controversial!
If asked to nominate bands that you know you should like, that people whose musical opinions you respect rate highly but you’ve never bothered to explore, REM would be top of the list.
Seen em, later period, Go Betweens support and have a couple of records- the one with the orange crush song and the everybody hurts one. But just not motivated.
Adored them, had bootlegs, biographies, videos, but didn’t need any more after the Monster tour, really.
My list:
Reckoning
Chronic Town
Life’s Rich Pageant
Murmur
Fables of the Reconstruction
Automatic for the People
Green
Out of Time
New Adventures
Monster
Collapse into Now
Accelerate
Up
Reveal
Around the Sun
The live album recorded in Dublin is pretty fab too.
The 39 Songs Live album is a joy from start to finish. I love the chat as well. What a band!
Document nowhere…controversial!
Oops – mistake. Should’ve been between Murmur and Fables
I know it is ‘just’ a compilation of B-sides, but Dead Letter Office is one of my faves.
I like tunes recorded live in a room when they’re letting their hair down. King of the Road is hilarious, as they’re all too bladdered to get beyond the first verse.