Top Guy
1) Country Feedback
It’s possibly the simplest song musically the band has ever written—it’s just four chords, a distorted pedal steel guitar and some percussion. With Michael Stipe’s repeated “It’s crazy what you could have had” line at the end, it’s also one of the best songs to listen to after a bad breakup.
2) Disturbance at the Heron House
Before Seattle, there was tiny Athens, Ga. This song is about a photograph of the Athens scene, a photograph where Michael Stipe looked around and noticed how many people in the frame weren’t actually from Athens. Yes, Matthew Sweet, he’s talking about you.
3) Stand
One of my favorite concert memories is seeing R.E.M. in 1999, hearing the opening keyboard line to “Stand” and seeing everyone in the amphitheater turning to the person next to them, smiling and screaming “Oh my god.” This was the song that propelled the band to the stratosphere, and it’s really catchy and danceable to boot.
4) Radio Free Europe
This is the song that started it all.
5) (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
Reckoning is my least favorite R.E.M. album (not counting anything without Bill Berry), but this countrified gem is both a departure from the band’s early jangle and also the best song that Mike Mills has ever written.
Top Lady
1) I Believe
This has long been my favorite R.E.M. song; aside from the nice banjo at the beginning and running, falling melody, the lyrics are just top-notch. Michael Stipe is at the height of his wordplay, giving familiar phrases a twist, while sprinkling hints of images and scenes throughout the song (“when I was young/a rattlesnake”) that don’t really form a narrative or message—just a spirited vibe and the motto “Change is what I believe in.” In 27 years, I don’t know if there’s a better lyric than “Golden words make practice/Practice makes perfect/Perfect is a fault/Fault lines change.” I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if the Obama campaign took this song along for the ride.
2) You Are the Everything
How do they do it? How do they write a truly beautiful song that encapsulates a moment of being in the “late spring” of life, lying down in the back seat of a car and looking up at the stars and having a feeling of oneness with the universe (“They’re there for you/ For you alone”) that feels completely sincere? How do they pull off lines such as “She is so young and old” and have them work perfectly? I don’t know.
3) Nightswimming
The great thing about having three songwriters is that you get a beautiful piano sonata by the same group that wrote “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” That’s Bill Berry playing the piano, by the way, in case you needed more of a reason to regret his leaving the band.
4) Driver 8
Another great example of a Peter Buck jangle meets loosely connected Michael Stipe lyrics to make a song that perfectly evokes the South, travel, rural life, and the weariness of the road.
5) Half a World Away
On a different day, this might not be on my list, but this melancholy, swooping song (which would fit in fine on Automatic for the People) again embodies the things that make R.E.M. great: inward-looking lyrics that have a great poetic flow (just the pairing of “blackbirds/backwards/ forward to fall” will get stuck in my head for hours) and a melody that’s not necessarily catchy, but somehow stays with you for a long time.
1) Country Feedback
It’s possibly the simplest song musically the band has ever written—it’s just four chords, a distorted pedal steel guitar and some percussion. With Michael Stipe’s repeated “It’s crazy what you could have had” line at the end, it’s also one of the best songs to listen to after a bad breakup.
2) Disturbance at the Heron House
Before Seattle, there was tiny Athens, Ga. This song is about a photograph of the Athens scene, a photograph where Michael Stipe looked around and noticed how many people in the frame weren’t actually from Athens. Yes, Matthew Sweet, he’s talking about you.
3) Stand
One of my favorite concert memories is seeing R.E.M. in 1999, hearing the opening keyboard line to “Stand” and seeing everyone in the amphitheater turning to the person next to them, smiling and screaming “Oh my god.” This was the song that propelled the band to the stratosphere, and it’s really catchy and danceable to boot.
4) Radio Free Europe
This is the song that started it all.
5) (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
Reckoning is my least favorite R.E.M. album (not counting anything without Bill Berry), but this countrified gem is both a departure from the band’s early jangle and also the best song that Mike Mills has ever written.
Top Lady
1) I Believe
This has long been my favorite R.E.M. song; aside from the nice banjo at the beginning and running, falling melody, the lyrics are just top-notch. Michael Stipe is at the height of his wordplay, giving familiar phrases a twist, while sprinkling hints of images and scenes throughout the song (“when I was young/a rattlesnake”) that don’t really form a narrative or message—just a spirited vibe and the motto “Change is what I believe in.” In 27 years, I don’t know if there’s a better lyric than “Golden words make practice/Practice makes perfect/Perfect is a fault/Fault lines change.” I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if the Obama campaign took this song along for the ride.
2) You Are the Everything
How do they do it? How do they write a truly beautiful song that encapsulates a moment of being in the “late spring” of life, lying down in the back seat of a car and looking up at the stars and having a feeling of oneness with the universe (“They’re there for you/ For you alone”) that feels completely sincere? How do they pull off lines such as “She is so young and old” and have them work perfectly? I don’t know.
3) Nightswimming
The great thing about having three songwriters is that you get a beautiful piano sonata by the same group that wrote “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” That’s Bill Berry playing the piano, by the way, in case you needed more of a reason to regret his leaving the band.
4) Driver 8
Another great example of a Peter Buck jangle meets loosely connected Michael Stipe lyrics to make a song that perfectly evokes the South, travel, rural life, and the weariness of the road.
5) Half a World Away
On a different day, this might not be on my list, but this melancholy, swooping song (which would fit in fine on Automatic for the People) again embodies the things that make R.E.M. great: inward-looking lyrics that have a great poetic flow (just the pairing of “blackbirds/backwards/ forward to fall” will get stuck in my head for hours) and a melody that’s not necessarily catchy, but somehow stays with you for a long time.
2 comments:
Not quite a top 5, but On 13 September Phoenix FM are broadcasting an R.E.M. top 20. This is from 10pm - midnight UK time.
You can vote for your top 10 tunes at:-
http://www.phoenixfm.com/top20-rem.php
You can listen online, or via the webcam, at http://www.phoenixfm.com.
Thanks for the opportunity to spread the word. I certainly echo the idea that whatever is in your top R.E.M tunes depends on what mood I'm in.
Steve Robertson,
Phoenix FM,
Essex,
UK.
What about the Top 5 Air Supply songs? They are the all-time number one band out of Australia and I don't see them on this blog.
Here's my picks:
1.) The One that You Love
2.) All Out of Love
3.) Making Love Out of Nothing at All
4.) Lost in Love
5.) Young Love
Unlike R.E.M., Air Supply managed to get the word "Love" in all of their top hits.
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