All my favorite rock features are here: numerous layers of meandering guitars, a quasi-political working class undertone and sublime hooks that sneak in when least suspected. <\/p>\n
So, why aren\u2019t R.E.M. one of my favorites?<\/p>\n
What bothers me about R.E.M. is they never go all the way, balls-out, face-first. They\u2019re always kind of quietly rocking in the corner: hard to ignore, but too neutral to stir up obsession.<\/p>\n
Prolific and consistent, R.E.M. cranked out six records in as many years between forming around 1981 and finally breaking in 1987. Document<\/i> landed them their first top 10 hit (\u201cThe One I Love\u201d) and album.<\/p>\n
Many rank it among the band\u2019s best output, some even among the greatest LPs of all time. Not me. For starters, it lacks the sass synonymous with timelessness. Stipe\u2019s passionate observations of American life often sound restricted, like someone singing in a reclining chair. Where\u2019s the guts and grit of (at the time) the hardest working band in the biz?<\/p>\n
I get annoyed by the tinny \u201980s production; the treble overdrive pricks my ears like a dog whistle. The kitschy \u201cIt\u2019s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine),\u201d while a landmark pop song, feels dated in 2006. Document<\/i> would have little appeal to the dorm-dwelling children of the members of the college rock scene that R.E.M. introduced to the mainstream.<\/p>\n
That said, songs like \u201cFinest Worksong,\u201d \u201cWelcome To The Occupation,\u201d \u201cExhuming McCarthy\u201d and \u201cStrange\u201d serve this period piece very well. Even I can\u2019t argue that \u201cThe One I Love\u201d isn\u2019t a stone-cold classic rock song.<\/p>\n
Despite its strong start, though, Document<\/i> slowly fades in its final third. \u201cFireplace,\u201d \u201cKing Of Birds,\u201d and \u201cOddfellows Local 151\u201d bring the solid first half of the record to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n
In subsequent years, R.E.M. would go on to become one of the biggest bands in the world with stronger material, more meticulous arrangements and greater confidence. All of those elements reveal themselves in underdeveloped form on Document<\/i>, which despite its shortcomings does offer a snapshot of an exceptional band when they were still just good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":28437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5748],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39886","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-r-e-m","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39886"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}