Every R.E.M. Album, Ranked
R.E.M. called it a day in 2011 without a farewell tour, which leaves a closed run of albums out of Athens, Georgia for you to rank. Type and credit decide: any studio album credited to R.E.M. is in, strong or weak, while the 1982 EP Chronic Town and Dead Letter Office, a 1987 B-sides set, miss. Live, hits, rarities, remix and video albums and box sets are out, and the band's own reissues (deluxe, expanded, anniversary) fold into the original album's slot. No printed date picks a link: it opens the earliest Spotify edition with the original's track count and titles, a renamed title on the same recording still counting, or for an album another list here already links, that copy; an entry whose copy isn't clean spells out what that copy has extra or lacks. Six post-split rankings (Stereogum, SPIN, Louder, Consequence, NME, Far Out) count each record's first-three placings, excluded records set aside: 3 or more seats it in the upper band, fewer keeps it in the lower, and voting orders each band.
R.E.M. — Murmur (1983) is #1 on “Every R.E.M. Album, Ranked”.
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R.E.M. — Murmur (1983)
A tryout on Pilgrimage won I.R.S. over to Mitch Easter and Don Dixon as producers, and sessions ran at Reflection Sound in Charlotte in early 1983. Peter Buck's Fender Twin Reverb was dead, so every song but Pilgrimage went through Easter's Ampeg Gemini II. The album tops SPIN's and Consequence's lists, runs second with NME and third with Far Out, so 4 of the 6 lists slot it within their first three, which earns the upper band.
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R.E.M. — Reckoning (1984)
Peter Buck sometimes put the sessions at 11 days, and Mitch Easter pushed back: "It was 20 days, which was still short, but it's not 11." On 7 Chinese Bros. Michael Stipe sang so quietly that Don Dixon handed him a gospel record, and Stipe read its liner notes aloud. NME puts the album at the very top, Stereogum and Far Out at two and SPIN at three: 4 of the 6 lists, and the upper band.
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R.E.M. — Automatic for the People (1992)
The title is the motto of Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods, an Athens restaurant, and the star on the sleeve is part of a Miami motel sign. Mike Mills found the countermelody on Try Not To Breathe after the rest of the band had left the studio. Louder and Far Out make the album their number one, and Stereogum, SPIN, Consequence and NME have it second or third, a clean 6 of 6 and an upper-band seat.
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R.E.M. — Document (1987)
Strange is a Wire song from Pink Flag, and the sleeve carries two rejected titles, R.E.M. No. 5 and Table of Content, along with the line File under Fire, a nod to what Michael Stipe took as the album's central lyrical theme. Stereogum's 2012 list makes the album its number one and Louder has it second, yet those are its 2 of 6 first-three finishes, one short of the upper band, so the lower band holds it.
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R.E.M. — New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)
Bill Berry's last album as R.E.M.'s drummer runs 65:33, with Leave alone taking 7:18. How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us opens it, its whistle a nod to Ennio Morricone's score for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Consequence puts the album third, the lone first-three finish it has, 1 of 6, and with the other lists printing it between fourth and sixth it lands in the lower band.
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R.E.M. — Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
Don Gehman produced it at John Mellencamp's Belmont Mall studio in Indiana, and Peter Buck tied the title to the line Inspector Clouseau says after falling into a fountain in A Shot in the Dark; the band dropped the apostrophe. Superman, the closer, is a Clique cover sung by Mike Mills. Fourth, at SPIN, Louder and NME, is as high as any list puts the album, so it finishes with 0 of 6 and a lower-band slot.
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R.E.M. — Out of Time (1991)
Kate Pierson of the B-52's sings on four tracks, and Mike Mills takes the lead on Near Wild Heaven and Texarkana. For Belong, Michael Stipe borrowed Scott Litt's Walkman and taped his vocal in the garage of a rented house. R.E.M. never toured the album, and no list prints it higher than Far Out's fifth, 0 of 6 in the first three, which puts it in the lower band.
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R.E.M. — Green (1988)
Basic tracks went down at Ardent in Memphis about a month after the band signed with Warner Bros., and a plan for one electric side and one acoustic side fell apart for want of acoustic songs. Bill Berry plays mandolin on Hairshirt, and Louder rates the whole album third, an outlier when the other five print it ninth or tenth, so 1 of 6 is the count and the lower band the result.
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R.E.M. — Fables of the Reconstruction (1985)
Peter Buck wanted Joe Boyd, so the band spent a London winter at Livingston, and Buck recalled that "It rained every day it wasn't snowing." Boyd spent hours mixing and remixing, which the band felt sapped its playing, and the single Can't Get There From Here reached 14 on Billboard's rock tracks chart. SPIN, NME and Far Out print the album seventh, and with 0 of 6 in any first three it sits in the lower band.
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R.E.M. — Monster (1994)
Most of the basic tracks were cut live in Atlanta, and the album is dedicated to River Phoenix, whose sister Rain sings backing vocals on Bang and Blame. Let Me In is for Kurt Cobain: Mike Mills plays Cobain's Fender Jag-Stang, a gift from Courtney Love, and because Cobain was left-handed, Mills had to play it backwards. No list prints the album above Consequence's seventh, which leaves it 0 of 6 and a slot in the lower band.
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R.E.M. — Accelerate (2008)
Jacknife Lee produced it at the urging of U2's The Edge, and the band tried the songs out over five nights of working rehearsals at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in summer 2007; Michael Stipe said, "We spent less time making this record than we have in 20 years." Supernatural Superserious was the first single, and no list prints the album higher than tenth, so it holds 0 of 6 and a place in the lower band.
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R.E.M. — Collapse into Now (2011)
Sessions ran from November 2009 to September 2010 at Hansa in Berlin, Blackbird in Nashville and The Music Shed in New Orleans, with Jacknife Lee producing. Eddie Vedder and Joel Gibb sing on It Happened Today. R.E.M. never played any of these songs in concert and split six months after release; Louder, Consequence and NME print the album twelfth, and with 0 of 6 first-three finishes it goes in the lower band.
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R.E.M. — Up (1998)
Bill Berry had quit in October 1997, so session drummers Joey Waronker and Barrett Martin plus drum machines filled in, and Pat McCarthy took over production from Scott Litt; the band later admitted they nearly broke up making it. Mike Mills arranged At My Most Beautiful as a tribute to the Beach Boys, and SPIN's ninth is the highest any list goes for the album, for a count of 0 of 6 and a seat in the lower band.
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R.E.M. — Reveal (2001)
After basic tracks in Vancouver, most of it was recorded between August and October 2000 at Dalkey Lodge in Ireland. Imitation Of Life takes its title from the 1959 Douglas Sirk film, and the single reached number 6 in the UK while stalling at 83 on the Billboard Hot 100; Far Out and Louder each print the album eleventh, as high as it climbs, so its count is 0 of 6 and its band the lower one.
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R.E.M. — Around the Sun (2004)
Q-Tip guests on The Outsiders, and the sessions moved between Vancouver, Compass Point in Nassau and Miami. Members turned on it later: Mike Mills called it "an unfocused record" and Peter Buck said it "just wasn't really listenable." Leaving New York, the lead single, made the UK top five, but five rankings print the album last and Far Out leaves it off entirely, so its count sits at 0 of 6 and its place in the lower band.
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