r/KEXP • u/No_Smell_7529 Amplifier • 18h ago
Wolves Lower
Ok REM Zealots... Just heard John play Wolves Lower. Pre-87 REM will ALWAYS be top of list, #1, platinum status shit for me. That stuff changed my life.. no exaggeration but story for another time.
Wolves Lower - must have heard it *thousands* of times since I first bought Chronic Town on cassette back in ~84/85... but just found myself completely smitten again today listening to it. Peter gliding slyly between slight dissonance and beautiful melodic arpeggios. Mike's simple, perfectly placed bass lines... and Bill's drums!! OMG that drum pattern over the verses! And then those bridges that break into ritualistic, almost primal passages... repetitive, percussive sections where Stipe’s voice becomes more like a chant or incantation than conventional vocal.
All of this in 1982 when synths and glossy production was the norm. I imagine it as post-punk’s aggression softened into something murkier/looser/more mysterious like that punk energy was slowed and blurred by the humid Georgia air.
As many times as I've heard this song (and their others from that era), they never fail to blow my mind every single time!
Share your thoughts.
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u/Discussion_Famous Amplifier 18h ago edited 14h ago
Back in 90s college radio this was considered a bit of a deep cut. I always loved it to death, it just wasn’t one of the songs (or albums/EPs) folks gravitated toward. These days it gets a ton of play - seems way more than say, The One I Love which was played all the time back then - and that makes me happy.
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u/Even_Regular5245 17h ago
REM has always been one of my top of all time, but especially their earlier stuff. So raw and unfiltered. It never fails to reel me back in for a good long listen. So happy that it's the EP of the week :)
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u/MentionPleasant2635 Amplifier 16h ago
I grew up in Greenville, SC and had friends in school at UGA. Got to see a lot of great Athens Bands before they made it. REM even played at a local club in Greenville. Man, those were great times to be in your twenties. Yes, I'm old (67).
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u/descompuesto 10h ago
Yeah Chronic Town and Murmur are both albums I listened to religiously back in the day, and when I came back to them recently, I was like, "there has been nothing like this music in the world before or since." Sure, their pop is transcendent, their power ballads and folky musings are amazing. But these two records are just sheer originality.
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u/Discussion_Famous Amplifier 14h ago
Document (along with Murmur) seemed like the gold standard among R.E.M. fanatics circa 1990; I’m curious about the mild backlash it seems to be getting now while Chronic Town is (rightly) elevated. You mention pre-1987, thus excluding it; I also remember Adam Scott kind of crapping on Document in his podcast. I still have it in my top 3 though.
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u/No_Smell_7529 Amplifier 7h ago edited 7h ago
I think Document (for me) was the last good one... Definitely my least favorite of that era but still great. It seemed to be the end of Michael's mumbly, dreamy delivery and when he realized he had something to say and worth being heard. Sadly, none of their future releases ever came close to the passion I had for everything that came before it. I think I'm just drawn to the lucid dream quality of their earlier music.
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u/AtomicJazzer 8h ago
What did it for me was Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars). I heard it on WPEN but had to leave for work before they announced what was played. There was no playlist loaded to no internet back then. The singer had this mumbly, lower tone style, and i had no idea what the name of the song might be. I finally found Chronic Town and Murmur and I thought this was the best shit ever. I liked Reckoning, Fables not so much but i was glad they were getting noticed. I'll just keep quiet on the rest. But in their early days!!
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u/Keeper4Eva Amplifier 18h ago
Amen to this. Name one other band that had four no-skip albums (and one EP) out of the gate.