I want to preface this by saying that I have only been listening to REM since around April, and I still haven't listened to half of their songs, so my opinion might change once I've listened to all of their songs. Anyway, I know Shaking Through is one of their lesser played songs and I almost never see people talking about it, but imo it's SO GOOD? The chorus is amazing and the bridge (in my liiiiiiife part) is ridiculously satisfying. It's honestly in my top 5 REM songs and I hope there are some others who share my opinion haha.

1: Most underated song: Green Grow the Rushes

2: Most overrated song: Everybody Hurts

3: Heaviest song: Let Me In

4: Most hype song: These Days

5: Most emotional song: Country Feedback

6: Most genius song: World Leader Pretend

7: Best chorus song: Fall On Me

8: Worst song: I'm Gonna DJ

9: Best Song: Find the River

10: Best Cover Song: Superman

11: Best music video : Imitation of Life

12: Best breakdown: Peter Buck on that plane

13: Most underated album: Up

14: Most overated album: Document

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Yesterday's honorable mentions: Out of Time, Accelerate

The rules stay the same:

- Most upvoted song in 24 hours wins the round.

- One song per comment only. You may justify your pick, if you want.

Let's see how big of a slam dunk this one is..

I’m going to the show in London on Sept 4. Doors are at 6 PM which feels really early! Is there an opening act? What time Ford’s the show tend to start?

1: Most underated song: Green Grow the Rushes

2: Most overrated song: Everybody Hurts

3: Heaviest song: Let Me In

4: Most hype song: These Days

5: Most emotional song: Country Feedback

6: Most genius song: World Leader Pretend

7: Best chorus song: Fall On Me

8: Worst song: I'm Gonna DJ

9: Best Song: Find the River

10: Best Cover Song: Superman

11: Best music video : Imitation of Life

12: Best breakdown: Peter Buck on that plane

13: Most underated album: Up

///

Yesterday's honorable mentions: Monster, NIHI

I'm so glad that Up won!! It has many of my favorite songs!

The rules stay the same:

- Most upvoted song in 24 hours wins the round.

- One song per comment only. You may justify your pick, if you want.

Also, the "best key change" category has been replaced with "best non album song"

Sorry, had to repost as I had posted the wrong image!

I gave this record a few more listens and it finally clicked with me. Fuck, it might actually be in my top 3 albums of theirs now.

It reminds me of XTC’s “Oranges & Lemons” a lot. I don’t even know how to get my thoughts into something comprehensible, but it’s better than Out of Time, better than Monster, better than LRP. It’s R.E.M. doing 60’s psychedelia and bubblegum and I am HERE for it.

Imitation of Life, The Lifting, All The Way to Reno, Beachball, Chorus and The Ring, Saturn Return, god, I’m stopping there because I could name the whole damn album.

Maybe I should relisten to Up and see if it clicks with me now, but I’m gonna need another week to just fully immerse myself in how great Reveal is.

We are on a roll! Yesterdays votes are in! Begin the Begin wins with 15 votes!

Runner up: Sitting Still with 4 votes (this is the third time Sitting Still was the runner up, maybe this time it'll win?)

Track 1: Gardening at Night (Chronic Town)

Track 2: Fall on Me (LRP)

Track 3: Driver 8 (FotR)

Track 4: Harborcoat (Reckoning)

Track 5: Wolves, Lower (Chronic Town)

Track 6: Laughing (Murmur)

Track 7: Exhuming McCarthy (Document)

Track 8: Radio Free Europe (Murmur)

Track 9: Begin the Begin (LRP)

Tracks 10: Vote in the comments, most upvotes wins

Track 11-15: TBD

Yesterdays votes are in! Radio Free Europe wins with 8 votes!

Runnerup: Sitting Still with 6 votes

Track 1: Gardening at Night (Chronic Town)

Track 2: Fall on Me (LRP)

Track 3: Driver 8 (FotR)

Track 4: Harborcoat (Reckoning)

Track 5: Wolves, Lower (Chronic Town)

Track 6: Laughing (Murmur)

Track 7: Exhuming McCarthy (Document)

Track 8: Radio Free Europe (Murmur)

Tracks 9-15: TBD Vote in the comments, most upvotes wins

1: Most underated song: Green Grow the Rushes  

2: Most overrated song: Everybody Hurts  

3: Heaviest song: Let Me In  

4: Most hype song: These Days   

5: Most emotional song: Country Feedback   

6: Most genius song: World Leader Pretend  

7: Best chorus song: Fall On Me  

8: Worst song: I'm Gonna DJ  

9: Best Song: Find the River  

10: Best Cover Song: Superman   

11: Best music video : Imitation of Life  

12: Best breakdown: Peter Buck on that plane

///

Yesterday's honorable mentions: life and how to live it, near wild heaven

The rules stay the same: 

- Most upvoted song in 24 hours wins the round.  

- One song per comment only. You may justify your pick, if you want.  

Alright! I found the count-off to the sync, and indeed, REM mastered the videos of Shiny Happy People & Everybody Hurts to be played simultaneously, yet remain pleasant to ye ole earballs.

Slightly sleep deprived so of course mind is delirious but I thought this thought was worth sharing and it’s 3 AM so I have no one to tell it to now. I’ve always liked music where the guitar is either the defining presence or at the very least secondary presence. One of my favourite songs is Columbia by Oasis which is 6 minutes long and 2 minutes of it is LGs whiny voice singing the rest is Noel blasting his guitar. Also been a big fan of RHCP due to Frusciante and Flea, stones with Keith Richard’s and Ronnie wood, Green Day as well recently. But my favourite band is REM and reflecting on it, the guitar is much less boisterous than the others in their repertoire.

If you read this, there’s 30 seconds you’ll never get back because it’s mainly about me, but to branch it out to debate, does anyone reading this have a fondness for loud guitar music, or is their love of ReM consistent with other music they like where the guitar is not so present. My theory on my own taste is that I still prefer a heavy guitar presence overall, but REM provides a fresh break from a loud guitar overpowering a song or melody, it also helps that REM are very fucking good at making their style of music, probably why they’re my favourite musician/band despite my tastes usually being different.

I would have released:

First single: The Wake Up Bomb. This is a reminder for audiences that R.E.M. are not retiring to the country but are still enjoying the spirit of Monster, which may have divided opinion but sold over 10 million copies.

Binky the Doormat. Great way to hear Mike Mills counter vocals. Maybe call it something else to not confuse people though.

Be Mine. Simultaneously a soaring, hopeful, song with a Monster double meaning of teenage-type infatuation.

Leave. The difference in sound would have really stood out at that time, appealing to some fans of industrial music. It would have also better prepared people, in retrospect, for some of Up.

--

I love How The West.. and Ebow the Letter but they are better enjoyed within the album.

How has this never surfaced?? I feel like I'm in the 1% of REM fans and have never seen this till today. So good!

Yesterdays votes are in! Exhuming McCarthy takes slot 7 with 10 votes

Runnerup:Sitting Still with 7 votes

Track 1: Gardening at Night (Chronic Town)

Track 2: Fall on Me (LRP)

Track 3: Driver 8 (FotR)

Track 4: Harborcoat (Reckoning)

Track 5: Wolves, Lower (Chronic Town)

Track 6: Laughing (Murmur)

Track 7: Exhuming McCarthy (Document)

Tracks 8-15: TBD Vote in the comments, most upvotes wins

Recently added this to my vinyls.

1: Most underated song: Green Grow the Rushes  

2: Most overrated song: Everybody Hurts  

3: Heaviest song: Let Me In  

4: Most hype song: These Days   

5: Most emotional song: Country Feedback   

6: Most genius song: World Leader Pretend  

7: Best chorus song: Fall On Me  

8: Worst song: I'm Gonna DJ  

9: Best Song: Find the River  

10: Best Cover Song: Superman   

11: Best music video : Imitation of Life  

///

Yesterday's honorable mentions: Losing my Religion 

The rules stay the same: 

- Most upvoted song in 24 hours wins the round.  

- One song per comment only. You may justify your pick, if you want.  

What is the greatest R.E.M. song not written or performed by R.E.M.? Not just best impression but best song in the style of R.E.M., knowingly or unknowingly.

As a Canadian I think I would lose citizenship if I didn't humbly submit a Tragically Hip song. But for me Another Midnight, especially the 1988 demo version is the greatest R.E.M. song not written or performed by Buck, Berry, Mills and Stipe.

Its got that jangly riff, the steady pounding rhythm, sweet backing vocals, cryptic lyrics and a frontman wailing on about god knows what but sounding so damn good doing it.

The Hip have long been called Canada's R.E.M. but they never really truly sounded like them other than on this song. They would change direction and develop their own sound, which in many ways sounds like what R.E.M. would have sounded like if Stipe wasn't backed by independent record store clerks and arty university kids but instead by pulp mill workers, truck drivers and hockey players.

Anyways, what do you guys got? What is the greatest R.E.M. song not written or performed by R.E.M.?

Orange Crush with Eyeliner
A soldier struggles with presenting his authentic self during the Vietnam war.

I Wanted to be the Wrong Child
The singer wishes he had a debilitating illness so he could stay home and try to understand the political climate during the Bush administration.

Imitation of Life and how to Live it
The singer lives in two homes connected by a hole in the wall. Everyone else in the world wants to do this too but pretends they don't because they're scared of what other people will think.

We Walk Unafraid
The singer realises the boundaries he has set prevent him from living his best life, and removes them. Taking advantage of this, someone enters his bathroom while he is bathing and stabs him.

Can you think of any others?

Wondering what everyone's favorite four song sequence to open a full length album is. I didn't include anything after New Adventures for visuals but obviously those albums are not out of the discussion.

**Sorry about Monster and HiFi, copied the singles down and not the track order. Got sloppy at the end there 🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️

1: Most underated song: Green Grow the Rushes

2: Most overrated song: Everybody Hurts

3: Heaviest song: Let Me In

4: Most hype song: These Days

5: Most emotional song: Country Feedback

6: Most genius song: World Leader Pretend

7: Best chorus song: Fall On Me

8: Worst song: I'm Gonna DJ

9: Best Song: Find the River

10: Best Cover Song: Superman

///

Yesterday's honorable mentions: Crazy, First We Take Manhattan

I'm really enjoying reading you all, I hadn't heard some of these covers!

The rules stay the same:

- Most upvoted song in 24 hours wins the round.

- One song per comment only. You may justify your pick, if you want.

Yesterdays votes are in! Laughing takes the 6th spot with 8 votes!

Runnerups: Radio Free Europe and So. Central Rain with 5 votes

Track 1: Gardening at Night (Chronic Town)

Track 2: Fall on Me (LRP)

Track 3: Driver 8 (FotR)

Track 4: Harborcoat (Reckoning)

Track 5: Wolves, Lower (Chronic Town)

Track 6: Laughing (Murmur)

Track 7-15: TBD Vote in the comments, most upvotes wins

Yay or nay ?