R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant
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Music CD Cover
Artist: R.E.M.Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued
CD Release Date: 1998-01-27
Music Label: Capitol
Soundtracks:
- Begin the Begin
- These Days
- Fall On Me
- Cuyahoga
- Hyena
- Underneath the Bunker
- The Flowers of Guatemala
- I Believe
- What if We Give it Away?
- Just a Touch
- Swan Swan H
- Superman
Free Music Notes for Lifes Rich Pageant
Free Music Review: Puts the "rock" in "jangle-rock"
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a very good album. Some people think it's the group's best, and indeed it's up there - for my part, I prefer the damn sellout (Yeah, Exhuming McCarthey's a commercial song, all right) Document. However, this is probably their second-best album. It pounds even the most acclaimed of the group's '90s work into the ground, too. I mean, Out of Time? A glorified single release for Losing My Religion? Get outta town! And Automatic for the People? A bunch of really good singles and absolutely wretched album tracks? It doesn't have a chance! And as for Around the Sun...
Come on, do you need anyone here to tell you that this is better than Around the Sun?
Anyway, let's get down to business here. The fog that was Fables of the Reconstruction had lifted, and in its place was an album that actually (gasp!) had some electric guitar, (no way!) lyrics with meaning, and (oh my god!) discernable vocals. For R.E.M. in 1986, this was as weird as weird could get - especially compared to Fables of the Reconstruction, which had little of the first and second and none of the third. The rockers are all pretty good, too: Begin the Begin, These Days, Hyena, Just a Touch, I Believe, and (my favorite on the record) their cover of Superman, sung by Mike Mills, all can be considered among the best of early R.E.M. (which basically means "The best of R.E.M."). Now there are still folk songs: the Fairport Convention-like Swan Swan H, and the twin enivronmentalist songs Fall on Me ("Please don't... FAAAAALL ON MEEEEE! FAAAALL ON MEEEE!") and Cuyahoga, and those are great too! All of those songs could've made this the group's best album, but they have to ruin it with three tracks I haven't brought up yet, because they suck and I don't like songs that suck. There's an instrumental (Underneath the Bunker), and R.E.M.'s not a group known for being brilliant musicians. There's a faux-Latin thing (The Flowers of Guatemala) that turned out to be a total flop, and a poor, shoddy folk-rocker, What if We Gave It Away. It's still a great album in spite of those three, so pick it up if you like the group.
Lifes Rich Pageant Poster
R.E.M.'s early recordings purposefully bury Michael Stipe's vocals, allowing them to dominate the audio mix no more than Peter Buck's jangly guitar figures or Mike Mills's bass. Lifes Rich Pageant represents a subtle shift in the program, with clearly audible lyrics (though they remain obscure in meaning) on most tracks. The band still has a bit of fun with its audience, listing the songs out of order on the album sleeve and leaving a couple of them ("Underneath the Bunker," "Superman") off entirely. As good as it is to hear Stipe enunciate while he sings, the music is equally revelatory and forward-looking on the radio-friendly "Fall on Me"; harder-rocking songs like "Begin the Begin," "These Days," and "Superman" (the latter tune sung by Mills); and the haunting, folkish "Swan Swan H." --Daniel DurchholzR.E.M. Photos
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