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If there was a single band that shaped my teenage ears, that shook me from the confines of classic rock radio and awakened me to quirky, adventuresome college rock, it was R.E.M. Soon after discovering Document, I had worked my way back through every cassette in their catalog. And when that was exhausted, I started looking for other bands that just sounded something like R.E.M. I felt sheltered, even betrayed, learning that all this music had been made during my adolescence—just up the road in Athens—while I was mowing the lawn to Foreigner 4.
20. "King of Birds" (Document)
This may have been the song that immediately made me such a rabid fan. With words crashing into each other during the chorus and Stipe's voice soaring as 100 million birds flew away.
King Of Birds - R.E.M.
19. "These Days" (Life's Rich Pageant)
Following on the heels of "Begin the Begin," one of the band's best rock songs takes the energy up another notch.
These Days - R.E.M.
18. "World Leader Pretend" (Green)
High-school Josh had this song on repeat, and now it's the one R.E.M. album not in my iTunes. I need to remedy that, if only for this song and "Hairshirt."
World Leader Pretend (Album Version) - R.E.M.
17. "Cuyahoga" (Life's Rich Pageant)
Starts with a perfect little bass lick from Mike Mills and gets lovelier as it goes.
Cuyahoga - R.E.M.
16. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (Monster)
Grunge was still king in 1994, and R.E.M.'s album of fuzzy, distorted guitar mostly left me unimpressed, with this one glorious exception.
Whats The Frequency, Kenneth? (Album Version) - R.E.M.
15. "Gardening at Night" (Chronic Town)
The band was already gelling on the debut EP, particularly on its best song.
Gardening at Night - R.E.M.
14. "Man on the Moon" (Automatic For the People)
This tribute to Andy Kaufman contains one of the catchiest choruses of any R.E.M. song.
Man On The Moon (Live) (Athens, GA 92) - R.E.M.
13. "7 Chinese Bros." (Reckoning)
One of the classic Peter Buck riffs also works well on the alternate take ("Voice of Harold").
7 Chinese Bros. (2006 Digital Remaster) - R.E.M.
12. "Fall on Me" (Life's Rich Pageant)
This list could have solely been made up of songs from Life's Rich Pageant.
Fall On Me - R.E.M.
11. "Everybody Hurts" (Automatic For the People)
I think it's the subtle Hammond organ that really makes this beautifully sad, uncharacteristically straightforward ballad.
Everybody Hurts (Album Version) - R.E.M.
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"The One I Love"?
"Find The River"?
Good choices, nonetheless.
"Find the River" is definitely missing! :P Automatic for the People is probably my favorite album ever, and I think there's so many good songs from that I would have included... "Sweetness Follows" is amazing...
I also really like "Walk Unafraid" and "West of the Fields." but there are so many, picking my favorite R.E.M. songs is much too hard. Good list, though :)
"Country Feedback" is not only the best R.E.M. song it's also been acknowledged as such by Michael Stipe. It's brilliant & for it not to even make your top 20 is simply ludicrous.
The One I Love! I kept waiting, expecting it to be top 5, and it didn't even make the top 20?
Dude...
"Harborcoat"
"The One I Love"
"Exhuming McCarthy"
"Try Not to Breathe"
"SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE???"
Nightswimming would top my own list, but this isn't bad! :-)
Great list! My list keeps changing which I think is a testament as to how great this band is.
Your lyrics to "Nightswimming" are inaccurate/incomplete.
Damn, Josh, you nailed it. I could quibble with one or two choices--maybe swap out Everybody Hurts for Begin the Begin--but really, you hit this one out of the park.
I suspect we're roughly the same age--I graduated from high school in '89--and have similar memories affixed to tunes from Document (and Life's Rich..., and Reckoning, and Murmer).
Thanks for the trip back in my mind's eye.
Not sure about Talk About the Passion as no. 1. I'd have to go with Nightswimming, and Find the River is a glaring omission that needs to be added. But then again, this is such a tough exercise, since the band (and us listeners) have gone through so many lives in the last 25 years. Each period in the band has unique memories and its best songs tied to those memories.
my 20 (alphabetical order)
auctioneer (another engine) - fables
begin the begin - life's rich pageant
carnival of sorts - chronic town
departure - new adventures
rockville - reckoning
feeling gravity's pull - fables
gardening at night - chronic town
harborcoat - reckoning
i believe - life's rich pageant
laughing - murmur
little america - reckoning
old man kensey - fables
pretty persuasion - reckoning
radio free europe - murmur
second guessing - reckoning
sitting still - murmur
so. central rain - reckoning
wendell gee - fables
7 chinese bros. - reckoning
i'm obviously partial to the early years. reckoning in particular.
and #20
country feedback - out of time
It's crazy that you could have had a better list, one with "country feedback" on it.
But not one bad song on your list, either ;)
'This list could have been solely made up of songs from Lifes Rich Pageant'..... Really?!? Until ATS, probably the REM album with the biggest proportion of filler! (Although admittedly with some pretty amazing highlights on side one.)
I would have to add Country Feedback, Find The River, Leave, 9-9, Kohoutek, Welcome To The Occupation, & probably a few others besides. But isn't that the beauty of REM, that they mean so many things to so many people? My own list changes pretty regularly so I can't even give a definitive list of my own personal favourites!
Electrolite.
Instinctively I always go to this song. No REM song makes me feel better. Maybe because its my favorite to sing in the car.
In chronological order:
Gardening at night
Laughing
7 Chinese Bros
Second guessing
Letter never sent
These days
Fall on me
The one I love
Losing my religion
Country feedback
Drive
Find the river
What’s the frequency, Kenneth
Strange currencies
The wake-up bomb
Bittersweet me
So fast, so numb
She just wants to be
I’ll take the rain
Living well is the best revenge
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your list, and thinking about my own tops. I am pleasantly surprised that "Talk about the Passion" is number one - that song was the first R.E.M. song that I ever heard, and in that moment, it changed my life (not exaggerating). I've never known anyone else for whom it stood out. Cheers!
Find The River - loved the video too
Where is? ...
The One I Love
Undertow
Bittersweet me
While I could argue that there was a glaring lack of anything from the past ten years, I'll let it go. But Sweetness Follows should be on this list. It is the most beautiful and haunting song from Automatic for the People, a beautiful and haunting album, that catches the band just as Michael Stipe is starting to open up his lyrics and make the songs more accessible.
Terrific list. I discovered R.E.M. back when I headed to college in '88, but I also love at least one of their much-maligned post-Berry discs (namely, "Up").
My list would also include Perfect Circle, Feeling Gravity's Pull, Begin The Begin, Near Wild Heaven, Find the River, E-Bow The Letter, and Airportman. (Am I the only living human who adores Airportman? And Catapult, too?)
Kudos to Darnell for remembering "Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)." It's always been tops on my personal list of R.E.M. songs.
Not a bad list but no songs from recent years ?? Come on, don't get stuck in the past, they have also made great songs the last decade. Just start listening again to all their cd's and you will hear real beauties on every one of them.
Not the best list but in fairness everybody has a different opinion on the bands best songs simply because their are so many.... i would put Accelerate right up their with R.E.M's best music. Mr Richards, Hollow Man, Living well is the best revenge, Man sized Wreath, Perfect Circle, Gardening At night, Country Feedback, Turn you inside out, Second Guessing, Harbourcoat, Falls to Climb, Imitation of Life, I've Been High..... the list for me is almost endless.. Greatest Band ever:):):)
Sitting Still
Good Advices
Find the River
Falls to Climb
I've Been High
are possible contenders, but some songs on the list inform these ones, so they are there.
King of Birds should rank higher, in my opinion
This is a great list and I can't disagree with Talk About the Passion
Country Feedback must be on the list. I would also add I'll Take the Rain and Imitation of Life. Cuyahoga, What's the Frequency Kenneth, and 7 Chinese Brothers would face the axe on a top 20 and 25 list.
Perfect Circle, Turn you Inside out, Rockville, the one I love and Daysleeper would be worthy of the bottom quintile of a 25 list.
Perfect Circle is one of the most beautiful things you will ever hear. Country Feedback is a must also but the list would change every time you sit down to do it which proves that REM are the best and most important band in the last 25 years and long may they continue.
I adore every REM song there is. I cannot however believe that you left ELECTROLITE off the list :)
Can you really narrow it down for a band of this stature? I'd add Harbourcoat, Country Feedback, Wendell Gee, and Perfect Circle.
Quality list but no
STRANGE CURRENCIES MONSTER??
So many to choose from.
This just goes to show everyone that R.E.M. is the "original" Alt band. Buck and Stipe are the Modern day Richards and Jagger. This list could easily be 30, 40, even 50 tunes. Great work Paste, but I too would have added, Country Feedback, Let me in (Stipes ode' to Cobain) and Turn you Inside out and The one I love for sure, but I could go on and on.
well-well... Too many lists (And I feel fine)
My 20:
1. Its the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)
2. Radio Free Europe
3. World Leader Pretend
4. Talk About The Passion
5. Lotus
6. NIghtswimming
7. E-Bow the Letter
8. Fall on Me
9. Crush with Eyeliner
10. Ignoreland
11. Daysleeper
12. So. Central Rain
13. Fretless
14. Leaving New York
15. Beat a Drum
16. Drive
17. Country Feedback
18. Green Grow the Rushes
19. Welcome to the Occupation
20. Driver 8
Belong
The Lifting
Try Not to Breathe
Supernatural Superserious
Bad Day
The Flowers of Guatemala
The One I Love
...and the biggest oversight of all:
Hollow Man
No-one's mentioned Camera - one of my favourite songs of all time!
A top 20 is difficult, but I'll have a go:
1. Camera
2. Gardening At Night
3. Belong
4. Perfect Circle
5. Rockville
6. Find the River
7. Sweetness Follows
8. Letter Never Sent
9. You Are the Everything
10. Laughing
11. Green Grow the Rushes
12. Half a World Away
13. The Flowers of Guatemala
14. So. Central Rain
15. Good Advices
16. Stand
17. Shaking Through
18. King of Birds
19. Man On The Moon
20. Losing My Religion
20= I Wanted To Be Wrong
20= Be Mine
The list is biased towards earlier tracks, and OK, I cheated slightly!
Raf
I'll bite. Here's a list of 20 of my favorites that don't get a whole lot of attention, in no order:
Photograph (with Natalie Merchant)
Leave (NAIHF)
Binky The Doormat (NAIHF)
Fretless (Until The End of The World)
You're In The Air (Up)
At My Most Beautiful (Up)
Redhead Walking (Accelerate)
Disappear (Reveal)
Texarkana (Out Of Time)
Perfect Circle (Murmur)
Strange Currencies (Monster)
Crush With Eyeliner (Monster)
Begin the Begin (LRP)
Crazy (Pylon cover - In The Attic)
Turn You Inside-Out (Green)
Green Grow The Rushes (FOTR)
Can't Get There From Here (FOTR)
Wolves, Lower (DLO)
Ignoreland (AFTP)
Living Well Is The Best Revenge (Accelerate)
Sweetness Follows
Superman
Turn You Inside Out
...and any true REM fan knows that there's no apostrophe in "Lifes Rich Pageant".