Life's Rich Pageant - REM (1986)
As I’ve said, it’s hard to be objective about albums I love this much.
This and the follow-up, Document, are some of the best things that ended up on vinyl from the 80s Athens scene.
The momentum was starting to build for the band commercially, and they’d soon be off to the world of major labels and world tours. This is a special record because it has some of that youthful enthusiasm that faded a bit as they became big hitmakers. Begin The Begin and their cover of The Cliques’ Superman showed they could still rock out, and Fall On Me and I Believe showed the extent of what they’d built with their harmonies and their tight playing and otherworldly lyrics.
I might have mentioned I like this one a bit.
