Green - REM (1989)
Pop Song 89 on YT is age-restricted. Because they have their shirts off in the video? sheesh.
Produced by the band and the man who would be their mainstay for the future, Scott Lit (Lit also produced the previous Document album, but I wasn’t fixating on production credits at the moment when I wrote that up), we get a lot of movement here towards the band’s mature version.
The jangle pop of the early indie records gets focused here into weaponized folk rock in singable, dancable tracks like Pop Song 89 and Stand.
The mandolin-led tracks like You Are The Everything and World Leader Pretend are a great new channel for Stipe’s more heartfelt lyricism.
There are several straight arena rock anthems like Orange Crush and Turn You Inside out, full of conventional loud guitar and big beats.
Somehow this isn’t one of my favorite REM albums, even though it’s filled with great tunes. I suppose it’s mostly because I know they’re about to top themselves multiple times in the next few years. But this is still a great album.
