R.E.M. | Document [25th Anniversary Edition]

Capitol/I.R.S. Records (2012)
By ZETH LUNDY  |  September 19, 2012
3.5 3.5 Stars

rem1

Fans of R.E.M. enjoy arguing over which album was the band's true shark-jump, but 1987's Document was inarguably the end of a groundbreaking era. It was the Athens band's fifth and last album for indie label I.R.S., as well as their inevitable leap from mumbled jangle-rock into full-blown arena power. For all its bigness, however, robust radio staples like "Finest Worksong" and "The One I Love" still broadcast the band's legendary ambiguity, while "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" remains an archetype of '80s progressive college rock. Looking back, this is truly a best-of-both-worlds record, the little-band-that-could growing into its new clothes. Reissued in a new two-disc set, Document sounds larger than ever, and includes a live show from 1987 in Utrecht, Holland — one of the first of many stadium-sized conquests the band would make over the next two-plus decades.

  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, R.E.M., R.E.M.,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY ZETH LUNDY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   BROWN BIRD | FITS OF REASON  |  March 18, 2013
    Brown Bird, a boundary-pushing Americana duo from Rhode Island, make music that touches upon that can't-put-my-finger-on-it amalgamation of past and future sounds.
  •   NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS | PUSH THE SKY AWAY  |  February 20, 2013
    Much like the similarly low-key The Boatman's Call , Cave's highly anticipated 15th album with the Bad Seeds manages the puzzling feat of making a great band seem inconsequential, if not entirely absent.
  •   SCOTT WALKER | BISH BOSCH  |  November 27, 2012
    Scott Walker's late-period about-face is one of the strangest in the annals of pop music.
  •   BILL WITHERS | THE COMPLETE SUSSEX AND COLUMBIA ALBUMS  |  October 31, 2012
    Bill Withers has always been the down-to-earth, odd-man-out of the '70s soul brothers: he's the one who came bearing a lunch box on the cover of his relaxed 1971 debut, Just as I Am .
  •   R.E.M. | DOCUMENT [25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION]  |  September 19, 2012
    Fans of R.E.M. enjoy arguing over which album was the band's true shark-jump, but 1987's Document was inarguably the end of a groundbreaking era.

 See all articles by: ZETH LUNDY