Something to R.E.M.ember them by

Guitarist Peter Buck offers a personal view of R.E.M.'s albums.


Chronic Town mini-LP (1982)

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Key tracks: Gardening at Night

In a word: Promising

"Everyone that we knew was saying you guys have enough good songs to make an album, but in 1981 I didn't think we were ready, so we recorded a five-song EP in a day and a half or two days with [producer] Mitch Easter - learned how to use the studio, and it was also a neat little promotional thing. We went out and toured the country and you could buy it for about three bucks and it was like an introduction.

"There is an album that would have been our first record of really poppy stuff that was probably more Byrds-like or whatever with a little bit of New Wave mixed in. If we had done those songs at that time it probably would have been a perfectly fine record. But I wanted to make something that was kind of a classic."


Murmur (1983)

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Key tracks: Radio Free Europe, Talk About the Passion

In a word: Enigmatic

"I had written down the song sequence before we ever went into the studio. We talked about it, we knew what songs were going to make the record and had a real good idea of what the record was going to sound like. It was real conscious.

"We wanted to make a record that didn't sound like all the other stuff at the time and I really disliked all of the records that were coming out then, the stupid reverb and drum sounds.

"As much of the New Wave stuff was kind of interesting, there was still a cheesy element to it. We were trying to write a bunch of classic songs and have a really mysterious deep production."


Reckoning (1984)

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Key tracks: So. Central Rain, (Don't Go Back To) Rockville

In a word: Offbeat

"It was kind of like our road record. We didn't write about groupies and hotels like everyone else does on their road record, but we had to write the whole record while on the road and rehearse in soundcheck. We did it really quickly in a couple of weeks.

"It really did encompass what it was like to be in America travelling around in our own kind of fractured way. I think it was a really cool record. We were all kind of burned out and all I can remember that year is getting snowed on and being poor. I remember that year I was never warm enough and I was always hungry."


Fables of the Reconstruction (1985)

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Key tracks: Driver 8, Can't Get There From Here, Wendell Gee

In a word: Stark

"There was the whole element of Michael [Stipe] pulling on the southern storyteller thing. I remember Old Man Kensey and a couple of other songs were about southern character types - and it was also like, hey you guys have got to make a record in two weeks, got any songs? That was the record where we had to decide, 'Are we going to be like hippies and just play once a month or are we going to really do it?"'


Life's Rich Pageant (1986)

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Key tracks: Fall on Me, Begin the Begin, Superman

In a word: Political

"It did feel like the first time in six years when we weren't on the road the whole time. I bought a house and I had a place to live. Some of us had cars. It was kind of unknown and we wanted to focus a little bit more.

"We didn't have a huge amount of songs but we knew what we wanted to do with them."


Document (1987)

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Key tracks: It's The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), The One I Love, Finest Worksong

In a word: Angry

"It was kind of a rock record, and there was also that thing that we were starting to play arenas, and there was the whole political thing going on in America.

"Now we were seven years into Reagan, we would go into cities and look around. I had just had enough of being lied to, covert arms deals and sending guns into South America so we could kill nuns. That whole record is sort of a concept record. The whole first side of the record is about politics in the 80s.

"That is why we did that Wire song Strange because it fitted in perfectly. Wherever we'd go there'd be all these obnoxious yuppies who, because their people were running things, decided they could call you a punk or a loser - and it happened all the time. You would go to some bar and there would be a guy in some real crappy suit drinking a blue margarita and he would give you grief because, 'Hey Reagan's in charge and you are just losers.' I can't imagine what it was like to be black in America in those days."


Green (1988)

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Key tracks: Orange Crush, Stand, Pop Song '89

In a word: Flag-waving

"That was too slick for me. That's the only record which sounds like the year it was made. A lot of big drum reverb, though it's got a lot of songs we still play live. Even at the time I just felt the fact that we were in all these stadiums kind of influenced the music in ways I was not really excited by."


Out of Time (1991)

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Key tracks: Losing My Religion, Shiny Happy People, Country Feedback

In a word: Pastoral-pop

"It was a good reaction to being on the road for 10 solid years and just saying, 'You know? I don't want to play the electric guitar ever again,' and we sat down and concentrated on songwriting and being the band that we could be.

"And we pushed ourselves in a way and thought,'Well we aren't going to sell any records because we are not touring, so we are really going to have to save money and be careful,' and it sold about 11 million copies or whatever. [Losing My Religion] is a song I still really like and there's something to be said for seeing however many people leap to their feet when we play it."


Automatic for the People (1992)

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Key tracks: Everybody Hurts, Drive, Man on the Moon

In a word: Heart-tugging

"That is probably the one that most of our fans would say is their favourite record. I think it's a real strong record. Even the things I remember not liking on that record, I liked because I thought this song has a bad mix and this song should never be on the record but this record really holds it together."


Monster (1994)

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Key tracks: What's The Frequency, Kenneth? Crush With Eyeliner

In a word: Glam

"Everyone was disappointed by Monster. I think that it's a pretty cool record. It's like waking up one day and wanting to be someone different."


New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)

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Key tracks: How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us, E-Bow the Letter

In a word: Rockin'

"No one has ever done that - we wrote most of the songs on the road and recorded most of them at soundcheck, and I think it's a pretty cool record. It probably should have been two songs shorter."


Up (1998)

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Key tracks: At My Most Beautiful, Daysleeper

In a word: Ambient

"Up was a process of experimentation and it was a good record considering the turmoil we were going through - considering Bill [Berry, drummer] had just left and we were going through all these personality things. We took a lot of ideas from that record and they came to fruition on the new record."


Reveal (2001)

(see review)

"I think Reveal is at least as good as Automatic. All the things we've learned I think we've taken further, and the songwriting is really stronger.

"It could very well be the best record we've ever done. If not, it's equally as good as Automatic and also it's one of the few records written by people our age which is about that. Every character, every person on there is looking. That's a positive thing, not a negative thing. It's not about, 'Oh, my life is shit, I want to drink myself to death'."