CD Odyssey Disc 662: REM

It was hard to process an album by one of my rock heroes, Alice Cooper, receiving a one star review and I really needed this next album to be a good one. Thankfully it didn’t disappoint.

Disc 662 is…. Life’s Rich Pageant

Artist: REM

Year of Release: 1986

What’s up with the Cover?  I call this cover the Nickel. It has two sides – a giant human head and a picture of some buffalo, just like a Canadian nickel. I guess this is early in REM’s career, before they could splurge on an elk or something.

How I Came To Know It:  I like REM on my own, but it is Sheila that bought most of the early stuff in her collection. I know this one through her as well, although I used to hear these songs a lot at the University pub back in the day.

How It Stacks Up:  We have six REM albums, and although I originally ranked “Automatic for the People” and “Document” 1-2, I think “Life’s Rich Pageant” is going to take over the #2 spot from “Document.”

Rating: 4 stars

Who knew university protest rock could be this good? Not me back in 1986, but thanks to both my wife Sheila and my buddy Casey I’ve had a slowly growing appreciation for “Life’s Rich Pageant.” For the last two days I’ve immersed myself in this album and finally internalized how good it was.

Like a lot of really good records, “Life’s Rich Pageant” grows on you over time. On a casual listen it might just feel like any ho hum radio rock, but once you bend both ears toward it, you realize the artistry behind the songs.

I don’t know REM’s first three albums but “Pageant” feels a bit folksier than what would come later. Not folk, but you can hear this sound echo through folk bands like Spirit of the West as much as you’ll hear it in the clarion nineties rock of bands like Cracker. It feels like “Pageant” had an impact on a lot of what followed in both genres.

The music has a vibrating tone that makes the air thick with sound but it never feels muddy or overdone. The way the simple structures of each instrument alone combine into something greater feels a lot like modern indie music.

What “Pageant” has that a lot of modern indie music is lacking is an emotional core. The record is driven by Peter Buck’s guitar first and foremost. Buck  is content to lay down a simple riff that the songs construct themselves around. It is the stem that supports the flower of each song.

The brightest part of those flowers is Michael Stipe’s vocals. His vibrato style rings out like a broken bell announcing revolution. His delivery is a mix of hope and frustration that defines the protest music of the day. It is a necessary element, because many of these songs are angry songs, and they would come off overwrought in lesser hands.

The album isn’t without its warts – the strangely placed tango “Underneath the Bunker” just doesn’t fit with the rest of the album. It creates a division of sound for the ear about halfway through, but I think the songs are strong enough to stand without such a musical caesura.

In fact a much better break would be the next song, “The Flowers of Guatemala.” This song is a peaceful mantra about the beauty of Guatemala. It is all the more poignant given that country was in the midst of a decades-long civil war when the album came out. There’s always beauty to be found, even in dark times. If nothing else, there are flowers.

In other places, Stipe’s weirdness takes over the vocals and makes me wonder what the hell he is on about. “Swan Swan H” (the H is for hummingbird or hoorah – not sure which) is a great example:

“Night wings, or hair chains?

Here's your wooden greenback, sing

Wooden beams and dovetail sweep

I struck that picture ninety times”

This stuff seems really important, but I can’t for the life of me tell you exactly what he is going on about. Ronnie James Dio would be proud.

The album ends with “Superman” the anthem that would finally make REM reasonably famous. Ostensibly a song about confidence and empowerment, the song has a core of doubt. REM delivers it in a way that encourages you to sing along triumphantly, but leaves you aware of the ironic consequences of your happiness.

Much more telling is “These Days”:

“All the people gather, fly to carry each his burden

We are young despite the years

We are concern, we are hope despite the times

All of the sudden, these days

Happy throngs, take this joy wherever, wherever you go”

REM celebrates hope despite the times. It is still a celebration, but they don’t want you to feel too satisfied, so they make you wait to feel like Superman until the end of the record, when you’ve heard everything else they’ve got to say. It’s a slow burn, but worth the journey. Much like my re-kindled appreciation for “Life’s Rich Pageant.”

Best tracks: These Days, Fall on Me, Cuyahoga, Flowers of Guatemala, I Believe, Superman