Document

Performer: R.E.M.
Engineer: Steve Catania; Tom Der; Gary Laney; Ted Pattison; Todd Sholar; Toni Greene; Scott Litt; Carl Marsh
Producer: Shannon Ward; R.E.M.; Scott Litt; Bryan Kelley
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: R.E.M.: Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitar); Mike Mills (bass, keyboards, background vocals); Bill Berry (drums). Additional personnel: Steve Berlin (horns); Carl Marsh (synthesizer). Recorded at Sound Emporium, Nashville, Tennessee. Personnel: Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitar); Steve Berlin (horns); Hunt Waugh, Bill Berry (drums). Audio Remasterer: Bob Ludwig. Audio Remixer: Elliot Scheiner. Recording information: Sound Emporium Studios, Nashville, TN; Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN. Photographers: Jim McKey; Paula Court; Sandra Lee Phipps; Michael Meister. R.E.M.'s final album for IRS Records, 1987's DOCUMENT was the Georgia quartet's commercial breakthrough. The initial single, the spookily obsessive "The One I Love," was an unexpected Top 10 hit, and its follow-up, the "Subterranean Homesick Blues"-style rant "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," became one of R.E.M.'s most renowned songs. The first R.E.M. album produced by Scott Litt (soon to be a frequent collaborator) DOCUMENT skillfully blends the commercial gloss of LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT and the mysterioso murk of FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION, combining the best elements of both for what would soon become R.E.M.'s signature sound. (Note the thumping rhythm section on the opening "Finest Worksong" and the oddly buoyant melody of "Exhuming McCarthy.") The band even manages to salute one of its favorite predecessors by romping through a loose, fun cover of Wire's "Strange."

Rolling Stone (11/89) - Ranked #41 in Rolling Stone's "100 Best Albums Of The Eighties" survey. Q (7/99, p.136) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...makes interesting archival listening. It shows a group cresting the cusp between art-rock alternative-ism and chart friendliness....the general impression is of a band freed from constraints, rocking with a vengeance..." Blender (Magazine) (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "On album five, R.E.M. went platinum for the first time..."

This Athens band's initial mix of Velvet Underground strum, Byrds-like Rickenbacker jangle, and charismatically oblique singing, became the sound of the 1980s as legions of bands followed suit. But even as imitators codified R.E.M.'s approach into the money-making "alternative rock" sound, the group refused to stand still, constantly changing and developing without ever abandoning their underground principles. Somehow they became superstars along the way, but it's never affected their commitment to their music. In 1997, drummer Bill Berry left the band, but Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills soldiered on in his absence.

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