Green

Performer: R.E.M.
Engineer: Scott Litt; Jay Healy
Producer: Scott Litt; R.E.M.
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: R.E.M.: Mike Mills (vocals, accordion, bass); Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitar, mandolin, drums); Bill Berry (mandolin, drums). Additional personnel: Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar); Jane Scarpantoni (cello); Keith LeBlanc (percussion). The album that found the band sandwiched between being an important cult band on the verge of major success and being the world's most successful rock band of the 90s. A tricky situation, but this album made the breakthrough and mighty Warner Brothers were behind it. R.E.M. were able to get their folky mandolin material like 'You Are The Everything' accepted on an equal footing with great pop such as 'Stand' or 'Pop Song 89' (which could have been written by Jim Morrison and titled 'Hello I Love You'). 'Orange Crush' is already an FM radio favourite, and the rest is all recent history.

CMJ (1/5/04, p.26) - Ranked #4 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1989" Mojo (Publisher) (p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 - "The album's best tracks, songs like the opening 'Pop Song '89' and 'Orange Crush', were unflinching, uncompromising compositions that sound no less stunning some 16 years later..." NME (Magazine) (9/25/93, p.19) - Ranked #39 in NME's list of the 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s.

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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