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| vinyl cover |
release date: Jul. 28, 1986
format: vinyl (ILP 57064) / cd (1993 - The I.R.S. Years Vintage 1986) / cd (2011)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,33]
producer: Don Gehman
label: I.R.S. Records / Capitol - nationality: USA
Tracklist: 1. "Begin the Begin" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "These Days" (4 / 5) - 3. "Fall On Me" (5 / 5) - 4. "Cuyahoga" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Hyena" (4 / 5) - 6. "Underneath The Bunker" - 7. "The Flowers Of Guatemala" (4 / 5) - 8. "I Believe" (5 / 5) - 9. "What If We Give It Away?" (4 / 5) - 10. "Just A Touch" (5 / 5) - 11. "Swan Swan H" (4 / 5) - 12. "Superman" (5 / 5)
4th studio album by R.E.M. released on I.R.S. Records and produced by Don Gehman. The original vinyl release A-side is labelled 'Dinner Side' and the B-side 'Supper Side'. This was the first album, I got with the band. I already knew their music and was a growing fan, and was given this as a Christmas present in '86. The album is still one of their best, I think. This is when they got everything together: great songs, great melodies, being raw yet harmonic, they somehow still managed to pass as virtually unknown. From this album and onward, although, critics loved the band and they were promised the big breakthrough, they didn't succeed commercially until Out of Time (1991). I loved this album, which in my mind is only narrowly surpassed by Green (1988).
The album was reissued in an expanded bonus tracks reissue in 1993 (The I.R.S. Years Vintage 1986) containing 6 bonus tracks - two B-sides and 4 previously unreleased recordings.
The album was also reissued in 2011 as a remastered 2-disc '25th Anniversary Edition' with the original album as disc 1 and "The Athens Demos" as disc 2 - a 19 track bonus disc containing demo recordings prior to what became Lifes Rich Pageant. This also includes the track "Bad Day", which wouldn't be released until 2003 as a single release only; however it would feature as a reworked song on Document (1987) as "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel fine)".
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
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| 1993 bonus tracks reissue |
1986 Favourite releases: 1. The Smiths The Queen Is Dead - 2. Talk Talk The Colour of Spring - 3. R.E.M. Lifes Rich Pageant
Top 5 albums by R.E.M.
1. "Green"
2. "Lifes Rich Pageant"
3. "Document"
4. "Monster"
5. "Automatic for the People"
