R.E.M. "Document" (1987)

1993 bonus tracks reissue

Document
release date: Aug. 31, 1987
format: cd (1993 - The I.R.S. Years Vintage 1987)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Scott Litt & R.E.M.
label I.R.S. Records - nationality: USA

Tracklist: 1. "Finest Worksong" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Welcome to the Occupation" - 3. "Exhuming McCarthy" (4 / 5) - 4. "Disturbance at the Heron House" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "Strange" (4 / 5) - 6. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (5 / 5) (live) - 7. "The One I Love" (5 / 5) - 8. "Fireplace" (3,5 / 5) - 9. "Lightnin' Hopkins" - 10. "King of Birds" - 11. "Oddfellows Local 151"
Bonus tracks on 1993 extended edition: 12. "Finest Worksong (Other Mix)" - 13. "Last Date" - 14. "The One I Love" (Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop) - 15. "Time After Time, Etc." (Live) - 16. "Disturbance at the Heron House" (Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop) - 17. "Finest Worksong" (Lengthy Club Mix)"

5th studio album by R.E.M. is the last studio album to be issued by I.R.S. Records before signing with Warner Bros. It's the first in a long series of successful albums (and probably also their best selling albums) to be co-produced by Scott Litt.
Michael Stipe was notoriously known for his incomprehensible and sometimes undecipherable lyrics - at least up until this album. In their early days he used his voice just like any other instrument, regardless grammar or meaning. Like Buck's guitar, Mills' bass and Berry's drums, his voice was a sound unit. One of the best examples of Stipe creating the vocal side by rambling stuff off is the song "It's the End of the World...", which became one of their best loved songs over the years. At live concerts he would add and replace verses, phrases, mixing things together, or simply forgetting words, thus creating the song anew.
Despite being a fan of theirs, I somehow managed to reject this album at the time of its release, and I didn't get hold of it until after purchasing [in chronological order]: Green (1988), the two compilation albums Dead Letter Office (Apr. 1987) and Eponymous (1988), and both Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992) - by then, I found this, the remastered 'Vintage' reissue, which I initially found a somewhat lesser release slightly in family with Fables of the / Reconstruction of the (1985). I recall the time when it came out, I was really fond of Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) and I had just only bought the band's first compilation album Dead Letter Office, which was really great, so I overlooked it as a studio album, misinterpreting the title Document as yet another compilation album - a 'document' of what they had so far issued. In fact, after finally purchasing it in '93, I mistakenly still thought of it as just another compilation album for some time.
When I finally came to realize its true significance, I also understood how great an album it really is. In my mind, it surely fits in among their 5 best albums ever. Deservedly, the album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", and on my personal list it's in top 3 of R.E.M. studio albums.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 5 / 5 stars ]

vinyl cover

Top 5 albums by R.E.M.
1. "Green"
2. "Lifes Rich Pageant"
3. "Document"
4. "Monster"
5. "Automatic for the People"

Show lyrics <- click...

~ ~ ~
"It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

"That's great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane, and Lenny Bruce is not afraid

Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs
Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt, no, strength
The ladder starts to clatter with a fear of height, down, height
Wire in a fire, represent the seven games
And a government for hire and a combat site
Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck

Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped
Look at that low plane, fine, then
Uh-oh, overflow, population, common group
But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched

It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

Six o'clock, TV hour, don't get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down
Watch your heel crush, crush, uh-oh
This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline

It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
I feel fine (I feel fine)

It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)

The other night I dreamt a nice continental drift divide
Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce, and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right? Right

::::It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
(It's time I had some time alone)"

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