If I'd heard this EP before, I don't have any memory of it, I prefer early R.E.M. to later R.E.M., it was just released on a stand-alone CD for the first time, so why not? I've heard this EP often described as "acclaimed" so - bottom line - is it really worth the fuss and effort? Indeed it is! Glad I picked it up; it's a great way to spend 20 minutes. Mitch Easter puts it best in his delightful new liner notes: "No other R.E.M. record is like Chronic Town, but you hear traces of it throughout the band's entire career."
Nevertheless, this is classic IRS-era, Byrds-ish, mumbling, jangly R.E.M. and that's the best kind of R.E.M. I wish I'd been hipped to it in '82, but I wasn't mesmerized by the band until the next year with Murmur. However, somebody was paying attention as this EP placed second on The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop list and topped at least one Billboard editor's year-end album chart:
 |
| Billboard, January 8, 1983, p. 74 |
Reviews/ratings:
- Robert Christgau (A-): "This headlong tumble proves them the wittiest and most joyful of the postgarage sound-over-sense bands"
- Trouser Press: "an intriguing approach, best heard loud."
- Billboard: "the band develops a winning style and sound of its own"
- Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music (1997): ★★★
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: I recognize track 2, Gardening At Night, as it appears on Eponymous in a slightly different version. All 5 cuts are good, but if I rank them, that gives me an excuse to listen to them all again, so here ya go:
- Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)
- 1,000,000
- Stumble
- Gardening At Night
- Wolves, Lower
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I bought Dead Letter Office on cassette. Woulda coulda shoulda waited for the CD and I would have heard these songs back in '88.
Previously revisited for the blog:
Green (1988)
Eponymous (1988)
Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
Murmur (1983)
No comments:
Post a Comment