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From:R.E.M. , Capitol ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#7731 |
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1 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
 Kicks Serious @$$, 2005-09-24
Not a single word in any of the songs makes sense at all, and the actual music is awesome too. This is truly the greatest music will ever get...EVER! (most likely)
"Automatic for the People" (also by R.E.M.) is better though.
So get that too.
-Charles Mitchell
30 of 57 customers found the following review helpful:
R.E.M. when they were good, 2005-08-20
Released in 1986, Lifes Rich Pageant was R.E.M.'s fourth album and a major step forward for the band. I thought there would be many more triumphs for this quartet from Athens, GA. Instead it became their artistic swan song, and 19 years later Lifes Rich Pageant is still their greatest album.
My then-teenage hopes that they would go on, go on to be worthy successors to groups like Big Star, and in turn become the finest rock and roll band of all time, were dashed and crushed over the years by million-selling junk such as "Shiny Happy People", "Stand" and "Everybody Hurts". R.E.M. never surpassed the hard-driving rock/pop sound of this album. In fact, they never even came close. I wasted sums of money on subsequent albums waiting for that promise to be filled, watching with chagrin their multiplying album sales and withering artistry.
It is ironic to think that many of my contemporaries viewed this album with suspicion and contempt. "They're getting ready to sell out," they warned. I didn't get it. Today I do. Heard in 2005, Lifes Rich Pageant is the sound of a band gearing up to completely sell out their integrity for the promise of platinum albums, untold riches, Top 40 airplay, massive stadium tours and an ultimately dubious fame.
Today, it seems crazy to think that at one time R.E.M. was in the same league as the Replacements. But they were, and when I heard Lifes Rich Pageant, I heard the sound of a band that had practically revolutionized college radio and invented the category "alternative music" unite with conventional, hard-driving pop.
The results were unbelievable, such as "Begin The Begin", "These Days", "I Believe" and "Just A Touch", which are only four of the very best songs of the 1980s. Was "Fall On Me" a bit too radio-friendly? Yes. Was "Superman" nothing more than a blatant play for a Top Ten hit? Sure, but who cared? This was the sound of a band about to burst the envelope of pop music, a sound that would ultimately wrest the throne of rock and roll away from mindless, overwrought groups such as Guns N'Roses. And I was going to follow them on that ride.
Five years later, they were singing "Shiny Happy People", trying to save the world one song at a time, and I was thoroughly disgusted.
Soon after the total triumph of Lifes Rich Pageant, the band put out Document, which featured junk such as "The One I Love" and the intolerable frat-party staple "It's The End of The World As We Know It". I was a freshman in college and went to see them in Chicago at the UIC Pavilion. It should have been exciting, but when the band launched into "The One I Love", I should have been transformed. Instead, I was utterly and completely bored.
Of course, Document was the album that began to sell, which led to the awful follow-up Green, and songs like "Stand" and the wonderfully titled "Pop Song 89" -- songs guaranteed to drive you completely insane. Yet I bought those pieces of garbage -- and played them a LOT -- just searching. Waiting for R.E.M. to put out another album that even approached the majesty of Lifes Rich Pageant. Did they come through? They did not.
Next came the mindless, self-important Out of Time, with "Losing My Religion" and the aforementioned "Shiny Happy People", which would have been the song that turned me off of R.E.M forever had it not been for the truly mind-rotting "Everybody Hurts", featured on Automatic for the People and the song that indeed caused me to turn my back on this pretentious, navel-gazing group of jags forever.
Today, I have no idea what R.E.M. is up to. I don't even care. I'm 36 and other bands have my attention. But the other day, my dentist, of all people, had Lifes Rich Pageant in his stereo as he was cleaning my teeth. Halfway through, he looked at me and said, "This is a great, great album." Then he sighed. I looked at him and knew what that meant. It was the sigh of a promise that was not only broken, but broken in the most cruel and sad fashion possible.
R.E.M. Begin To Make Political Statements Here, 2005-08-16
On LIFES RICH PAGEANT, R.E.M. begin to make major political statements, even as, thanks to the production work of Don Gehman, they dig themselves out of the murk of FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION, which had been recorded under very tense conditions. On the contrast, this CD is actually good for dancing to without consciously trying to be, although songs such as "Fall On Me" and "Cuyahoga" have a strong environmentalist message. The cover of the "sunshine pop" song "Superman" was clearly unnecessary, though, as the band's own songwriting can pretty much stand on its own. Nevertheless, the bandmembers' opposition to Indonesia's trumped-up 2005 drug-smuggling conviction of a young Australian tourist makes this CD an essential purchase for both your ears AND your conscience.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
 It's made my life richer., 2005-05-18
I own all their albums up through "Hi-Fi", and find this to be as good as anything else from the IRS years. Everything from "Murmur" to "Document" is really strong, and this 4th album of their first five is no exception. The only real hit here is "Fall On Me", but who hasn't heard "Superman" also? Other personal favorites are "The Flowers Of Guatemala", "What If We Give It Away?", and "Begin The Begin" is a great way to....begin. I'd hesitate to call this an essential album of theirs, but any fan of their mid-80's work should dig it.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
This is REM's best record, hands down., 2005-03-25
It completes the circle, bringing a mix of the old, the new and Stipes great volcals front and center.
Raw, yet not raw and produced well, there is really not a clunker on the entire album.
This is a turning point for them, because Document came next which is sort of a refining of their heavier sound, but this record is the one that really moved REM out of college radio.
Everyone likes to be cool and say that Murmur is their favorite.
That's a good record, particularly for a first one, but it's not THAT great.
What came next after Document (also VERY solid start to finish) marks a big change in their sound, and for me, Out of Time was the last one I really cared for that still clung just a little to their original sound and power.
I appreciated the risk-taking, but their later records are just not even close to this strong.
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