After taking a break from touring, R.E.M. returned to the studio revitalized, and eager to keep pushing their music in new directions. While they enjoyed the adoption of new instrumentation from their previously released Fables Of The Reconstruction, they wanted this next piece of work to have more energy and be less murky in tone. For this, they moved on to producer, Don Gehmen.
Despite their eagerness to work with Gehmen, the band was skeptical at first of his recording style. The band had never experienced what the producer called the normal recording process, and at first didn't embrace him spending time on the arrangement, layer in the overdubs and comping the vocals. When they saw that this approach didn't take away from the end result, but actually positively added to it, they fully embraced the style.
Lifes Rich Pageant became the band's fourth consecutive hit album, peaking at number twenty-one on the Billboard 200, while once again also charting in Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. Though this time it would also chart in new territories; Australia and Norway. With it would come singles, Fall On Me, and Superman, which would peak on the Billboard Hot 100 at ninety-four and seventy-four, respectively. However, the two would fare better on the Mainstream Rock charts, where they landed at five and seventeen.
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We're now very much so in the era of R.E.M. that sounds like their greatest commercial success, which was just on the horizon. It's full-on alternative rock, and becoming more mainstream radio friendly, though not the style most people were into yet in 1986. I dare say if this was released in 1991 or 1992 that it would have skyrocketed into the top ten.
Begin The Begin and Fall On Me were the two standout tracks for me, and at this point, I'm just happy to say that there was something I would bother to listen to again in the future. This iteration of R.E.M. I can endorse, but at the same time, I still wouldn't call myself a major fan by any stretch of the imagination.
The band would follow-up with their first top ten album, Document, in 1987. It would become their first platinum seller and fully lay the foundation for the band's popularity on mainstream radio and MTV. It's also the first Retro Spin I did on them, back in 2021. As such, I'll be skipping over it, and heading right into their final album of the decade, Green (1988).
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And now, 31 Days Of Halloween!
With Scream being a massive success in the 90's, the slasher genre was reinvigorated. With it came a slew of new franchises, including I Know What You Did Last Summer. I saw the first two in theaters and didn't bother with any others. They were generic at best. An excuse to put pretty boys and girls on the screen, each having no further character development then their persona; athlete, jerk, heartthrob, etc. I often mock the series, stating the next sequel will be, "Who Gives A S**t What You Did Last Summer?"
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