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Thread: Rank a discography

  1. #16

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    I see what you mean about buying stuff in that situation

    I own a house (well I own a mortgage payment lol) so I have plenty of space to store CDs, book and other stuff

    many of my friends are collectors in one way or another (rare books, singles, albums etc) so whenever we see something that might interest one of us we let them know. there's also heaps of music online we point each other too, not downloads but rare stuff on YouTube that sometimes leads to album or DVD purchases
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  2. #17

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    can anybody give me pointers on R.E.M. and Red Hot Chili Peppers? thanks
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  3. #18
    The ABBOTT noel411's Avatar
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    R.E.M. are one of my favorite bands, which probably makes me pretty uncool, lololol. My taste in their albums is not very typical of their fans tho, I don't think.

    A great place to start is definitely their 'Live at the Olympia' double album. They had a whole career (5 albums and an EP) on an indie label before they got big, and those albums are fantastic. Very consistent. On that live album they play a shit tonne of their old songs from those albums, and they sound fucking awesome in a live situation with high quality recording technology. It was when they were working on their second last album, 'Accelerate', which is another highlights in their discog, and they perform early versions of songs from that too, as well as some other really unlikely choices from their later albums. The only well known song they do over the whole 2 discs is 'Drive'.

    I'll get back with more commentary/advice on them later on.

  4. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by noel411 View Post
    R.E.M. are one of my favorite bands, which probably makes me pretty uncool, lololol. My taste in their albums is not very typical of their fans tho, I don't think.

    A great place to start is definitely their 'Live at the Olympia' double album. They had a whole career (5 albums and an EP) on an indie label before they got big, and those albums are fantastic. Very consistent. On that live album they play a shit tonne of their old songs from those albums, and they sound fucking awesome in a live situation with high quality recording technology. It was when they were working on their second last album, 'Accelerate', which is another highlights in their discog, and they perform early versions of songs from that too, as well as some other really unlikely choices from their later albums. The only well known song they do over the whole 2 discs is 'Drive'.

    I'll get back with more commentary/advice on them later on.
    thanks so much noel. I ordered 'Live At The Olympia' based on your recommendation, along with two best ofs, one a career spanning overview and one that only has Warner Bros material. these collections also dabble in soundtrack cuts, b-sides, alt versions and live versions. I guess you've got to start someplace with a band you are not familiar with so I went with your live recommendation and these comps. out of curiosity I also ordered that 'Dead Letter Office' b-sides IRS compilation, out of sheer curiosity (I posted about it in that b-sides thread) and because I have a thing for b-sides in general. I read on Amazon that Peter Buck's liner notes are hilarious and that's the kind of humorous stuff I appreciate. it's probably inessential as a collection (?) and the studio albums are probably where to start but the version I bought also contains the debut EP. I recognize some titles from that EP on the 'Live At The Olympia' tracklist

    I would definitely like to dive into full albums but 15 studio albums is a lot to take in so I would like to check them out in small doses. I'm very excited to dive into their catalog, I love getting to know bands I only know from their singles. I was listening to the 'Monster' album which I found in full on YouTube yesterday and I liked what I heard. I was only familiar with two songs from the album.
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  5. #20
    The ABBOTT noel411's Avatar
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    Yeah their debut EP, which as you say is on 'Dead Letter Office', is great. Even moreso the live versions on Olympia. I haven't heard the rest of that compilation in forever, but I don't recall the other stuff being great. A couple of Velvet Underground covers, I recall. They were a big influence on the band.

    They're an interesting band with a very interesting discog and history. In short, of the IRS albums I would recommend starting with Murmur, Reckoning, and Lifes (sic) Rich Pageant, which is possibly their best album imo.

    I think the WB albums are where my taste starts to differ a lot from other people. Up is my fave. Around the Sun is one of my faves. I love Monster too. I think those 3 albums are probably the most maligned in their discog tho. Monster was kinda the death of them being one of the biggest bands in the world.

    I also love New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and as I said Accelerate is definitely a high point. Short and sweet. I think their final album, Collapse Into Now was great too.

    Their commercial high point, Green, Out of Time, and Automatic For The People are for me probably the least interesting and consistent albums in their discog, tho each of them has their share of outstanding tracks.

    Automatic is generally considered their career high point tho (and Murmur from the early years). I could personally never really get into it as a whole though. But it does have some great songs on it.

  6. #21
    The ABBOTT noel411's Avatar
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    Oh yeah and Reveal. That's another pretty heavily maligned one, I think. It's got a lot of really great tracks on it tho. There's a small handful of stinkers on it, but all in all I think it's great.

  7. #22

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    I received Dead Letter Office and Best of Live at the BBC

    DLO : enjoyable as a haphazard collection. you can tell REM are really having fun on some of the tracks. nothing spectacular here. songs were rightly resigned to being b-sides. the EP at the end is leagues better

    BOLATBB : pretty good! great sound quality (hey it's the BBC) and the performances are good. I will say though that it looks like REM live sticks pretty close to the studio versions of the songs

    glad I bought these

    the other compilations I ordered are still in the mail, will update after I get them
    Last edited by Rev Jones; 07-19-2022 at 10:45 PM.
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  8. #23
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    I need to listen to DLO again. I can't even remember a lot of what's on it.

    Yeah they're not a super musical band or anything. More just about the songs. There's very little improv or variation in their live performances, tho there's a few songs they've developed into something different through live performance (see 'Walk Unafraid' from Up).

    They were a powerful live band tho. I felt like the live versions of their songs were often more aggressive and impactful.

  9. #24
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    And although they're not super musical, I've always loved Peter Buck as a rhythm guitarist, especially his acoustic playing.

  10. #25

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    By now all the comps have arrived. I love the early stuff on I.R.S.! I read Stipe's voice is buried low in the mix but I can't say I noticed this on any of those singles or b-sides. I only ever noticed it with 'Gardening At Night'. But there seems to be an official different vocal mix out there too for that song?

    I now ordered 'Monster' since on Discogs they are practically paying you to take the album off their hands lol. I ordered from Lithuania because why not.

    Will update you on the Dublin Live, still have to listen to that one.

    The sleeve notes on these comps are pretty interesting too.
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  11. #26

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    kinda forgot about this one although it was huge down here back in the day
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  12. #27

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    noel that Live in Dublin album is pretty awesome!
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  13. #28
    The ABBOTT noel411's Avatar
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    Yeah man I really love it. It's funny cos I don't listen to their early albums much. I think they sound a little dated. But it's not the songs, it's just the production. It's so effin' great that they did those shows and did high quality recordings of it. I think it's their most essential release. That's why it was the first one I recommended.

    So cool too how they pulled out these songs they hadn't played in forever, seemingly barely rehearsed them, and fucking nailed them (for the most part. The fuck ups are funny too, lolololol). Funny that Stipe actually fucks up during 'Drive', which is probably the only song there that they actually regularly performed live.

    Doesn't surprise me that Monster is available for peanuts. They released that at the absolute height of their popularity, and I'm pretty sure it flopped hard. Easy to see why. It's a fucking enormous departure from Automatic. I love it tho. Great album. Some interesting stuff in the booklet for u too.

    That was actually one of the first albums of theirs that i got too. Took me a while to get into it.

  14. #29
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    Oasis

    1. Definitely Maybe
    2. (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
    3. Don't Believe the Truth
    4. Dig Out Your Soul
    5. Heathen Chemistry
    6. Standing On the Shoulder Of Giants
    7. Be Here Now

    Even their worst album is well above average tho.

  15. #30
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    I feel like they got played out fast. The first 2 albums are great, and a handful of other tracks, but they had nowhere to go musically after their initial burst. That goes for their solo stuff too. Its all the same sub Stones, sub Beatles Manc gibberish. Its the equivalent of an AI art version of 70s rock.

    But yeah those big singalong hits. If they ever were smart enough to bury the hatchet and tour, I'd buy a ticket.

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