joshthevegan

The third album by the Athens, GA alternative rock heroes, R.E.M. was their first full fledged stab at experimentalism. Perhaps encouraged by positive reception to the last two tracks on "Reckoning," (Don't Go Back To) Rockville, and Little America, the band compiled a (characteristically vague) collection of songs about life in the American south. Tales of travel (Maps & Legends, Can't Get There From Here), character studies of eccentric locals (Old Man Kensey, Wendell Gee), agriculture (Green Grow the Rushes) and other subjects that would be firmiliar to any southerner are all present. Considering the subject material, it's interesting then that the band headed to London in the dead of winter to record these works (and to work with Joe Boyd, a producer who was known in large for his works with Nick Drake.)

The band's sound is noticeably different here; the jangle-pop sound from their earlier works is all but gone here, and in it's place is a haunting, largely minor tapestry. Strings, honky tonk horns, and banjos are all present at various points, hinting at a sound the band would gain much popularity with in subsequent years. Stipe's vocals (backed clearly for the first time by Buck and Berry) are mixed a little higher than in previous works, but the lead-vocal performance still maintains its signature mumbly vagueness.

MTV's incessant playing of the video for Can't Get There From Here certainly helped to gain more and more attention for the band, but many fans of the earlier works were a bit put off by "Fables". The instrumentation was alien to the band's sound, the overall darkness of the album somewhat confusing, and a concept-album-of-sorts from a band that celebrated abstractism was downright baffling.

Fables Of The Reconstruction (Reconstruction Of The Fables) - 4 out of 10

Included below are the official music videos for Can't Get There From Here, Life & How To Live It, Feeling Gravitys Pull, and Driver 8, as well as a TV promo for "Fables," and Les Paul awarding the band with "album of the year" at the CMJ Awards.