Well, this REM review was bound to happen sooner or later. And to be honest, it's been looming over me like a big, dark cloud for a couple of months or so. I started this review more or less when I first joined epinions, but got somewhat side-tracked and have never, until now, got around to completing it.

Firstly, REM are possibly my favourite band ever, so fitting tributes and objective accuracy when reviewing something of theirs may be testing. But I can be objective, I'm not blinded by my fondness for this Athenian collective.

So who are REM? Do you really need me to answer that question? Ok, for the potential novice's sake, if there are any left. REM were formed in Athens, GA in 1980, by friends Bill Berry (drummer), Mike Mills (bass), Peter Buck (lead guitar) and Michael Stipe (vocalist). After performing a series of live shows in and around Athens, they were eventually signed by record company IRS. In 1983 they released their debut album "Murmur", which was quickly followed by 1984's "Reckoning." Which brings us right here to their third studio release, 1985's "Fable of the Reconstruction". So why am I not doing this in chronological order? The simple answer is; "starting at the beginning isn't necessarily always a very good place to start", so stick that in your habit and smoke it, Julie Andrews!

Nah. If the truth be known, my reasons aren't that rebellious, "Fables of the Reconstruction" sits proudly in my top 3 REM albums. Why? Because it still remains one of the best examples of metaphorical Stipelore in their entire catalogue. A collection of songs based around myths, folklore and local legends and eccentrics, giving it real meaning and a unique mysticism. Ultimately it feels real and not contrived. It's a collection of real stories, not just a collection of songs.

Fables of the Reconstruction (1985 IRS)

Produced by;

Joe Boyd

The band recorded this album in the spring of 1985 in London, and by all accounts, had a pretty miserable time in old Blighty, something about rain and dodgy potatoes. Yet despite that, they still managed to produce this interesting collection of 11 songs. The albums title "Fables of the Reconstruction" alludes to tales of the reconstruction of the Old South after the civil war, but what is also worth noting, is that the album has a second title, "Reconstruction of the Fables". A fitting description, and is exactly what Stipe attempted (and succeeded) to do with his songs here.

"Feeling Gravity's Pull" - I fell asleep and read just about every paragraph, begins Stipe over a backdrop of Tom Verlaine-esque guitars. For a song that was ultimately based around a hand gesture Stipe saw, (yeah, he's quirky like that) the song appears almost dreamlike, with it's surreal planetary allusions and gravity confrontation. The song wrestles it's way though a series of abstract shifting guitars, strewn together to form a suitable bed echoing Stipes lyrics of gravity's pull on him, of almost sleep deprivation induced hallucination of peeling back the sky, It's a Man Ray kind of sky. This gives the listener a visual, in terms of that artists work, specifically Man Ray's "Observatory Time-The Lovers", which depicts a huge pair of lips in the sky above a Parisian Observatory. Time and distance are out of place here.. oceans fall and mountains drift. See what he did there? Complete with the occasional melodic interlude, and some occasional backing vocals from Mike Mills, the song finally closes almost orchestral.. slowly.. stop.

"Maps and legends" is almost poetic, beautiful, with a real sense of traditional storytelling. The instruments compliment eachother perfectly, paced and harmonising with Stipe's quiet vocal. Using Stipe's love of reading old maps as a metaphor for reading a person, it suggests you can imagine a person's life as a series of roads and legends (legend is the old term for the key to the symbols on a map), hence, you can almost read their life on the map. And like reading a map, a person can often be misunderstood. A wrong turn and you can get lost, and so it goes. The chorus laments; Maybe these maps and legends, have been misunderstood. Occasionally present in the background is the refrain of; He's not to be reached, he's to be reached. Again, drawing comparisons to accurate or inaccurate map reading determining whether the destination (the destination in this case, a person) can be reached. The next "Fable" is "Driver 8", which is essentially a train song, one that REM claimed was their version of "Wichita Lineman". Some frenetic guitars from Buck, the song speeds along confidently whilst Stipe tells the tale of "Driver 8". He mixes imagery from what one would see through the window on a train ride. I always got the impression it was the story of an overtired train driver, whose thoughts lead him to distort the reality of what he was actually seeing, the line, A way to put myself, my children to sleep, suggesting he's tired of life, before the train conductor interrupts, take a break Driver 8, we've been on this shift too long. The mood of the music fits that whole train feel, the instrumentation is in keeping with that rhythmic flow you'd associate with train motion.

For "Life and How to Live It" they stepped into reality territory. Stipe had read an article about a schizophrenic who'd had a house built, and divided it down the middle, furnished and decorated it to suit both sides of his personality. After he died, it was discovered that he had a cupboard hidden away full of hundreds of copies of the same book he'd written himself, called "Life and How to Live It". A bizarre tale that Stipe cleverly turned into this song. Buck's guitars and Berry's drums are quick to echo this. Some wild and crazy playing on their behalf serve Stipe's lyrics well. A song that leaves you somewhat breathless almost, for it's speed and sheer amount of lyrics Stipe managed to squeeze in there. It closes;

If you're gonna write a book, it will be called 'Life and How to Live It'.

"Old Man Kensey" - Again, a song of an eccentric based on a real person. Old Man Kensey was an assistant of Reverend Howard Finster (the guy who designed the cover for "Reckoning") Michael would often visit Finster's home in Sommerville, Georgia and be told wild tales of Kensey's drunken and bizarre exploits, which form the basis of this song. Musically it's quite slow, yet the guitars are up front and thick, I particularly like Mill's bass work on this one, it makes the song almost more moody. Jerry Ayers from Athens band Limbo District is also credited with co-writing this song. A tale of Kensey..

Old Man Kensey he wants to be a dog catcher,
first he's gotta learn to stand,
he's gonna be a clown in a marching band.

"Can't Get There From Here" is a fun song, musically, lyrically. It makes no attempts to be serious, instead the instruments quickly jangle their way along playfully. Whilst Stipe is singing in a rather odd, yet comical way. According to Peter Buck, the music on the song evolved from a jazz ballad, and "It's kind of like a tongue in cheek tribute to all those Georgia greats like Ray Charles and James Brown". With lots of chord changes, it's funky fun to it's last note. But again, the lyrics are where the real fun lies; Go on ahead Mr Citywise, hypnotised, suit and tied. Gentlemen, testify!, including the phrase; Yessiree Bob!. Of course the chorus is where most of the fun lies, with it's almost sarcastic "ha! You can't get there from here!" feel to it. Apparently REM had a hard time performing that one live, since the entire band would break out into hysterics because of it's lyrical absurdity.

After that lesson in being lost, "Green Grow the Rushes" moves into a more folk direction. A song which is a play on Robert Burn's "Green Grow The Rushes Oh". However, a clever play on words is apparent, since the song is about the exploitation of Mexican guest workers in the US, using Green Grow as a pun for "Gringo". Stipe demonstrating his political bent, changing "The Amber Waves of Grain", to "The Amber waves of Gain". A neat little song, musically, quaint and typical mid 80's REM, Buck's guitar dominating. As it ends the song starts to feel more traditional as a folk song, with an introduction of some ad-lib "la, la, lie" fillers from Stipe. With a vague feeling he might go Michael Flatley any minute. Scary thought.

Gracefully we move on to "Kohoutek". Possibly the albums most unobtrusively obscure song. It's hard to define the music from Stipe's voice, since they blend almost perfectly into one. A classic example of traditional REM guitars and Stipe mumble. Again we get mythical and mysterious, and of course, metaphorical. Allow me to explain. In 1973, Czech astronomer Dr. Lubos Kohoutek spotted a comet from the Hamburg Observatory, which was promised to be one of the greatest spectacles of the century, and induced all kinds of "Nooooo! Woe is me, the end is nigh" mayhem. However, when it got to it's closest point to the earth, it turned out to be rather uninteresting. All the hoo-haa was for nothing. So Stipe uses this story almost allegorically in this song, instead the comet is a person(s), Like Kohoutek, you were gone. It almost wearily moves along pitying itself at all these so-called potentially great things that happen along, which ultimately turn out to be nothing special. There also seems to be a significant amount of bridge building and tearing down thereof, not least from the singer himself; Michael built a bridge, Michael tore it down.

As "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" starts it's quite obvious it intends to be a rapid, quickfire succession of hurled lyrics with crazy guitars and thudding drums. And by golly it is! It has no melody per se, instead opting for a generous mix of hasty, haphazard guitars and nonsensical lyrics to form a short whirlwind of a song. Whilst the verses cater for yet more train song induced lyrics, the chorus instead opts for curiously listening to this mysterious "Auctioneer". Apparently Stipe wrote the song on a train after visiting his then girlfriend, his parting thoughts echo in his lyrics;

Take this penny to make into a necklace when I leave,
what is at the other end?
I don't know, another friend.

There is a clear definition, musically, between the verses and the chorus. The former, as I said, is fastpaced, the latter doesn't slow down, instead it becomes more sparse and almost tuneless. But all that becomes a distant memory as you move on to "Good Advices", which quietly opens, and then proceeds to be one of those almost pretty REM songs. Musicianship is again, typical of REM at that time, carefully blended guitars and soft drums accompany Michael's lyrical "Advices"; When you greet a stranger, look at his shoes, keep your money in your shoes. But it also works as homesick blues, as well as brief relationship detachment. I'll forget your name, I'd like it here if I could leave and see you from a long way away. Written, without a doubt, about the trials and tribulations of touring, months spent away from home, indeed, he says himself;

Home is a long way away

The album's final song is by far my favourite, which means it must be something special, since the entire album is a favourite. However, "Wendell Gee" is absolutely beautiful, from it's pretty mandolin, to Stipe's hearfelt vocal performance. An excellent musical arrangement of a quiet guitar, bare drums, melodic bass, that eerie mandolin and some occasional violins. Stipe accompanied by Mills on backing vocals for the occasional harmony. A sad tale of a man who has a dream one night that a tree behind his house lost it's middle, so he built a trunk with chicken wire, but the wire turned to lizard skin, so poor Wendell climbed inside... and there wasn't even time to say goodbye to him., *sniff*. Seriously, there is a story behind this song (obviously, and sort of) Apparently when REM were on route to Gainsville to make "Left of Reckoning", they went through a town where nearly everyone's name was "Gee".. "Gee's Pool Hall" etc, so Michael built the song around this mythical Gee named Wendell. And a sad little song it is. Poor Wendell.


My pockets are out and I'm running about

And there endeth my lesson in those 11 little fables. Part of the reason I hold this album in such high regard is for that fact that for the most part, it's based on real stories, real people, real events. A true collection of stories set to song. Whilst musically it doesn't lend itself to anything extraordinary, instead it's in keeping with REM's own distinctive early to mid 80's style, lyrically it's made special by its mythical and folklore under(over?)tones. Stipe blended his own unique style with various stories he had at his disposal, to produce a brilliant collection of songs drenched in Southern mysticism. In fact, the whole album feels like a collection of dusty books sitting on the shelf, that you occasionally reach for and reading each one is an absolute joy, almost a lesson in history, tales of yore.

Of course, it helps that REM had Joe Boyd produce this album. A man who's essentially a folk producer, having worked the likes of Fairport Convention and The Incredible String Band, as well as the likes of Nick Drake, another artist famous for his storytelling via a song. So the entire ensemble of band, producer and the collection of little stories blended together beautifully, to create this absolute marvel of an album. As I said, definitely in my top 3 of REM's extensive studio album collection.

But essentially this album belongs to an REM of a different era, not just in terms of time, but REM tend to go through more changes than a set of traffic lights in day ("refer to the yellow, red and green") as far as their music is concerned. Their biggest notable change came after Bill Berry's departure from the band in 1997. But this chameleon like musical existence is half of their appeal, each album is different, and to be honest, I wouldn't want another "Fables of the Reconstruction", this one is perfect and infinitely untouchable as it is.

Cheers

Tracks: Feeling Gravity's Pull / Maps and Legends / Driver 8 / Life and How to Live It / Old Man Kensey / Can't Get There From Here / Green Grow the Rushes / Kohoutek / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Good Advices / Wendell Gee

Overall: 5 Stars

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening