This is like the quintessential REM track.

"Light Years to go"

I would class REM with Supertramp.

They are a band I simply don't like.

Supertramp are much much better though.

REM are like fingernails down a blackboard to me.

Melodica?

Stop whining, Stipe.

He keeps going on about about plants and 'erbs.

It's well produced.

I liked the Ignoreland one. Or whatever it was called.

I genuinely liked nothing about that.

Still, I'd never give it one star.

It is over.

I feel that isn't as good an album as it seemed at the time. In retrospect, it is quite inconsistent but has plenty of moments of quality.

Now to look back at the thread and see what everyone else made of it.

My finger slipped.

I shall give it 4 stars, as 3 would be too low. Ideally, I'd give it 3.5 stars.

See the thing is, Stipe looks like an intelligent, interesting man



But he's really not. And he's not stupid enough to be interesting.

Some nice tunes, but it's just not for me…

I don't know what to give it.

You mean some other sinister lurker has voted again?

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

I shall give it 4 stars, as 3 would be too low. Ideally, I'd give it 3.5 stars.

Actually, I'd ideally give it 3.75 stars as I really like all but one track on Side 2, and I like a couple of tracks on Side 1.

I've just voted, 3 years later!

I've listened to this album for the first time in about 29 years tonight - and other than the singles I remembered none of it. I really like all the singles, but the other tracks really are quite bland and forgettable. I can see why it was popular at the time and I think of it as a seminal album. Even the yellow tray which holds the disc is on the epic side.

3/5

We all know that REM famously shunned Shiny Happy People, but I do wonder if they have ever been tempted to shun just about all of their singles in concerts - they're all either very poppy and jolly or pleasant ballads. Surely the typical earthy REM fan just wants to hear the obscure tracks, not the stuff that features on a NOW compilation.