Customer Reviews

Document

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Document was the album that helped elevate R.E.M. from kings of college radio to the mainstream. Buoyed by the catchy (and misunderstood) song "The One I Love", Document hit number 10 on the album charts. That's not too bad for an album made up of some highly political songs and some very non-commercial ones. "Finest Worksong" & "Welcome To The Occupation" open the album on a politically charged and powerful note. "Exhuming McCarthy" starts off with the sounds of a typewriter and then slides into pounding Bill Berry drumbeat and jangling Peter Buck guitar. "Disturbance At The Heron House" has a fine Michael Stipe vocal while "Strange" is an abbreviated number that has some good backup singing from Mike Mills in an almost doo wop style. "King Of Birds" has a deep south, r&b feel to it. "Lightnin' Hopkins" and "Oddfellows Local 151" are the strangest songs on the album with the later being drenched in feedback. "The One I Love" became the first song by the band to gain major radio-play and actually peaked at number 9 on the charts. On the surface, the song seems like a love song, but it is really a barbed attack. "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is the centerpiece of the album though. Michael Stipe sings at a breakneck speed and the song is one of the best of the 80's. Many ardent R.E.M. fans dismiss this album as the band selling-out, but that is hardly the case. R.E.M. remained true to their roots and actually released a typically non-commercial album that became a commercial success due to people finally realizing the greatness and talent of the band. They show that you can become superstars on your own terms.

This is by far my favourite R.E.M. album. "Document", released in 1987, gripped my senses the first time I heard it and hasn't let go. It is one of R.E.M.'s angriest albums, politically charged and quite chaotic. The subtitle "File Under Fire" is quite appropriate - fiery images permeate through the album. The very beginning of the first track, "Finest Worksong", conveys a feeling of industry and steel, with Michael Stipe's (now quite intelligible) vocals adding a sense of urgency. This song, and the remainder of the first side (with the exception of the interlude-like "Strange") is highly political. The brooding, disturbing "Welcome to the Occupation", the hectic "Exhuming McCarthy" and the Orwellian fable "Disturbance at the Heron House" are all short, fast and angry protests against the strong tide of political conservatism that dominated in the Reagan era. The song that encapsulates the fire and chaos is the manic "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine). With abstract and often nonsensical lyrics spewing from Michael Stipe's mouth, it is both humorous and deadly serious. Side two is also dominated by images of fire, but the political theme has gone. "The One I Love", R.E.M.'s first big hit and much misinterpreted anti-love song is searing, burning itself into your mind. "Fireplace" is one of R.E.M's most underrated (and one of my all time favourite) songs. It's a delightful, anarchic song of carefree, reckless abandon which also manages to sound subversive. The brilliance of "Document" (as is the case with most of R.E.M's music) is that subversion does not necessarily mean taking up arms. It starts with yourself - you have to start changing the blandness and conformity in the world by revolutionising your own life (which is what songs like "Finest Worksong" and "Fireplace" are all about). The album finishes with "Lightnin' Hopkins" (a series of camera directions), the sublime, gorgeous and wonderful ballad "King of Birds" and the disappointing "Oddfellows Local 151" which, in my opinion, just drags and really goes nowhere. However, it doesn't ruin the album - "Document" is superb. R.E.M.'s music is always full of integrity; it challenges you to think and also to act. This album, a negative reaction to the politics of the day, conveys the ultimate message of overcoming adversity, whether in the world or in your lives. And the songs are great too! That's the ultimate bonus!

Considering that this was R.E.M.'s strongest collection of songs since their debut, there's a strange sense of uncertainty about the whole project.

You listen to the first four cuts and think "Aha, another political statement from the band that brought you Lifes Rich Pageant the previous year." Taken together, "Finest Worksong," "Welcome to the Occupation," "Exhuming McCarthy" and "Disturbance at the Heron House" sound very much like a sort of State of the Union address. In each cut you get a different take on America - the dignity of its workers, the evils of its interference overseas, its historical insistence on conformity and its domestic paranoia. "McCarthy" has a few awkward moments, but overall the music displays this band's usual mastery of style and technique; these songs move. Then there's a cover version of Pylon's "Strange" and the whole thing breaks apart.

I can't help thinking that the interruption is deliberate. R.E.M. had played plenty of covers before, and even recorded a few, but this was almost the first time they put one on a regular album release, and it's about as close to punk as they had come. (There was "Superman" the previous year, but that one came at the end of the collection rather than the middle, and it was an obvious throwaway.) "Strange" is like a signal to the listener, saying "Whatever you think you've been hearing, that's not it." Then the band proceeds to prove it - the rest of "Document" has nothing to do with political commentary.

"The One I Love" and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" both scored big on the singles charts, and I can't imagine why, since they're both among the slipperiest hits ever recorded. They're both terrific, mind - "One I Love" introduces a classic R.E.M. riff and a devastating lyric, and "End of the World" is both nice poetry and enormous fun. But the first of these songs doesn't mean what you think it does, and the second doesn't really seem to mean anything at all. Why in the world did the audience take to them so strongly? (I know, I know, they have good beats and you can dance to them, but still...)

The next two numbers are more R.E.M. American grotesquerie a la "Fables of the Reconstruction" - "Fireplace" is a pounding rock waltz about preparations for a hoedown that turn destructive and "Lightnin' Hopkins" is a vicious bluesy stomp that has about as much to do with the old bluesman of the title as the Ramones do (which may be more than I think, actually). And then "Document" closes out with a couple of straight-ahead surrealist nightmares, "King of Birds" and "Odd Fellows Local 151," with music straight out of a Ken Kesey Acid Test and lyrics by Salvador Dali or something. They wouldn't have been out of place on R.E.M.'s dada debut, "Murmur" - the music is folksy but driven, the lyrics are confusing but significant, the vocal and playing style shouldn't work but they do. It feels like you should be able to dismiss this stuff as self-indulgent, but you can't. It means something, dammit.

Taken all together, "Document" is about as disorienting as a game of blind man's bluff. It lurches from simple tunesmithing to scorching rock to something unidentifiable that drifts right through your head and back out into the sky. And here's a thought - in 1987, R.E.M. faced a number of important decisions, like what record company to sign with and whether to tour Europe. In short, they were getting famous, and I wonder if "Document" is the sound of a band trying to figure out whether to give its fans some good old-fashioned pop or stick with its twisted art-house roots.

Now, that's the kind of struggle can result in great music, when it doesn't produce a nervous breakdown instead. Fortunately, by the time R.E.M. had to face this pressure, they had been playing together for going on ten years and evidently trusted each other. So they could look outward and inward both at once, knowing that they had each other's backs. Every time Peter Buck bangs out a chord, or Bill Berry and Mike Mills trade backing vocal lines, or Michael Stipe hollers "Listen to me!", you can hear the band's defiance and excitement in the face of the world's demands.

"Document" is a summing up of R.E.M.'s career to that point, an important step to take before any giant leap. They may have felt fragmented, pulled in different directions, like that glass sculptor on the cover whose body is shattered in a million pieces by his materials, but there's no doubt that they were still in control of each piece. The following year they signed with Warner Brothers and handed in a collection of, as they said, "stupid pop songs." They'd earned the right.

Benshlomo says, The past is a springboard from which to jump, eyes shut, into the future.

Sorry. I know that probably isn't the real lyric. Sadly for me, I don't occupy the mind (or the time) of Michael Stipe. Which is unlike the majority of reviewers who have taken the time to review this album. Magically, most everybody knows the secret hidden meanings behind songs such as "The One I Love" and "Oddfellows Local 151." How is everyone so in the know? What do I have to do to get in this vaunted group? I'm dying to know. Perhaps could it be many are merely regurgitating what they read in music magazines, see on TV, hear from friends, etc.,etc. Newsflash 2000: REM song "One I Love", not really love song. Story at 11.

But I digress. I don't think I can interpret Stipe's lyrics anyway. So I won't bother to try. I never was much of one to listen to a song and understand all the lyrics. Often, years go by while I'm making up my own words until someone catches me singing (badly) the wrong words and laughs and makes fun of me until I cry.

But that's neither here nor there. To me, REM strives at what most of the other alternative bands were likewise reaching for. A place beyond ordinary rock music. It might sound a bit silly to say, but transcendence. Be that in the form of a political message, a social message, or a spiritual message. It's the same reason why this band and U2 and precious few others survived the early 90's barrage of alt rock music. Because ultimately, we want to hear music that actually has a message and means something to not only the audience but also the performer. At least, I believe some of us do. Which doesn't help to explain Limp Bizkit. Maybe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Maybe from time to time we need a pile of redundant stupidity to keep us in check.

In the end everyone finds their own meaning in songs. I'm not going to tell you this song means exactly this and only this and that song means exactly that and only that. I could tell you what it means to me. But really, what good is that? I can't persuade anyone to like it because I tell them to. You have to find out for yourself what it means to you. Isn't that what art is all about? It's the same reason you can tell a masterpiece from an advertisement. Both are pictures. It's the same with this album and the rest of the trash that's out there today. Both contain songs. Or at least screaming and maniacal ranting.

If you want to start listening to R.E.M. you should probably start with Out Of Time, but Document stands as the best ROCK album the band has done (read: not including Automatic For The People). "It's The End Of The World..." has an unresistable groove to it, while "The One I Love" and "King Of Birds" show a bit more sentimental side of the band. The anthemic "Finest Worksong" and the horn-ridden "Exhuming McCarthy" are also spectacular. Plus, have any of you noticed how much "Lightning Hopkins" resembles the style of the present-day Red hot Chili Peppers !?! Who's plagiating who, then? But the most notable change are the lyrics, which have taken a much more political features on this album, due to the Reagan era depression. There aren't really a weak song on this album, so in the end this rates as one of the finest records of it's decade and it's makers.

What made Document different from all the preceding R.E.M. albums? Well, first of all, you could understand the lyrics. No more trying to decipher Michael Stipe's vocals as he flung his imagery out there in a stream-of-consciousness manner (with, of course, the obvious exception of "It's The End of the World...")

Second, it actually spawned a hit single. Ironically (or maybe not so ironically), "The One I Love" is the song with the simplest message and the lyrics to go along with it. Since it's just a repeated verse, there is no great stretch to find the meaning behind it. I guess that meant it was okay for mass consumption, but I think it also meant that R.E.M. weren't tentative about jumping into the public eye beyond college radio.

Last of all, it's their last album on I.R.S. records before they jumped to the major labels with Green. It may not seem like much of a point in terms of what makes an album good, but if you listen to Document and Green back-to-back you get a definite sense that something has changed, whether it be subject matter, production values, or whatnot.

I may be in the minority in that Green and Document are my favorite R.E.M. albums, but I think the songs, particulary on Document, convey a great blend of affairs both political and of the heart. "Exhuming McCarthy" and "Disturbance at the Heron House" in particular catch you with their music and force you to pay attention to what they are saying. It's unusual to be able to trace a band's progression as artists so clearly as one can with R.E.M. albums. Whereas Green was the diving board that they used to plunge into the mainstream and Out of Time was the vessel that took them there permanently, Document was the ladder taking them up to make their leap.

So far the praises given to this album have all either been snooty "the last one before R.E.M. went commercial" types or mainstreamish "hmm it was a good prelude to Automatic for the People but that's about it." All, however, have failed to appreciate this remarkable effort for what it is. Every song on this album has been a favorite of mine at one time or another, especially "Fireplace," "Disturbance at the Heron House," and "Oddfellows Local 151." Document manages to be political without becoming overtly cynical or flatly condemnative. But the theme of the album (every good album has a theme)is not a political message, but the sense of burning the past and starting anew, as expressed in the many references to fire, and in songs like "The One I Love" (which Michael Stipe commented was written to himself) and "Finest Worksong." Even "Exhuming McCarthy" carries the thread. An excellent work by one of the best bands in modern rock. Check it out but expect it to remain in the CD player more often than not.

This album is flawless from songwriting to tune to performance. This REM album set a high water mark which has only been approached by "Automatic for the People."

"Document" slightly surpasses the excellent early REM albums, but the real reason for that is that the band is one of the most obvious example of musical evolution. REM as a band has been in a state of flux since its formation, and the early albums, though fine work on their own, seem to be striving towards this fully realized album. (We won't go into the subsequent REM albums and the thought that evolution is not always moving foreward, sometimes it is just moving...)

The biggest reason this album is perfection is its coherence. Many albums have no unifying concept or theory, so they are a collection of songs. Which is OK. But this album is more than that. It is an artistic piece which holds together as a thematic meditation as well as a bunch of awesome pop/rock songs. For evidence of this, just take a listen. (My praise of "Automatic" largely rests upon the same theory.)

But despite all the mastery REM shows here, you can still put this CD on at a party and people will be thrilled. Songs like "It's the End of the World...(etc.)" are crowd pleasers without being trite or beat-heavy.

REM changed the direction of music, I think, and this album is a good reason why. Buy it and be very very satisfied.

R.E.M. ended their tenure at IRS Records with their second 5-star album, "Document." Having flirted with mainstream production with Don Geham on Lifes Rich Pageant, the switch to producer Scott Litt kept the smoother, more arena ready sound, but brought back some of the band's trademark atmosphere. "Document" also became R.E.M.'s first album to sport a hit single, the breakout "The One I Love."

Along with The Police's "Every Breath You Take," "The One I Love's" tale of obsession and paranoia marks one of the most deceptive Top 10 love songs of the 80's. It also sported one of Peter Buck's heaviest riffs. Paired with the high speed rant of "It's The End Of The World as We Know It," (which might as well have become a hit), "Document" boosted R.E.M, from the arms of its beloved cult and into the arms of the mainstream.

Even with that new-found appeal, it's amazing just how political the band was becoming. "ITEOTWAWKI," "King Of Birds" and "Welcome To The Occupation" all some charged lyrical content, upping the ante from "Pageant." There was still plenty of jangle-pop and Byrds-ish chiming to go around, like "Finest Worksong" and "End of the World," but by finding a sympathetic soul with Producer Litt (who would helm them for the next few albums and their peak Automatic for the People, "Document" was R.E.M. hitting their stride and setting themselves up for the bidding war that Warner Brothers ultimately won (Green).

R.E.M. one of the few good bands of the '80's (along with U2 and a few others), and this is arguably the best record of the decade, not to mention easily the best thing the group ever did. This was also the group's breakthrough, containing their first Top 40 hit: The One I Love, which can best be described as Led Zeppelin filtered through The Byrds, only without each group's bad elements - none of the former's brainless lyrics or the latter's ill-advised forays into psychedelia. The One I Love happens to be their best song, with a jangly riff, simple yet cryptic lyrics (I'm with Michael Stipe's interpretation about how it's people who use others over and over, but that's just me), and a dramatic ending. Hit #2 was It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) - Subterranean Homesick Blues for the information age, namechecking everyone from Lester Bangs to Lenny Bruce (Right? Right!) and featuring what may very well be the best sing-along refrain of all time. There have been several, let me add. Finest Worksong also got, and deserved plenty of attention - a straight ahead rock 'n' roller that's uncharacteristic of the group's classic sound, but rocks just the same. Some of this has been unjustly overlooked, though: King of Birds is an experiment with Indian instrumentation and rhythms that works better than most others do, calling to mind similar-sounding Beatles tracks such as Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). Continuing in the bird thing, there's also the disquieting Disturbance at the Heron House. Plus this contains one of the group's most experimental tracks, period: Exhuming McCarthy, which works in keyboards, horns and even a vocal sample of Joseph Welch damming McCarthy. Pretty creative, and one of the best here. Strange and Fireplace (both featuring Michael Stipe's ill-advised hard-rock singer impression) don't really work out, but the rest does. It's too bad R.E.M. sold out RIGHT after this release, seeing just how good it is.