Customer Reviews

Fables of the Reconstruction

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I remember the day I bought Fables. Late spring '85, a gray sky overhead with intermittent sprinkles falling, a downpour could have come at any moment, it seemed. I was outdoors, riding a ten speed five miles to the record store on release day to buy the new album by R.E.M., which had become my new favorite band after a college friend of mine introduced me to their music the summer before... Reckoning, which I loved immediately, purchased, and promptly wore the cassette out. Murmur, just the same... bought it on vinyl, made two cassette copies for myself just in case the vinyl wore out. There was such a magic about this band: the sublime melodies, the mysterious lyrics and vocals, so hypnotic you just had to listen repeatedly, yet you could never tire of hearing the songs. I had heard advance rumblings that this album was a departure from Murmur and Reckoning, and as soon as "Feeling Gravity's Pull" resonated through the headphones as I began the journey homeward (thankfully the rain did not come) it was indeed true... this was a departure. The drone of cellos, the murky aura, the downcast nature of the majority of the songs was a far cry from the generally bright and upbeat Reckoning and the rock-folk-punkiness of Murmur. But I loved it anyway, and wore out the cassette as well, and replaced it with the CD as soon as I could afford a player (they were still quite expensive in those days). I went on to purchase every R.E.M. album that followed, and after all of the years that have passed, through all of their stylistic twists and turns, Fables is the one R.E.M. album that still takes me to another place, stirs my emotions more than any of the others, even the equally somber Automatic For The People. There is distance, desperation, and longing in so many of these songs, "Feeling Gravity's Pull", "Maps And Legends", "Life And How To Live It", "Old Man Kensey", "Green Grow The Rushes", "Good Advices", and "Wendell Gee" that transcends most anything else you will hear. You can just feel the loneliness of a band that was in a dreary place during the sessions, far away from home (England), through Stipe's vocals, Buck's yearning guitar jangle, and Mills' aching harmony vocals. And you feel along with them...in fact, I still often shed tears during "Good Advices" when I hear "Home is a long way away...", the vocals are so full of loneliness you can't help but cry sometimes. Some people think of the South when they listen to this album. Yes, it does have that sound. When I listen to it, I tend to think of gray rainy days, regrets I may have, separation from the ones I love, and a longingness to go back home, wherever I may be.

As a college student in the mid-eighties, we posed the question around the dorm room --- "Did REM make college radio, or did college radio make REM?" Fables is perhaps REM's last hurrah in the college music genre before their foray into an embracing pop culture. After Fables, gone were the twangy folk strains of Peter Buck, the driving bass of Mills, and the incoherent yet hauting howlings of Stipe. Fables is perhaps best experienced as a soundtrack of a drive through the South. The tempos of the first three tracks build to an energy-filled "Life and How to Live It" before taking a short breather with "Old Man Kensey." "Green Grow the Rushes" and "Good Advices" offer introspective commentaries in nicely sonorous melodies. Listen to this album while in a car, being sure to stay off the main roads. Best experienced in mid-summer, turn off the air conditioner and roll down the windows. Notice the landscape around rich in kudzu, Loblolly pines, and red clay. Fables is a perfect accompanyment to the passing sights, smells, and even sounds in the modern South.

I like all of R.E.M.'s 1980s albums, but their 1985 release Fables of the Reconstruction is my favorite. It is, in my opinion, their most solid album. The other records had at least one or two tracks that I was not crazy about, but this album does not let up. If I had to pick a least favorite song, it would be the banjo-driven "Wendell Gee" which is a little slow, but I can't say it is one of R.E.M.'s weakest songs. The rest of the album is awesome.

"Feeling Gravity's Pull" and "Maps and Legends" fit well side-by-side. They both have a unique, innovative sound, especially "Gravity." "Maps" is my favorite of the two and is, perhaps, my favorite track on this album. It is very upbeat and has excellent use of backing vocals at the chorus. "Driver 8" was one of R.E.M.'s best singles. You feel like your rattling through the countryside on a train when you listen to it. It is my second favorite track off Fables and is one of my all-time R.E.M. favorites. "Life and How to Live It" is a great, upbeat track. Stipe's wailing is a little much at times but it doesn't detract from the song like the wailing on "Just a Touch" off Lifes Rich Pageant. "Old Man Kensey" is a darker, slow song with the usual beautiful guitar work.

The other single off Fables was "Can't Get There From Here" which is an upbeat, fun track. "Green Grow the Rushes" and "Good Advices" are slower, pleasant tracks. "Kohoutek" is an interesting track. It has a very full sound and a lot of depth. Each time I listen to it, I like it better. The rocker "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" is another one of my favorites. If you only have R.E.M.'s singles compilations and are thinking about buying some of their 1980s studio releases, I recommend starting with Fables of the Reconstruction. It is one of their most accessible albums and is their most solid. It will leave you wanting to get their entire 1980s back catalogue!

At first I didn't like this album. I found it too dark, too murky, too chaotic. Nowadays, I love "Fables of the Reconstruction/Reconstruction of the Fables", probably for much the same reasons. It's certainly one of R.E.M's least accessible albums - certainly not one to recommend to someone in the hope of converting them (try "Lifes Rich Pageant" or "Green" for this). "Fables" is like a good wine - it matures with age and this is perhaps the chief reason why it is so good - it stands the test of time, especially so coming from that unfortunate period known as the eighties. The opening track is stunning - the three jarring notes that open (and recur throughout) "Feeling Gravitys Pull" are indeed memorable - the song itself is filled with terrific imagery ("oceans fall and mountains drift"), seemingly about the beauty and restrictive power of nature. Thematically the rest of the album, as the circular title suggests, is about legends and tales of the deep South. There's folk rock ("Maps and Legends"), the manic "Life and How to Live It" and the cacophonic (and somewhat sluggish) "Old Man Kensey", all inspired by local personalities. "Driver 8" is gorgeous and the first single, "Can't Get There From Here" is probably the most out of place song, being upbeat, funky and happy. The songs which I always thought somewhat muddled and impenetrable, namely "Kohoutek" and "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" I now find to be really enjoyable, while "Green Grow the Rushes" and "Good Advices", two ballads which are soothing and unsettling at the same time, I have always loved. "Wendell Gee" is a song that has often been demonised, but I find it to be an appropriate ending - a quiet, folksy ditty that is a gentle way to wrap up a sometimes stressful and unnerving album, but staying faithful to the Southern theme. It is an extremely well crafted album, but one that, as is the case with my own experience, may require a few listenings to fully appreciate.

Listening to this album today, I have a hard time understanding what critics were disappointed about in 1985. Now Fables may have not continued the fierce momentum of Murmur and Reckoning, but it is still a solid, moving album. Some of the old Rolling Stone reviews complained of sections of the record (especially the second half) as being "boring." Where did that idea come from?

With three superb joints opening the record ("Feeling Gravity's Pull," "Maps and Legends," "Driver 8") and satisfying numbers carrying it through, I say that Fables of the Reconstruction is one of the best albums in rock and roll in the past twenty-five years. It is surely among the best of R.E.M's career. The solid running streak of their first eight albums is a milestone that is nearly impossible for the average recording artist to achieve.

To be fair though, music listeners today have the benefit of hindsight with regards to assessing R.E.M's career. It was tough indeed to say just where the band was going to go in 1985, or the rest of rock and roll for that manner. What I know is this: Fables is as fresh today as it was twenty years ago.

Non-American readers (and Americans who have forgotten their school history) may appreciate a little help in understanding the title and theme of this landmark album.

The "Reconstruction" to which the title refers was a Union plan to rebuild the economy and society of the former Confederate states following the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the abolition of the slavery on which the Old Southern plantation economy had depended. Tragically, following the assassination of the visionary president Abraham Lincoln, the so-called "reconstruction" quickly degenerated into a period of intense exploitation. Over the ensuing decades, millions found that little had really changed, and the ground was laid for some of modern America's most stubborn political issues. Even now in some areas the old divisions still run deep, and it is only really since World War II that the kind of New South that Lincoln envisaged has been realised.

Of course whether you like the fact or not, rock'n'roll was a Southern invention, the first fruits of the New South. This is significant because it represented the sort of cross-fertilisation between black and white musical cultures that would have been unthinkable in the Old South (remember that the earlier jazz crossovers established themselves in the northern cities rather than in their spiritual homeland of the Delta). And it was Lynyrd Skynyrd who first had the cultural confidence to respond to Neil Young's abrasive "Southern Man" and "Alabama" with the stirring affirmation of "Sweet Home Alabama". But by the end of the 1970's a "New Southern Rock" had grown up, a generation of bands that blended exploration with traditionalism and Southern identity with cosmopolitan influences.

R.E.M. quickly developed into the most creative and successful unit in this whole movement, and from the outset they were the purest representation of its substance. They were college boys from the provincial university town of Athens, Georgia, itself a hybrid of industrialism and old world classicism. They were the product of a new industrial middle class that had the capital to educate its kids and the confidence to explore its own cultural identity. And they were obsessive rock fans who even in stardom never attempt to conceal the homage they still pay to their own heroes.

Heated debate over the quality of R.E.M.'s last few albums has tended to eclipse what used to be one of the key disputes among the Athens band's hardcore fanbase: Was Fables a flop? Or was it a masterpiece? "Fables rocks" and "Fables sucks" were two of the competing slogans around at the time. Stories began to circulate about civil war in the London studio where the album was cut, between the band and the established folk-rock producer overseeing the project. Comments in the media gave fans the impression (justified or not) that the band had virtually disowned "Fables", and this in turn put many of their most loyal fans off the album.

In fact at least one member of the band has more recently admitted that it was a "great" album, and this later assessment is much fairer than any of the dismissive remarks made back in the eighties when tempers were still running high. This truly is a great album, the most perfect distillation of the lyrical, musical and sonic approach that first earned R.E.M. a global cult following.

That's not to say it's easy. The sound is murky. The vocals are indistinct. There is a mixture of clashing compositional styles ranging from the sweetest pop to the most jarring angry garage rock. And yet there is so much magic, and there isn't a single song on here that doesn't worm its way into the affections (even the less than universally acclaimed 'Wendell Gee'). Such of the lyrics you can make out are among Stipe's most obliquely deep and meaningful. Many of them revolve round his long-term fascination with the myths, legends and stereotypes of the American South (that's were the above historical intro comes in). The fact that the album title is printed in such a way that it can alternatively be read as "Reconstruction of the Fables" speaks volumes about the spirit in which this has been undertaken.

"Fables" may not grab you on first hearing, but it is the definitive early R.E.M. album. Like all truly classic releases it amply repays the commitment involved in getting to know it well. And I would say that of all R.E.M.'s dozen or so albums, it is the one I am least likely ever to get tired of.

Fables Of The Reconstruction is R.E.M.'s deepest and darkest album. Even though the production of their first two album's had a murky sound, there were alot of bright and vibrant melodies. Fables has dark overtones and by far is the most experimental of their releases. While they moved Michael Stipe's vocals higher up in the mix, that doesn't mean you can figure out what he's saying. There is alot of strings on the album and it moves slightly away from the jangling guitars of their first two albums. "Feeling Gravity's Pull" opens up the album with a bizarre sound and then slides into an old favorite, "Maps & Legends". "Driver 8" may be the best song they've ever done. "Old Man Kensey" and "Wendell Gee" are two prime examples of the dark tone the album has. "Can't Get There From Here" was a big MTV hit and helped bring some mainstream attention to the band. It's a great song, but with it's horns and upbeat sound, it doesn't fit the overall theme of the album. Fables Of The Reconstruction needs to be listened to repeatedly to be fully appreciated.

I love this album. It is among the most under-listened in the R.E.M. catalogue, yet it will reward the listener many times over.

"Driver 8" is a lovely ballad/impressionistic fable evoking the whimsy, longing and wanderlust which inhabit the heart of the small-town southerner. Its vivid imagery captures the mind.

"Old Man Kensey" is the story of an oddball wanderer. Replete with dense, deep dark musical tones, this song always puts me somewhere in the Okeefenokee Swamp, snakes a-slitherin', spanish moss hangin', 'round about dusk. Or down some deep dark dirt road in the back country of the south about the same time of day.

"Can't Get There From Here" is a fun, rollicking romp about student joyrides to the country from Athens, the home of U of Georgia and the band's birthplace.

"Maps and Legends" has amongst the most beautiful interweavings of bass, lead and rhythm I've ever heard, and lovely vocal harmonies.

"Feeling Gravity's Pull" is a song of epic proportions. Its subject matter: the human longing for omnipotence and immortality. Its accomplishment: coming about as close as humans come to accomplishing the feat as old as the myth of Icarus and Daedalus -- touching the sun, harnessing infinity.

These are but a few of the fine songs on this set. It will reward the dedicated R.E.M. fan. And for those of a poetic and artistic bent wishing to expand their horizons, you can scarcely do better than this album and this band.

R.E.M.'s third album, along with Life's Rich Pageant the following year, were R.E.M.'s transitional period, as they grew from college radio heroes to MTV staples. While they may have had more commercial success, this period was also R.E.M.'s richest. Fables of the Reconstruction did not so much improve over Reckoning -- a great record itself -- as mark R.E.M.'s maturity and confidence in the music they were making. With this album, Michael Stipe allowed us to start deciphering his lyrics. Buck, Mills and Berry had become so musically tight that the band started experimenting with the occasional horn section or strings on songs. With this album, R.E.M. gave us some of their very best songs. "Driver 8" is always part of my inner debate as to the greatest R.E.M. song. "Can't There From Here" is great fun. "Green Grow the Rushes" is another beautiful song. As the title of the album suggests, this R.E.M. album has more of a sense of place than any other R.E.M. record, and songs like "Wendell Gee," "Auctioneer," and "Maps and Legends" are musical explorations of the South that was R.E.M.'s home and heritage. This is a great, great album, a worthy part of anyone's music collection.

Between 83 and 85, UK post-punk was enjoying a swansong with the Bunnymen and the Smiths recording their greatest albums. Nobody here listened to American music with over-produced synth-metal like Van Halen or worse like Huey Lewis. Knowing absolutely nothing about REM except that they were American, I bought Reconstruction of the Fables from Woolworths on a whim and 24 years on I realise this was one of the best chances I've taken in a lifetime of trying out new music.

I was drawn intuitively to the arty, undesigned, abstract album cover - the indecipherable song titles seemed to confirm an America but not one I was familiar with. Not the cliches of New York or California. Not remotely commercial. Even the album's title was reversible. The package contradicted my expectations and seemed utterly exotic to a 15 year old kid from a post-industrial city in the North of England. Listening to the eerily beautiful music, I can remember thinking the singer sounds very old. He really holds these strange notes. The music sounds enigmatic. Alien but warm. Dark but beautiful. Old but original. Inside out. I suspected it was sort of an American equivalent to Goth but I didn't have the musical vocabulary to describe it. I thought it sounded 'country' but in a cool new way. I still don't know the most of the song's names or words and I still don't wan't to - but 'Good Advices-Wendell Gee' is probably my favourite ending to an album and features a banjo (yes!) outro a whole 20 years before the global mainstream commercialization of American folk, country and blue-grass in 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' etc, etc. I still don't know what 'chicken-wire' has got to do with it but it still makes me cry.