This is the third-best EP of all-time, right after Mission Of Burma's Signals, Calls & Marches and Pavement's Watery, Domestic. Well, that's just my opinion- but hey, who's blog is this now?
That's right.
R.E.M. hails from Athens, Georgia- you probably already know all this. I'll skip the intros and niceties then.
I always thought this band could be split into two distinct halves, the first half (which runs from 1981's Radio Free Europe single up until around the mid-90's Monster/New Adventures in Hi-Fi albums) and the second half (the four albums since original drummer Bill Berry left the band). It's funny to trace their arc of trajectory; about an album a year until '94, then an album every 3 years or so. Michael Stipe could get away with the argument that everything he ever needed to say he said by Automatic For The People; the scope of their work could've concluded with that record and their legacy would remain forever unblemished by their more-or-less subpar work as of late.
Anyway; here's one of my favorite things they've ever done, an early snippet of the band they used to be, all jangly guitars and mumbled vocals...
