R.E.M. – Document – 1987
By the time Document was released I had already moved to Los Angeles and was nestled in my basement apartment with the same REM loving roommate in West Hollywood. I lived less than 100 yards from Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. The movie billboard that faces west on Sunset was displaying Ishtar.
1987.
The opening track explodes like a marriage of U2 and Simple Minds and I can’t decide if that’s a good thing. This is a beefy REM. The jangle pop group of just 5 years earlier have matured into something different. Something bigger. Something MTV friendly.
They scored their biggest hits on this record, too. “The One I Love” is the strangest hit song ever, I think. It’s barely a song. Three verses that say basically the same thing. Is there a chorus? It’s a mean tune as well, too mean to be used as a wedding song. It’s pretty hateful, you know? U2’s “One” is appreciated the same way. Embraced for a few lines that are meant to be ironic, “One I love” is anything but lovely. It’s harrowing. I’ve always been bothered by it because it is the gateway song for so many fans and it bears no resemblence to the band’s best work. That said, I especially dig the music of the song. Mills’ bassline is killer and that Buck riff is metal-tastic. (Factoid! Food Network’s Alton Brown was the DP on the video for this song!)
The other hit is the 80s anthem, “It’s the End of the World (and I feel fine)”. The most fun song to sing along with, regardless of if you get the words right or not.
Surrounding those tunes are anti-corporate governing polemics like “Exhuming McCarthy”, which is as relevant today as it was then. It could also just be the background music for a james Toback love triangle movie.
There is a strength to Document and a real 3rd sphere awareness. REM is more than just a pop band, they were saying, they get it, they would lead the charge, music CAN change the world!
Did it? I don’t know. I know that Document changed REM’s fortunes. They would go on to sign one of the biggest contracts in Rock the next year with Warner Brothers and usher in the age of Alternative as mainstream.
The entire record teeters on schizophrenia, hard lefts, rights, upper cuts, ironies abounding and for that reason and the strength of conviction I have to give it extra points. On the other hand, it feels really dated, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s those gigantic drums, this was the 80s, after all. Special mention to Bill Berry who crushes the skins on this album and is the main reason “Lightnin’ Hopkins” works. And “King of Birds” is one of the most beautiful song of theirs up to date, a song that singlehandedly makes you wish that Stipe had this kind of confidence when he was writing those earlier tunes. He’s just a giant here. It’s lovely.
And that song would be a perfect closer. And then there’s the encore, “Oddfellows Local 151”. My least favorite on the record but one that keeps the fire motif (the chorus of “The One I Love”, the song “Fireplace”, other places.). It’s fine, I guess, just not up to par with the rest of the record.
Grade A-
ASide: It’s the End of the World, The One I Love
BlindSide: Exhuming McCarthy, Disturbance at the Heron House, Welcome to the Occupation, Strange, Lightnin’ Hopkins, King of Birds
DownSide: Oddfellows Local 151
