618. R.E.M. - Green (1988)
















Track Listing

1. Pop Song '89
2. Get Up
3. You Are The Everything
4. Stand
5. World Leader Pretend
6. Wrong Child
7. Orange Crush
8. Turn You Inside Out
9. Hairshirt
10. I Remember California
11. Untitled


Review

Some more REM for us, and it is always welcome. Green introduced some new elements to REM's sound, not least of it was the first introduction of the Mandolin in some of the tracks, but possibly more important than that it was a more finely tuned Pop sensibility.

Some of the tracks seem to draw inspiration from their fellow Georgians B-52s, such as the bubblegum pop of Stand, but REM make it their own. As with any REM album Green takes its sweet little time to settle in with the listener, this is not a bad thing, it just means that all the tracks actually keep sounding better and better with repeated listenings.

Then you have the great Orange Crush, also using the megaphone for the first time in REM's catalogue, even if they were not the first ones to use it, and the other tracks creep into your mind slowly but indelibly. Probably not as great an album as their previous effort on this list, Document, but still good enough and representing an evolution in their sound.

Track Highlights

1. Orange Crush
2. Pop Song 89
3. Stand
4. You Are The Everything

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although the title of the album is Green, the cover artwork is orange in color. The reason for this is that, if one stares at the orange image for several seconds and then closes their eyes, the negative image he will then see is green. When viewed negatively in this manner, the cover art appears to depict green grass.

Stipe's best impression of a White geek dancing in this live version of Orange Crush: