GREEN - R.E.M.

YEAR: 1988

LABEL: Warner Bros.

TRACK LISTING: Pop Song '89, Get Up, You Are the Everything, Stand, World Leader Pretend, The Wrong Child, Orange Crush, Turn You Inside-Out, Hairshirt, I Remember California

BONUS TRACK: The album ends with an untitled hidden track. The band actually copyrighted the song as "11".

IMPRESSIONS: This seems to be the forgotten R.E.M. album. This was the first actual R.E.M. album I ever bought (although I had gotten singles before this) probably because it's the band's major label debut and had the promotion behind it. I bought the vinyl LP at Strawberries on Route 70 in Marlton. One night while I was driving in my 1975 copper Ford Granada with butterscotch leather interior bopping to the song "Orange Crush", a car next to me motioned to roll down my window and tried to sell me a kicking car stereo -- all this while we both continued to drive down the highway. I assured him that I already was listening to a kicking car stereo and proceeded to turn the song up and blow his doors off.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Pop Song '89, Get Up, World Leader Pretend, Orange Crush, Hairshirt, I Remember California

GUEST ARTISTS: KRS-One (rap on "Pop Song '89")

FACT SHEET: GREEN is R.E.M.'s sixth album and their major label debut when the band went from I.R.S. to Warner Bros. The band deliberately shook up their process of recording so they would not keep making the same album. To that end, the members learned each other's instruments and switched up during the recording sessions. Also Michael Stipe altered his songwriting process: before he would write lyrics to the complete music but now he wrote during or before the music was written. This was the first album to feature Peter Buck's mandolin which would become a major part of R.E.M.'s sound with "Losing My Religion". Michael Stipe sang "Orange Crush" using a megaphone. GREEN reached double platinum in the US and was the first R.E.M. album to reach gold in the U.K. making it the band's European breakthrough. The album was produced by Scott Litt and recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The cover art is by minimalist painter John McCafferty. It may seem odd that the album cover artwork is orange when the album is called "GREEN"; however when you stare at the cover for about 30 seconds and then look at a blank white wall the after-image appears green.