R.E.M.'s Murmur and Reckoning are both undisputed classics. The material is all strong, the production perfect for the music - it's the sound of a young band with an already strong footing in what they want to do and doing it almost too well. So, what do you do to avoid making the same album again? You leave the country, work with a new producer and start with an almost fresh palate of songs that haven't been rehearsed for years. This is what R.E.M. had to do with Fables of the Reconstruction.
Granted, nowadays, reviews looking back on it have been generally positive, but imagine a semi-R.E.M. fan in 1985 and listening to this for the first time. The first two songs are slow. Unbelieavably slow for an R.E.M. song. Say you made it past the first two, then you had a single about riding on a train, another fast tune, then one more slow one that seems to go on forever. I imagine most folks maybe gave through one pass of side two and then never pulled it out again. It's no suprise that in most used record stores, you can find near mint vinyl copies of this for dirt cheap. It also doesn't help that drummer Bill Berry was once quoted as saying that the album "sucked".
So how do you get semi-R.E.M. fan to re-purchase this album he or she didn't care for? Offer a disc of bonus demos of the whole album, including 3 "bonus" tracks (early recordings of "Hyena" from Lifes Rich Pageant and "Bandwagon", a b-side to pop up on Dead Letter Office and some other "unheard" track called "Throw Those Trolls Away"), postcards of the band members (literally the pictures on the album cover), a poster, and a page of liner notes from Peter Buck. If they bite, they'll see what a great album they missed.
In his liner notes, Buck describes Fables as "a doomy, psycho record, dense and atmospheric", and he's right (he should be, he plays on it!). It's an album full of new territory for the band, with lyrical inspiration coming from stories of the south while progressing out of the Byrds-like progressions and arpeggiations we all grew to love. I mean, the first song has a string section, "Cant Get There From Here" has horns. In some ways, this, while being a dark and at times, murky album, also acts as their most polished. There are times in songs like "Green Grow the Rushes" where within the music, you feel as if you're whisked away to where this song is supposed to take place. "Life and How to Live It" is a fast paced tune propelled by Bill Berry's drumming and what sounds like a vocal that just goes "Ohhhhhhh!" during the chorus that sounds like R.E.M. while breaking new ground for themselves.
The last two R.E.M. reissues I didn't get too excited about - I already owned Murmur and Reckoning, and the extra material were just some live concerts - but when I read about this, I got giddy with excitement. An album that I've listened to a lot since the day I've heard it, complete with demos! How could I resist? The demos were all recorded in one day and add to the mythology that surrounds the album. The band has said that they went into the studio "unprepared" but this document proves them wrong. Sure, the songs got polished and a little more refined, but on this, you hear a band in their rawest state, which is pretty great considering it feels like a raw album to begin with. The remaster of the original sounds great as well. Certain little things like vibra-slap hits and extra string parts creep out of nowhere and add to the strange and exciting sonic world that Fables created for its listeners.
OVERALL RATING - Gelato and bowling.
KEY TRACKS - "Green Grow the Rushes", "Maps and Legends", "Good Advices".
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