Release Date: July 12, 2011
Lifes Rich Pageant is not the quintessential R.E.M. album. It’s an uneven welterweight, and a more transitional album than anything the group has made since (even after being devastated by drummer Bill Berry’s departure). However, perhaps more than any other work, their fourth album exemplifies why history sees R.E.M. as one of the most important bands to come in the wake of punk.
In short, the word compromise was never part of R.E.M.’s lucid vocabulary. John Mellencamp producer Don Gehman helmed Lifes Rich Pageant (no apostrophe—Michael Stipe didn’t believe in punctuation) to give the band a clearer, brighter sound. But while Pageant isn’t heartland rock nor as glossy as Mellencamp’s then-current hits, Gehman’s influence didn’t come without creative tension. “What does this mean?” he challenged Stipe’s obtuse lyrics. Coming between the bizarre dark period surrounding the darker Fables of the Reconstruction and a fertile creative one, this affront to his songwriting was met with crossed arms.
It’s unclear who won that stand-off. “Fall On Me” cracked the Hot 100, but Stipe seemed to be just mumbling louder now—his voice more naked than ever, he enunciated and stretched vowels above all other sounds. Doozies like “perfection is a fault and fault lines change” (“I Believe”) weren’t any easier to comprehend, but with the band’s growing political bent came audibly sign-ready slogans like “we are hope despite the times.”
Their previous night gardening resulted in some very bright flora when the sun came out again. With as solid an opening run as any record since, Lifes Rich Pageant sounds like a band reborn. When Stipe described the recording of a later album as “primitive and howling,” this is what fans imagined. Backing Stipe’s deranged yelps, Peter Buck realized you can use bar chords without turning into a champagne-pouring rawk sellout. Pageant sputters later on, making it seem like two EPs—one of strong-willed anthems against Reagan’s cartoon America, one of jagged, twisty detours. This isn’t coincidence: In addition to the genuinely new songs, the album cobbled together outtakes spanning five years (“What If We Give It Away,” “Hyena”), an obscure cover (“Superman”) and the type of drunken fuckery seen at their club gigs (“Underneath The Bunker” was supposedly written after a well-oiled trip to a Greek restaurant). Gehman’s production was clear, but so was the difference between “new” and “dusted-off” in the tracklist.
As a reissue, Lifes Rich Pageant is decidedly louder, but for a purpose. Like so many indie rock albums from its decade, the original release suffered from tinny drum sounds and hidden bass.
The remaster rectifies this, making Berry and Mike Mills equals in the mix. Berry in particular was meant to shine here, as any discussion of commercial sensibilities in the ’80s included a big drum sound. His kit in “Hyena” now crashes through the opening moments of animal cackling, but unlike the Murmur remaster, there are no previously unheard instruments or atmospherics—just Mills’ insurgent choir vocals and Buck’s reinforced Rickenbacker with some newfound sting in its jangle. Still, the remaster highlights how Gehman’s cavernous reverb actually made R.E.M. sound weirder than it did when Stipe was mumbling about moral kiosks.
Should lifers with the original CD shell out again? The reissue is beautifully packaged in a sturdy box as appropriate for display as for storage, and as with the Fables reissue, it comes with a poster and four postcards (a snapshot of each band member) which should make for convenient autograph material at any R.E.M. side project show (The Baseball Project and The Minus 5, among others). Parke Puterbaugh’s fluffy liner notes are nothing revelatory, but for once, the real treasure is the bonus disc.
Unlike Fables‘ dull demos, the sketches here are different enough from the final versions to merit multiple spins: “These Days” is flighty rhetoric instead of brute force, “Begin The Begin” lurches along stilted, and “Fall On Me” falls halfway between its early incarnation as murk-folk and the eventual hook-heavy pop it would become, with something like “fall on dawn” a placeholder for the title phrase. Appearing in demo form for the third time in five years, “Hyena” is a bruiser, Buck’s nasty guitar swarm cutting through the haze.
Non-album cuts fare better for enjoyment than study: punkabilly bashers like “Mystery to Me” and the requisite new song “Wait” are pure fun. Another pre-Murmur composition in the running, “All the Right Friends” surprisingly resembles its strident 2001 recording as a soundtrack cut. And while it appeared as a bonus on an I.R.S.-era best-of compilation, the more chances people have to hear the superb “Two Steps Onward” the better, its creepy bass-line-as-melody trick surprising for not being repeated more often.
Lifes Rich Pageant offers the last glimpse of a band hurling toward fame before the hit singles, packed arenas and extraneous touring musicians came along. “Broadcast me a joyful noise,” Stipe beckons on “Bad Day.” Twenty-five years on, this noise sounds young despite the years.
R.E.M. – Lifes Rich Pageant (25th Anniversary Edition) Tracklist:
- “Begin The Begin”
- “These Days”
- “Fall On Me”
- “Cuyahoga”
- “Hyena”
- “Underneath The Bunker”
- “The Flowers of Guatemala”
- “I Believe”
- “What If We Give It Away?”
- “Just A Touch”
- “Swan Swan H”
- “Superman”
Bonus Disc
- “Fall On Me (Athens Demo)”
- “Hyena (Athens Demo)”
- “March Song (King of Birds) (Athens Demo)”
- “These Days (Athens Demo)”
- “Bad Day (Athens Demo)”
- “Salsa (Underneath The Bunker) (Athens Demo)”
- “Swan Swan H (Athens Demo)”
- “The Flowers of Guatemala (Athens Demo)”
- “Begin The Begin (Athens Demo)”
- “Cuyahoga (Athens Demo)”
- “I Believe (Athens Demo)”
- “Out Of Tune (Athens Demo)”
- “Jazz (Rotary Ten) (Athens Demo)”
- “Two Steps Onward (Athens Demo)”
- “Just A Touch (Athens Demo)”
- “Mystery To Me (Athens Demo)”
- “Wait (Athens Demo)”
- “All The Right Friends (Athens Demo)”
- “Get On Their Way (What If We Give It Away?) (Athens Demo)”
