Collapse Into Now
Up
New Adventures In Hi-Fi
Around The Sun
Out Of Time
Automatic For The People
Accelerate
Reveal
Document
Green
Monster
Murmur
Dead Letter Office
Reckoning
Life's Rich Pageant
Fables Of The Reconstruction
Chronic Town
Big Shot
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
It's Still Rock And Roll To Me
Scandinavian Skies
My Life
Allentown
Pressure
The Stranger
Zanzibar
Movin' Out
Laura
Don't Ask Me Why
Vienna
I love Reckoning, but I've always found it the most vexing R.E.M. album (at least until Up). Only 10 songs, and poorly sequenced. This is my alternative release - a rereckoning, as it were:
File Under Water:
"Left Side":
Harborcoat
Ages Of You
Pretty Persuasion
Letter Never Sent
So. Central Rain
"Right Side":
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
There She Goes Again
Second Guessing
7 Chinese Bros.
Camera
Time After Time (Annelise)
A far richer album, with a better flow.
Picking favorites is tough enough...what will the rejects reveal?
We Walk
Little America
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
Hyena
Fireplace
Stand
Belong
Ignoreland
Star 69
Undertow
Lotus
All The Way To Reno
The Worst Joke Ever
Horse To Water
Blue
And:
Stumble
Windout
I only actively dislike five of these songs. R.E.M. has a batting average well over .900.
You could (one could, I could) make a "solid" 80-minute CD-R(W) solely using R.E.M. songs beginning with the letters "K", "L", and "M". A testament to the depth of the discography.
Listed alphabetically:
King Of Birds
King Of Comedy
King Of The Road
Kohoutek
Laughing
Leave
Let Me In
Life And How To Live It
Lightnin' Hopkins
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Losing My Religion
Love Is All Around
Low
Low Desert
Man On The Moon
Man-Sized Wreath
Maps And Legends
Me In Honey
Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando And I
Mike's Pop Song
Monty Got A Raw Deal
Moral Kiosk
Mystery To Me
No need for "Leaving New York", or "Lotus"...
...and we (I) haven't even touched on their strongest letter ("S", obviously).
These are the final tracks to be considered...at least via this particular lens.
Falls To Climb
Low Desert
Around The Sun
Parakeet
Electrolite
Blue
The Ascent Of Man
So Fast, So Numb
Diminished/I'm Not Over You
Find The River
Superman
Beachball
You
West Of The Fields
The Worst Joke Ever
I'll Take The Rain
Daysleeper
I'm Gonna DJ
We Walk
Circus Envy
Zither
Nightswimming
Wendell Gee
[Untitled]
Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando And I
Oddfellows Local 151
Swan Swan H
Me In Honey
Chorus And The Ring
Horse To Water
High Speed Train
Little America
I Remember California
Why Not Smile
Man On The Moon
Shaking Through
Just A Touch
That Someone Is You
Binky The Doormat
Good Advices
King Of Birds
Let Me In
Country Feedback
Summer Turns To High
Aftermath
Sing For The Submarine
What If We Give It Away?
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
Walk Unafraid
I Took Your Name
9-9
Hairshirt
Lightnin' Hopkins
Texarkana
Be Mine
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
Star Me Kitten
Nearly impossible to rank 1-4...
Fireplace
Boy in The Well
Ignoreland
Mr. Richards
Bittersweet Me
Imitation Of Life
Turn You Inside Out
Camera
Walk It Back
You're In The Air
Bang And Blame
Kohoutek
I Believe
Sitting Still
Half A World Away
Wanderlust
Beat A Drum
Until The Day Is Done
Departure
Mine Smell Like Honey
Belong
Orange Crush
Letter Never Sent
Sad Professor
Catapult
Green Grow The Rushes
Tongue
Monty Got A Raw Deal
The Flowers Of Guatemala
The One I Love
Got a feeling this order is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way...oh well!
I Wanted To Be Wrong
Accelerate
The Apologist
Underneath The Bunker
Strange Currencies
Saturn Return
Second Guessing
Can't Get There From Here
Every Day Is Yours To Win
Shiny Happy People
Sweetness Follows
Perfect Circle
The Wrong Child
...End Of The World...
Leave
Final Straw
Houston
Star 69
Strange
Hyena
Time After Time (AnnElise)
Endgame
E-Bow The Letter
New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
At My Most Beautiful
Disappear
Old Man Kensey
It Happened Today
Moral Kiosk
World Leader Pretend
She Just Wants To Be
Make It All Okay
Hollow Man
Undertow
Stand
Disturbance At The Heron House
Oh My Heart
Everybody Hurts
Hope
I Don't Sleep, I Dream
Near Wild Heaven
Talk About The Passion
Cuyahoga
Pretty Persuasion
Life And How To Live It
This one almost isn't fair. 1-10 are all in the Top 50; 1-6 are Top 25; 1-4 Top 10!
The Outsiders
All The Way To Reno
Exhuming McCarthy
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Uberlin
New Test Leper
King Of Comedy
Suspicion
Supernatural Superserious
You Are The Everything
Fall On Me
Driver 8
Laughing
Low
So. Central Rain
Lotus
All The Best
The Wake-Up Bomb
Pilgrimage
Man-Sized Wreath
Electrolite
7 Chinese Bros.
Welcome To The Occupation
Maps And Legends
Try Not To Breathe
Crush With Eyeliner
These Days
Get Up
I've Been High
Losing My Religion
Blue
I'm Gonna DJ
Falls To Climb
Little America
Find The River
Around The Sun
Superman
Beachball
You
Wendell Gee
Electrolite
"11"/"Untitled"
Oddfellows Local 151
West Of The Fields
Me In Honey