Product Description

1. Finest Worksong 2. Welcome To The Occupation 3. Exhuming McCarthy 4. Disturbance At The Heron House 5. Strange 6. It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) 7. The One I Love 8. Fireplace 9. Lightnin' Hopkins 10. King Of Birds 11. Oddfellows Local 151 12. Finest Worksong (Other Mix) 13. Last Date 14. The One I Love (Live) 15. Time After Time/Red Rain/So. Central Rain (Medley) (Live) 16. Disturbance At The Heron House (Live) 17. Finest Worksong (Lengthy Club Mix)

Track Listing

1. Finest worksong
2. Welcome to the occupation
3. Exhuming McCarthy
4. Disturbance at the Heron House
5. Strange
6. It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)
7. One I love
8. Fireplace
9. Lightnin'Hopkins
10. King of birds
11. Oddfellows local 151
12. Finest worksong (2)
13. Last date
14. One I love (2)
15. Time after time
16. Disturbance at the Heron House (2)
17. Finest worksong (3)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7352 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Singer Michael Stipe finally confesses that even he doesn't know what he's trying to say--among the lines flying by are "tryin' to tell you something we don't know" and "there's something going on that's not quite right." But R.E.M.'s roar is at its sharpest, as Peter Buck's guitars twist up surf riffs and the Bill Berry-Mike Mills rhythm section captures the force of forebears Big Star and the Byrds. After half a decade of American college-rock heroism, R.E.M. achieved its first hit album thanks to the rambling "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" and the gentle (but subtly barbed) "The One I Love". --Steve Knopper

CD Description
R.E.M.'s final album for IRS Records, 1987's DOCUMENT was the Georgia quartet's commercial breakthrough. The initial single, the spookily obsessive "The One I Love", was an unexpected Top 10 hit, and its follow-up, the "Subterranean Homesick Blues"-style rant "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", became one of R.E.M.'s most renowned songs. The first R.E.M. album produced by Scott Litt (soon tobe a frequent collaborator) DOCUMENT skilfully blends the commercial gloss of LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT and the mysterioso murk of FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION, combining the best elements of both for what would soon become R.E.M.'s signature sound. (Note the thumping rhythm section on the opening "Finest Worksong" and the oddly buoyant melody of "Exhuming McCarthy".) The band even manages to salute one of its favourite predecessors by romping through a loose, fun cover of Wire's "Strange".

Customer Reviews

Rewards the persistent listener
A few months after buying ‘Document’, I was largely unimpressed. I'd heard the fans rant and rave about this album - many said it was one of the band’s best albums. I disagreed and I began to write a negative review for it... how glad I am that I never submitted it!

This is easily one of R.E.M.'s best albums, but why was it so difficult to like? For a start, Michael's vocals are very squeaky at times - it is somewhat irritating, but also very fitting if you persevere. You see, the main problem with ‘Document’ is the vocals. Sometimes, they seem to go a bit over the top (‘Disturbance at the Heron House’ and ‘Strange’ are fine examples), but they are mostly only like this at the start, and I suppose this puts me off the rest of the song.

Having listened to the album sparingly for about 3 months (no joking there!), I finally realised that it is a fine record. Songs like ‘Finest Worksong’ and ‘The One I Love’ are simple yet effective songs, despite being overly repetitive. Another gem, ‘It's the end of the World as we know it’, is a fine example of pure chaotic genius.

‘Welcome to the Occupation’, ‘Fireplace’ and ‘Oddfellows Local 151’ all seemed a bit dull to me. Don't ask me why, but it doesn't matter anyway. They're all great instrumentally, and will be appreciated eventually. Some songs, as I said, were irritating. Unfortunately, I feel that all of them were ruined by poor vocals at the starts of the songs, but having gotten used to them, no song is irritating anymore. It is possible to appreciate even the worst song on this album - take your pick!

But having said all that, there is a gem on here that seemed to stick out. That song is ‘King of Birds’ - I managed to fall in love with it immediately. It is, in my opinion, the best song on the album - but only just. The high standard of all the songs makes it almost impossible for me to select a second best song, and I couldn't single out a set of songs for being the worst songs.

‘Document’ can be worse than average at first. If you are a fan and wish to get another album, this is a great place to continue. If you haven't bought an R.E.M. album before, steer clear for the mean time, and try something else (I recommend ‘Murmur’, ‘Automatic for the People’, or ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’). If you're a casual listener / collector, consider this album – it’s amazing how my opinion of this album changed after I was persistent - you'll have to be persistent if you want to be rewarded.

All in all, I would rank this as one of R.E.M.’s top four albums. If you get it, be prepared to persevere, and in the end, you’ll be rewarded with a musical masterpiece.

Their step up to the commerical big time
For me Document is the album that really propelled REM to the mega -stardom stadium embracing apex of their career. Good luck to them , they deserved it. Rarely is brilliance produced at the level this band had produced over five albums and rewarded with album sales to match.
So Document released in 1987 was their fifth studio album , coming after the odds and sods collection "Dead Letter Office". Its the first of a highly productive partnership with Scott Litt and the bands last album for the independent IRS label. Document is an album that very much rang the changes for REM.
What's also very noticeable , especially if you've been engaging in a lot of retrospective REM listening is how the music on Document has surrendered the inchoate tones of their previous albums and gone for a cleaner more muscular rock sound. This is immediately apparent from the steroid enhanced riffs. of the wonderful album opener "The Finest Worksong" . The album is full of bright ringing chords, surging arrangements, fat thunking bass lines and proud percussion. "Disturbance At The Heron House" , "The One I Love" ( actually a bitter nasty song often mistaken for some straight up love tribute) "Exhuming McCarthy" ( a biting political comment about Reagan era America) are all surging excellent rock songs eschewing any independent connotations.
This is nodded at with their vivid cover of post punk band Wires "Strange" and there are trademark Mike Mills harmonies on the frenetic rush of "It's The End Of The World As We Know It". "The slightly gnarly chords of "Fireplace" featuring a saxophone of all things leads into "Lightning Hopkins" which of all the songs on Document could have been recorded by Wire , with it's trebly guitars , arch nasty vocal tones and fat gulping bass. The harmonies are pure REM though. Dulcimer figures heavily on "King Of Birds" ,a stately track with military percussion which embraces Stipes fresh enhanced clarity to the fullest ."Oddfellows Local" is ushered in a scowling feedback and again centres around chunky gobbets of bass and a scratchy guitar refrain.
"Automatic for the People " apart REM were never this good again . It's possibly erroneous to say this , but it's as if ditching the independent IRS label leeched some of their spirit. That's, not to say that they haven't done much that is fabulous since Document . Though both "Green " and especially "Out of Time" are over eulogised the likes Of "New Adventures in Hi-Fi " still showcased a certain maverick fortitude bubbling within the band. But as a defining pivotal force of American independent rock Document is their last will and testament ...their ultimate document if you like.

#5: File Under Fire-
Document was their last album for IRS (originally released in 1987), prior to REM signing to Warners in 1988 (a move that many bemoaned in the music press- REM being the best kept secret for many in the 80s- the missing link between Richard Thompson & The Smiths!). 1985's brilliant Fables of the Reconstruction had almost split the band, the following years Life's Rich Paegent had Stipe singing clearly (no longer Mr Mumbles) & a robust sound captured by John Couger Mellancamp's producer Don Dixon. Document goes one further, REM finding a perfect co-producer with Scott Litt- this album becoming the one that pitched them from cult-college band to perhaps the next U2...

Two of the singles were big US hits and got them noticed in the UK: both It's the End of the World As We Know It (& I Feel Fine) and The One I Love would be hits when reissued by IRS in the wake of Out of Time's huge success. It's the End...is a wild blend of rockabilly, Subterranean Homesick Blues and startling harmonies- Stipe's dream of people with the initials LB (Lester Bangs, Leonard Bernstein, Lenny Bruce...) occurs and Mills call/response vocals "It's time I had some time alone!" are superb. Just a pity that Billy Joel would rip it off for his dire 1989 (s)hit single We Didn't Start the Fire! The One I Love is an important song (even if it's a little similar to Smithereens single Behind the Wall of Sleep from 1986)- a brilliant riff worthy of Neil Young pins down a deceptively cruel song ("a simple prop to occupy my time")- this & Every Breath You Take remain the nastiest songs that people think are about love! There is an alternate version of The One I Love, originally called This One Goes Out here- which is sublime and more acoustic & was originally found on It's the End...'s 12" version (though the brilliant take of Maps&Legends is sadly not included).

The third single (&opening track) Finest Worksong advances a more political line ("the time to rise has been engaged/you'd better best rearrange")- a funky-bassline pins the song down, advancing on 86's Begin the Begin. Stipe oozes disdain onto Reagan's era- the theme of the album can loosely be seen as an anti-Reagan album (Welcome to the Occupation, Exhuming McCarthy). The alternate mixes of Finest Worksong has more brass in, but aren't that necessary (the other extra tracks are a live take of Disturbance..., the Floyd Kramer classic Last Date (though not the version rumoured to have been recorded with Debbie Harry) & the sublime medley of Time After Time/Peter Gabriel's Red Rain & South Central Rain: A MUST!).

Exhuming McCarthy is extremely caustic, seeping vitriol at the USA's behaviour in Central America, Iran-Contra & the ethics of yuppiedom (it's also namechecked by Douglas Coupland in one of his early novels). A great funk style bassline where Mills&Stipe bounce off each other "it's a sign of the times!". Odd that a song sounds so bouncy, when it's about such terrible climes. The Byrds-inflected guitars of earlier releases are present- notably on Welcome to the Occupation (another song that mentions fire) & Disturbance at the Heron House (apparently Stipe's most political song; I'm as baffled as everyone else!). There's also a lovely cover version of Wire's Strange (from 1977's classic Pink Flag)- REM introducing a more obvious pop element to their oeuvre (the following year's Stand would advance this somewhat).

The latter half of the album is slightly weaker- the sax ridden Fireplace, the odd beat-frenzy of Lightnin Hopkins being rather slight. King of Birds, alternately, is one of the great REM ballads- advancing on songs like Old Man Kensey, Flowers of Guatemala & Cuyahoga, and paving the way for songs like World Leader Pretend & I Remember California. The final track showcases suitably fiery guitars from Peter Buck- easily up there with Johnny Marr's huge sound on The Queen is Dead.

Document has aged well, though the following year's Green would perfect the rock-side of REM (Green has more variety, shifting from 60spop to acoustic ballads to rock songs). Document remains a highlight of the late 80s and with the bonus tracks is great value at this budget price. This is the record that put REM, seven years into their career, onto the path of global superstars that they remain today & along with Radiohead and Zoo-U2, the acceptable side of stadium rock. & the pics of the band are great- Stipey with lovely long hair and Bill Berry dressed like something out of The Wild One!