been listening to their cover of Gentle in my mind, fuckin awesome

New Adventures in Hi-Fi, Fables of the Reconstruction, or Automatic For The People.

I also have a hard time recommending a first album for REM.

I just thought of something: Stip only loves R.E.M. because his last name and Michael Stipe's last name start with the same 4 letters. That poser doesn't like the music, that's just his claim to fame!

You've outed Stip!

no on fables, unless you want to see if he can withstand the worst sounding REM record.

I'd say just get the best of compilations.

Well, I love it. Great how we differ.

That's pretty much the best advice for looking into any unfamiliar band, IMO. While greatest hits albums always leave off some of the artist's best tracks, it's a good place to start just to get a feel for the diversity of their entire catalogue. Velvet Underground is in my top 5 bands and I started with a 9 track greatest hits album.

I started with a greatest hits for Bruce.

It's a good album. Good songs and the rest of it, but it sounds like shit. It's so murky and diluted.

And all these years later, 80% of your favorite Bruce songs are probably songs that didn't make the greatest hits album, yes?

I see what you are saying. For that reason it shouldn't be something to start with maybe, but once you are a fan you can get past that enough. At least I can.

Yep. Maybe 2 of the GH would make my top ten and one of them isn't a greatest hit it was a new song, Murder Inc.

thing with REM is that they leave out a shitload of amazing, if not better songs from these compilations. Well the IRS one is pretty spot on, but the 88-03 one kinda sucks.

You say it kinda sucks because you're familiar with the majority of R.E.M.'s catalogue. But if you were new to the band, don't you think it would be a good place to start? Just about any band worth their salt has gems on albums that will never be released as a single or make a greatest hits album. In Time is pretty indicative of the diversity of each album throughout the era it spans.

yeah, sucks is not the right word. still though, only one song from Monster (Let Me In, Crush With Eyeliner, Strange Currencies ), no Leave, no So Fast, So Numb, no Walk Unafraid, no Country fucking Feedback. i'd rather had seen Animal and Bad Day on the rarities disc and have hem put either one of those songs on the A disc instead. and Stand? come on.

Oh I agree that some amazing tracks were left off, most notably the Monster songs that you've mentioned. But hey, I'm also a guy who likes Shiny Happy People so my opinion is probably worthless here.

well that's fine, though we can agree it wouldn't belong on a best of, yeah?

Nope. It's a throwaway track, but still a fun little number. I think part of the reason it's so disliked is because of the album it's featured on; much like Mankind from PJ's No Code, it sticks out like a sore thumb given the other tracks that surround it.

In Time should have been a two-disc set, no doubt (meaning 3 discs when combined with the rare stuff). I love All the Right Friends, but it wasn't a new track or a greatest hit, so how it made it's way to the main disc is beyond me.

Stand as well, i mean come on man.

Automatic for the people is usually a safe bet if you want an album. Honestly though, the greatest hits aren't necessarily a bad place to start either, and then start tracking down the records that have the songs you like

Monster and out of time are also safe places to start since you'll know a lot of the songs