Top Ten R.E.M. Opening Tracks
I've been listening to a lot of REM in the past couple months, and so I figured that I wanted to compare opening tracks from some of their albums. I wanted to see which song not only stands the best on its own, but also does the best job of introducing the listener to the album. There are few albums that I haven't touched base on, so feel free to add the opening tracks from those if you see fit.
Punk like energy with jangly guitars and cryptic lyrics; this is what made REM stand out from the mainstream bands of the time.
This is my favorite opening track because of its use of dynamics. There's a lot of push and pull between the quiet and loud sections.
With its loud distorted guitar, this song showed people that this album was not going to be another Automatic For the People. I enjoyed this song so much when I heard it the first time that I listened to it again and again.
Like Begin the Begin, Finest Worksong is also very loud and politically charged. This song, however, feels more sludgy.
This song is louder and distorted then previous REM songs, and it also goes at a faster pace. It's a really good taste of the politically angry side of Michael Stipe.
Unlike previous songs of theirs, this song is much slower and spookier, almost psychedelic. It's also the first REM song featuring outside musicians, featuring string players.
This song has a lot of energy behind it.
I've always heard that this song is a send-up of Hello, I Love You by The Doors, except it's not quite as masculine.
The song starts off like a normal jangly REM track, but then it takes a sharp left turn into funk territory. It sticks out not only for its intentionally silly lyrics, but also because it features a rapper, KRS-One.
The song starts off with a slow drum loop, and is mainly driven by clean guitar and piano. It's not as aggressive as Monster, and it's not as melancholy as Automatic For the People either.
I might as well go ahead and add the last two while we're ahead.
