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Now into the fourth decade of their career, it's easy to forget the significance of R.E.M.'s music, especially the five albums released on IRS Records. Murmur, their seminal debut album, was released in 1983. Twenty-five years later, in 2008, a deluxe anniversary edition was brought out, newly remastered, with a bonus live concert. Similarly last year, to celebrate its quarter-century, their second album Reckoning was reissued with another live album. Presumably this will continue each year until their last album for IRS, Document, turns 25, by which time the series of 30th anniversary editions will have probably begun.
The remarkable thing is that Murmur, Reckoning and now, in 2010, Fables of the Reconstruction (or Reconstruction of the Fables–the cover was designed so that the title becomes an infinite, unending loop) sound not just old albums reborn, but like brand new ones. Part of that is down to the remastering–which makes Fables... sound bolder and crisper than it did before–but really, it's testament to the timeless nature of Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe's songwriting.
This third effort marked a change in direction for the band, who infused its 11 songs with dark, unsettling undertones. It begins with the metallic sheen of Feeling Gravity's Pull, the sound of a slow-motion apocalypse, an iron world rusting. Old Man Kensey extends that sense of impending doom, while Auctioneer (Another Engine) and Kohoutek are full of a nervous, jittery energy. Maps and Legends, Driver 8 and the hypnopompic lament of Wendell Gee recall the jangly guitars and slight country twang of those first two albums, but they still sound somewhat twisted and deranged. Overall, Fables is the embodiment of confusion, of minds and worlds unsure about their futures, a sense of foreboding intensified by Stipe's oblique, muddied lyrics.
This reissue comes with The Athens Demos, a second disc containing 14 cuts–including the full album in embryonic form, two other demos and one previously unreleased song. Although the versions here lack the dark magic of those on the album, there's an unnerving, lo-fi bleakness to these recordings which adds to their apocalyptic nihilism. If that wasn't enough, it all comes packaged in a deluxe mini boxset with new liner notes, postcards and a poster. A dark, dangerous but delightful record that's as good–if not better–than new.
--Mischa PearlmanFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
Fables is virtually a concept album exploring the mythology and landscape of the Southern United States .It makes references to Southern life- the trains on the hectic jangles of "Driver 8" the migrant farmers of the Byrdsian "Green Grow The Rushes" the story telling references in "Life And How To Live It" . The slightly comic "Can't Get There From Here" not only reveals a more playful side to the band with Stipes affected vocal , but uses a popular Southern saying for it's title.
All of the composite elements of the usual REM sound were present for Fables, but there are flirty bursts of brass in "Can't Get There From Here" and the use of banjo in "Wendell Gee" is a further nod to it's Southern inspiration. Peter Bucks silvery jangles are still utilised extensively but there is less of Mike Mills melodic bass counterpoints and his backing vocals are more subdued , though in Wendell Gee they are crucial to the songs structure. Excellent opening track the vivid striking "Feeling Gravity's Pull" ushers in menacing violin and cello for the songs last third.
The extra tracks for this CD edition are worth hearing too. A series of b-sides their cover of Pylon's "Crazy" has true chromatic energy. "Burning Energy" is redolent of the undiluted honest rock of "Document" .Only the jingle/jangle by numbers of "Bandwagon" fails to live up to what has gone before.
Many are critical of the albums muddy sound and the albums more oblique textures yet in some ways the album improves on their previous two albums. Stipes vocals are more distinct , he is far less inclined to mumble like a guilty teenager , and the album see's a tangible progression for them with supplementary variety in the songs and the arrangements.
Fables Of The Reconstruction isn't REM ,s greatest album -I prefer the first two , "Life's Rich Pageant " and "Automatic For The People" but it's way better than it's reputation and it's way way better than anything they have done since Automatic. It's also far superior to over lauded albums like "Green " and the most over lauded of the lot "Out Of Time". Taken away from the context of REM ,s catalogue Fables Of The Reconstruction is a great album in it,s own right and actually gives weight to that hoary old saying -A triumph over adversity .
It is against this background that a "New Southern Rock" grew up, starting in the seventies with bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the B-52s. R.E.M. were only the foremost of a whole generation of bands that blended exploration with traditionalism. They were college boys from the provincial university town of Athens, Georgia, itself a hybrid of industrialism and old world classicism. They were the product of a new industrial middle class that had the capital to educate its kids and the confidence to explore its own cultural identity. And they were obsessive rock fans who even in stardom never attempt to conceal the homage they still pay to their own heroes.
Heated debate over the quality of R.E.M.'s last few albums has tended to eclipse what used to be one of the key disputes among the Athens band's hardcore fanbase: Was Fables a flop? Or was it a masterpiece? "Fables rocks" and "Fables s*cks" were two of the competing slogans around at the time. Stories began to circulate about civil war in the London studio where the album was cut, between the band and the established folk-rock producer overseeing the project. Comments in the media gave fans the impression (justified or not) that the band had virtually disowned "Fables", and this in turn put many of their most loyal fans off the album.
In fact at least one member of the band has more recently admitted that it was a "great" album, and this later assessment is much fairer than any of the dismissive remarks made back in the eighties when tempers were still running high. This truly is a great album, the most perfect distillation of the lyrical, musical and sonic approach that first earned R.E.M. a global cult following.
That's not to say it's easy. The sound is murky. The vocals are indistinct. There is a mixture of clashing compositional styles ranging from the sweetest pop to the most jarring angry garage rock. And yet there is so much magic, and there isn't a single song on here that doesn't worm its way into the affections (even the less than universally acclaimed 'Wendell Gee'). Such of the lyrics you can make out are among Stipe's most obliquely deep and meaningful. Many of them revolve round his long-term fascination with the myths, legends and stereotypes of the American South (that's were the above historical intro comes in). The fact that the album title is printed in such a way that it can alternatively be read as "Reconstruction of the Fables" speaks volumes about the spirit in which this has been undertaken.
"Fables" may not grab you on first hearing, but it is the definitive early R.E.M. album. Like all truly classic releases it amply repays the commitment involved in getting to know it well. And I would say that of all R.E.M.'s dozen or so albums, it is the one I am least likely ever to get tired of.
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