R.E.M.
Document

1987, Athens (Georgia), it's time to raise our voices against the tyrants of the world: "the time to rise has started, you better reorganize"—the protest has begun! The "document" born at a crucial political moment opens with this phrase, making it seem like a politically-themed concept album: and that's a pretty accurate assumption.

“Finest Worksong,” the “best work anthem,” starts with a bang, it’s relentless, chaotic, a warning: this is the vibe of the album. “Take the instinct by the reins,” sings a stirred Michael Stipe; the Frontman doesn’t seem to be the same one who quietly sang “Radio Free Europe”, now he’s merged with the current mood. In “Welcome To The Occupation,” the occupation in South America and the not-so-gentle methods used are implicitly described. In the amusing “Exhuming McCarthy,” there's a play on digging up the McCarthy of the title (a senator who hunted communists in the '50s); the drums are repetitively pounding, the bass is prominent, and the guitar is Funky; the track might sound strange at times, like when a sax comes in, or in the piano touches that occasionally appear, but the result isn’t bad.

We return to normality, to Rock with “Disturbance At The Heron House” and reach the strange and fast “Strange” (coincidence): Stipe sings with an unusually nasal voice, which might be the song’s Achilles heel, because the rest of the Band is great, but the voice is intrusive and annoying. Here we have the lengthy “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It”: unpretentious Rock, full of confusion, words, voices intersecting, "it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine" and again "it's time to spend some time alone," if one wants to witness the end of the world, better to be alone... so they say. The following “The One I Love” is not a love song but a song about betrayal: “This one goes out to the one I love, to the one I left behind” in the first verse, but then: “a simple prop to occupy my time” and Buck underscores it with a nice guitar riff on the word “Fire!”

Fire is also mentioned in “Fireplace,” a beautiful track embellished with an enjoyable sax solo and a smooth melody even though the verse suggests something apocalyptic. “Lightning Hopkins” brings us back to the previous “Strange” while the stunning “King Of Birds” starts with a Country strumming (the guitar resembles a sitar), and a Western-style march; it is dominated by melancholy, evident in the refrain from Stipe's voice; here the voices overlap but it’s still the Frontman’s, there’s no Mills clashing with his mate, the most moving track of the CD. It closes with the sad Rock of “Oddfellow Local 151,” the last REM album with IRS; marking for many the end of the first life of the Georgians; the second, the one of "sellouts" (according to some), as true Stars, would begin just a year later.