R.E.M.
Fables Of The Reconstruction

I would like to start from the end, "Wendell Gee," the track that closes the album, leaves a deep mark on the heart, the kind that REM usually leave on any other album. But unfortunately, there are very few fairy tale songs on this work.

We are in 1985, REM are coming off the surprising debut of Murmur (1983) and the confirmation of Reckoning (1984). To create their third effort, the Athens quartet decides to move to London: new environment, new influences, new producer, and new stimuli. Unfortunately, the band never finds the right feeling with producer John Boyd and the city of London (the damp and foggy winter combined with the coldness of the big metropolis did not help the group). The result is a dark, gloomy, and confused record where new ideas are not lacking, but the quality of the sounds and Stipe's voice are of too modest quality. But if the poor quality of the recordings is due to the lack in the production phase, the same cannot be said for the vocal part. A depressed and alcoholic Michael Stipe delivered his worst performance as a singer of his entire career.

Fables is a folk-rock album that follows the style of its predecessors, but with a little more innovation. "Feeling Gravity Pulls" opens the album in a dark manner and then slides into a refrain of rare sweetness, "Maps And Legends" is a classic folk piece without infamy or praise, "Driver8" is instead still one of the band's most beautiful songs ever, a classic folk-rock gem of rare intensity and immediacy.
Period.
From the fourth track, the album takes us from the paradise of "Driver8" to the hell of songs anything but memorable: the confused "Life And How To Live It," the sparse "Old Man Kensey," the insignificant "Green Grow The Rushes," and the depressing "Can't Get There From Here." In the finale, Fables becomes listenable again, launching a trio of songs that wink at the dark genre in vogue in London in the '80s. Pieces like "Kohutek," "Auctioneer," and "Good Advices" seem inspired by the genius of Ian Curtis. After this immersion in the London fog, the sun comes out again for the last track "Wendell Gee," which closes with a sweet ballad a completely unconvincing album.

An album that for many fans of the band is a "masterpiece" for its raw and dark sounds. Personally, I consider it the only misstep of a group that has given and continues to give works of absolute level.
Back from London with frayed nerves, the band will nonetheless achieve good sales success, allowing REM to continue making music, and the following year they will give birth to their greatest work of the '80s: Life's Rich Pageant.