R.E.M.
Lifes Rich Pageant

1986, Athens, Georgia.
After the gloomy, mysterious, and dark “Fables Of The Reconstruction,” the “rapid eye movements” are on the brink of the abyss: they are about to end up like any other meteoric band that reached its 3rd album. But Stipe starts expressing his opinion on ecology and nature without positioning himself as a “rebel”: he just says what he thinks without leading any hypothetical army.

Thus, an album is born that travels on entirely different paths compared to the previous one: “Lifes Rich Pageant”; life is a rich pageant (the apostrophe between “Life” and “s” was intentionally omitted), the pop rock album by REM that wants to be country, rock, punk, and garage.
“The insurgency began and you missed it,” the Aerosmith-style rock of “Begin The Begin” kicks off the dances: the drums are strong and precise; in this LP, Berry's percussion is emphasized, never in the background, but rather takes over (in fact, you can admire his face on the cover with a fantastic pair of “broom” style eyebrows).
It continues with rock tending towards punk in the next track “These Days” (don’t be fooled by the tracklist on the back, which is entirely in disorder). “Fall On Me” is a melancholic pop song centered on a fantastic melody and the vocal intertwining between Stipe, Mills, and even Berry! Here it talks about acid rain, and a sad Stipe sings: “buy the sky and sell the sky, lift your arms to the sky and ask the sky not to fall on me.”
“Cuyahoga” starts with a nice bass riff, it would have fit well in the previous LP as it's so folk and sparse; it is also based on the not-so-happy history of South America.
If you hear birds chirping, don’t worry, it’s just the intro to “Hyena,” a cheerful pop-rock track that gives way to the humorous “Underneath The Bunker,” a cheeky faux spaghetti western that sounds more like a forgotten demo or a hidden track. The melancholy returns with “The Flowers Of Guatemala,” characterized by Buck's arpeggio, the circularity of the drums, Stipe's mumbling, and the “La la laaa la laaa” in the background; in the chorus, optimism awakens, and there's even room for a basic but effective guitar solo. The country of “I Believe” is a tonic for the mood; afterward, you can’t help but be happy. The perfect bass that supports much of the pop-rock “What If We Give It Away?” leads us to the fast and adrenaline-pumping punk rock of “Just A Touch” characterized by piano touches that almost lead to musical intoxication.
Here is the “Wendell Gee” of this album: “Swan Swan H” is an acoustic song accompanied by a crescendo of accordion and light percussion. The ungrateful task of closing a memorable album falls to “Superman,” a cover of a popular 60s song, reworked into a happy and carefree garage rock, with its peculiarity being in the vocal part: Mills sings and Stipe accompanies him in the background.

After having described another chapter of REM’s life, only one thing is left to say... the story continues.