Wednesday, May 28, 2008

1984: Pretty Persuasion



R.E.M.: Pretty Persuasion

[purchase]

There's a theory that your favorite album by an artist is usually the first one you bought. The first album is the one that, by default, defines the band for you and sets the standard for their sound in your mind. For the most part that has been true for me. The first R.E.M. album I ever bought was 1984’s Reckoning, and it remains my go to R.E.M. album today. All these years later I still love Buck’s layered Rickenbacker guitar sound and Stipe’s mumbly singing (which stuck out in 1984 a lot more than it does now).

I suspect, however, that what I like best about Reckoning is the feeling that it evokes in my mind of Autumn in Ann Arbor during my first semester away from home at college, chasing after beers and girls (but mostly ending up with great new music like this).

4 comments:

bwrice said...

Paul - whoops, sorry about the double Reckoning post. I just removed mine a few minutes ago. I kept it as a draft though in case you wanted to go in there and grab the live cut of 7 Chinese Brothers that I had included with it -- it might be worth posting as a bonus on yours.

BR

Anonymous said...

bwr - There's no reason why we can't have two posts about the same record. Two perspectives are better than one. Feel free to put it back up if you want.

Paul

boyhowdy said...

Hey, there's enough of us here to allow for it. I vote for returning the post, too.

bwrice said...

Right on -- It's back.