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).