It is good to have this collection of early R.E.M. songs. They are a young and excited band here. They are not the authoratative, stadium-filling rock supermen of 1992 and beyond, there is not the melancholic sway and swing of ‘Man On The Moon’. Nor is there the sparkling pop zest of ‘What’s The Frequency Kenneth?’
Instead, there is a band young and keen, desperate to prove themselves, keen to try out new things, not caring if they fail in the process, because they are going to have fun anyway.
And they do fail. No matter how many times one hears it, or how much enthusiasm it is performed with, ‘Driver 8’ is still a total turkey of a song (so it is ironic, then, that this is being released at Christmas, is it not?). ‘Superman’, too, sounds bloated and woefully underdeveloped.
On a more positive note, there are some terrific cover versions on offer here. ‘King Of The Road’, that famous old country tune, becomes almost a polka number in the hands of Messrs Stipe, Mills, Buck and Berry, and Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ gets slowed down and stretched out even more from its original incarnation, becoming even more precious and poignant in the process. This is great, because it allows us, as listeners, to see more clearly some of R.E.M’s myriad influences (from both their contemporaries and from times before) and what they took from them. It also suggests (or even, dare I say it, confirms) that R.E.M definitely were better with Bill Berry in the band. His drumming gave them a sure and steadfast anchor. His keen ear for a tune on the likes of ‘Wendell Gee’ and ‘Catapult’ also gives (or gave, even) R.E.M a definition and tightness sorely lacking in many (in fact, pretty much all) of their contemporaries.
