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Document (album)

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Document is the fifth studio album by the American band R.E.M. It was released in 1987 a few months after their rarities collection Dead Letter Office appeared and is the last album of new material by the band released on the I.R.S. Records label. It is the first album the band worked with producer Scott Litt.

Details

Document was R.E.M.'s first album co-produced by Scott Litt and the band, a collaboration that continued through Green, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster, and New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and may account for their success with this album as well as the following five. The album's clear production and muscular rock riffs helped to move the band towards mainstream success and built on the work done by Don Gehman, who had produced their previous album Lifes Rich Pageant. This album was significant not only in launching R.E.M.'s first U.S. Top 10 hit in "The One I Love" (which reached #9), but also giving them their first platinum album. It was also their first Top 10 hit on the Billboard 200.

With the success of "The One I Love" and U2 earlier in the year, it can be seen as a prequel to the alternative rock explosion of the early 1990s spearheaded by bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. R.E.M. greatly benefited from the breakthrough and were often seen as a sort of wise-folk to the alternative scene.

Songs

"Exhuming McCarthy" makes an explicit parallel between the red-baiting of Joe McCarthy's time and the strengthening of the sense of American exceptionalism during the Reagan era, especially the Iran-Contra affair. Starting with the click-clack of a typewriter, it also includes a sound clip of Joseph Welch's rebuke of McCarthy from the Army-McCarthy Hearings: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

The song "Strange" was originally recorded by the post-punk band Wire. This version has slightly altered lyrics, such as "Michael's nervous and the lights are bright."

R.E.M. expanded their instrumentation somewhat on the album, adding dulcimer to "King of Birds" and saxophone to "Fireplace"[1]. This experimentation would lead to their adoption of the mandolin, which featured prominently on their subsequent albums Green and Out of Time. Furthermore, the band's musicians began swapping instruments both in concert and in the studio in an effort to create new sounds (and avoid stagnation).

Cover

The original sleeve for the album featured the message "File under Fire", a reference to what Michael Stipe considered to be the central lyrical theme of the album[2]. A similar message ("File under water") could be found on the cover of the band's second album, Reckoning, as well as on the compilation album Eponymous ("File under grain")[3]. Two rejected suggestions for the title of the album—R.E.M. No. 5 and Table of Content—also appear on the sleeve artwork.[4]. Other possible album titles included Mr. Evil Breakfast, Skin Up with R.E.M., and Last Train to Disneyland (the last one having been suggested by Peter Buck, who felt that America under the presidency of former actor Ronald Reagan was beginning to feel a lot like the famed amusement park).[5]

2005 re-release

In 2005, Capitol Records (whose parent company EMI now own I.R.S. Records' catalog) issued an expanded DualDisc edition of Document which includes a digitally remastered version of the album on the CD side, a DVD-Audio, DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner on the DVD side, and the original CD booklet.

Critical praise

In 1989, the album was ranked #41 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. Template:RS500 In 2006, it ranked 49th in a Q readers' poll of the "Best Albums Ever".

Track listing

All songs were written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, except as indicated.

  1. "Finest Worksong" – 3:48
  2. "Welcome to the Occupation" – 2:46
  3. "Exhuming McCarthy" – 3:19
  4. "Disturbance at the Heron House" – 3:32
  5. "Strange" (B.C. Gilbert, Graham Lewis, Colin Newman, Robert Gotobed) – 2:31
  6. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" – 4:05
  7. "The One I Love" – 3:17
  8. "Fireplace" – 3:22
  9. "Lightnin' Hopkins" – 3:20
  10. "King of Birds" – 4:09
  11. "Oddfellows Local 151" – 5:21

Track listing note: On the original vinyl release, R.E.M. labeled side one (tracks 1-6) as the "Page side" and side two (tracks 7-11) as the "Leaf side."

The IRS Years reissue

On May 11 1992, EMI (which owns the I.R.S. catalogue) re-released Document with six bonus tracks:

  2. "Finest Worksong (Other Mix)" – 3:47
  3. "Last Date" (Floyd Cramer) – 2:16
  4. "The One I Love" (Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop)1 – 4:06
  5. "Time After Time Etc..." (Live) – 8:22
  6. "Disturbance at the Heron House" (Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop) – 3:26
  7. "Finest Worksong" (Lengthy Club Mix) – 5:52

Notes

1 Originally released as "This One Goes Out" on a 1987 single.

References

  1. ^ music-nerds.com [1]
  2. ^ www.rem-central.com [2]
  3. ^ everything2.com [3]
  4. ^ R.E.M. In Time: The Story Behind Every Song, Craig Rosen, 1997
  5. ^ Reveal: The Story of R.E.M., Johnny Black, 2004

Personnel

Additional personnel

Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1987 The Billboard 200 10 (33 weeks on chart)
1987 UK Albums Chart 28 (5 weeks on chart)

Singles

Year Song Chart Position
1987 "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 16
1987 "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" UK Singles Chart 39
1987 "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" Billboard Hot 100 69
1987 "The One I Love" Billboard Hot 100 9
1988 "The One I Love" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 2
1988 "Finest Worksong" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 28
1988 "Finest Worksong" UK Singles Chart 50
1991 "The One I Love" UK Singles Chart 16

Certifications

Organization Level Date
RIAA – U.S. Gold November 2 1987
RIAA – U.S. Platinum January 25 1988

Document ⚠ "mbid" is missing! at MusicBrainz

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