‘Before’ I think of as having some of their best moments, particularly in Lifes Rich Pageant and Document, but equally I thought most of the early albums had more weak songs than Green, Out of Time or Automatic for the People. (The second half of Document, for example, I’ve never really warmed to.) Plus, a sucker for the surface of things, the necessarily less polished production of some of the early albums grates with me a bit.

As for ‘After’, like most R.E.M. newbies I wanted to love and defend all their subsequent output, but had eventually to admit that Monster, bar a few brilliant bits, was a let-down. I still highly rate New Adventures in Hi-Fi, though it’s far too long; but with fourteen or so songs on there, you could still cut it down to a pretty flawless eight- or ten-track collection, which is more than you can say for Monster or indeed Up (though I know that album has its stout defenders).

My own aberration is in being very fond of Reveal, perhaps something to do with its sunny, relaxed disposition, and it was that album that made me think ‘return to form!!’ after the downward grind of Up. Around the Sun though, put paid to that. I mean we are agreed - surely we are agreed - that that was a shockingly bad album by any standards… or does it have its fans too? I remember sitting with it in the weeks after purchase, continually waiting for it to click and for me to ‘get it’, and I never did. Just awful.

So fast-forward to tomorrow when I can buy Accelerate. Don’t let me down (again) boys!

http://frmckenzie.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/album-of-the-month-march-2008/