I tend to think of REM as two different bands, from two different times. There's the IRS years...and the Warner years. While there is a little overlap ("It's The End Of The World As We Know It(and i feel fine)", for example), REM's style began to move away from garagey folk on Green.

Now, this of course is my perception of REM. Do they think that such a stylistic shift happened? Was their songwriting process different? I don't have those answers...because they don't really matter. What does matter is that I've been listening to these guys for a long time. Songs like "Radio Free Europe" and "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" will always be associated with those college nights spent listening to albums like Murmur at my friend Gene's parents house up in Bangor, Maine. The music made a big impression on me, so that time period comes along for the ride. The rest of the pre-Warner days stuff is in there too because, let's face it, does anyone really feel like an adult when they first get out of school? Not me. It took a few years. A job. A marriage. A mortgage...and then REM comes out with "Stand"...and suddenly, it appears that things have changed.

This is not going to turn into an REM-bashing they've-sold-out-they-used-to-be-great-now-they-suck thing. No, my apparent "musical romanticism" and sense of loyalty won't allow that. So let's talk about...

REM, the Warner years. I think of this period as "REM, The Adult Years". What does this mean? So much stuff happened to me post-1988. The cover band, divorces (mine and others), war, new love, career weirdness, marriage. You know, the usual stuff. Do I attach specific events to songs? No. Instead...there are a few artists whose music I use as a source of inspiration (or sometimes refuge), and certainly REM fits here. When I'm sad, happy, or in need of a good kick in the pants - out comes Automatic For The People, New Adventures In Hi-Fi, or the more recent Reveal (my other music-as-therapy artists? Springsteen, Dylan, Pat Metheny, Greg Brown)

Like any other aging vinyl addict, what's the first thing I do after opening the package? That's right: read the liner notes. And In Time has some fantastic track-by-track commentary written by Peter Buck. I can never get enough of this kind of thing. Years of living with a body of music makes me wonder what the artist was thinking. Aside from your typical VH1-type details (why was a song included on (or left off of) an album, etc.) you get to see that Buck (and the other members of the group, I suspect) is also a fan of music. His description of working with Patti Smith on "E-Bow the Letter":

It was such an incredible experience watching Patti sing this song-a song we write! I had all the cliche reactions: chills ran up and down my spine, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, etc. My life did not flash before my eyes, but it was a close thing.
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