By Sean O’Hagen 12.24.88 New Musical Express Horses As a rule, the things people won’t talk about are usually the most interesting/revealing aspects of their self. Today, Michael Stipe is reluctant to talk about his childhood. Were you a weird kid, Michael? “Erm. I wrote backwards right up until sixth grade. Perfect mirror image.” That’s [...]
By Andy Gill 12.14.88 Q Magazine 4 stars It wasn’t all that long ago that R.E.M. furnished us with the out-takes and B-sides collection Dead Letter Office; it’s some measure of what football pundits might call their strength in depth that they can now dip with greater consideration into their past to offer us a [...]
By Jeff Tamarkin 12.02.88 CMJ Magazine The cover of Green is, of course, orange, which tells you as much as anything can about R.E.M.’s willingness to stick to rules. No, if going to the majors was supposed to turn R.E.M. into a bunch of self-important musical behemoths, if their breakaway record was supposed to turn [...]