Reconstruction of the fables (Fables Of The Reconstruction - R.E.M.)

Member Name: davepridd

Product:	Fables Of The Reconstruction - R.E.M.
Date:	29/07/00 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great songs, music, unique

Disadvantages: Few

This is REM's third album, released in 1985, when their sales were better than most indie bands could expect, but they had not yet attained the worldwide recognition that they now have. However, I think that this is one of their finest albums, as there is not a single weak track on the album, and the music has a very unique feel to it.

Although folk music has always been a major part of REM's sound, here it is the predominate feature with the album having a slightly edgy rural sound. The imagery is predominately of travel; both literally and metaphoricaly with songs about trains, the slave trade and maps. Although this can sometimes sound quite pleasant and pastoral, the overall sensation is oppressive and ominous; this is set up in the first track, the very dark 'Feeling Gravity's pull'. The lyric is typically abstract but it seems to be about an unpleasant sensation of everything falling down around you, it seems to be like a trap where Micheal Stipe is caught between a dream and reality; first of all he has fallen asleep with a book, but then he is reading about the world caving in. The music is fantastic, and adds to the feeling of despair and fear; there is an atmospheric, discordant guitar part, a driving, almost pulse like, drum beat and deep, forboding cellos. This is one of my favorite REM songs, and it is enormously effective. From here in there is very little light relief until the gentle 'Wendell Gee' which is musically very close to Belle and Sebastian, but the lyric is regretful and nostalgic.

The music is probably the most appealing aspects of this album, as it conveys the imagery so well. For example 'Auctioner (another engine)' is a song which crosses over ideas about the slave trade and a train journey; the backing truely gives the impression of a train coming of its rails. However, the sound could never be described as rock, as it is for the most part a complex layering of atmospheric
parts played on acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, piano and string quartet. This means that as well as creating atmospheres for the songs, the backing is also able to sound beautiful, and often nearly classical.

Although music this oppressive, with flashes of optomism soon dashed, is often seen as too miserable or depressing, I think that this album deserves wider recognition as it is a fantastically well realised concept, with the quality of material impressive throughout.

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