1) Begin the Begin; 2) These Days; 3) Fall on Me; 4) Cuyahoga; 5) Hyena; 6) Underneath the Bunker; 7) Flowers of Guatemala; 8) What If We Give It Away?; 9) I Believe; 10) Just a Touch; 11) Swan Swan H; 12) Superman
1986 I.R.S. Years Vintage Edition bonus tracks: 13) Tired of Singing Trouble; 14) Rotary Ten; 15) Toys in the Attic; 16) Just a Touch (Live in Studio); 17) Dream (All I Have to Do); 18) Swan Swan H (Acoustic Version)
More confidence, more muscle. R.E.M. kick up a gear and rock out.
Key tracks: "Begin the Begin", "Fall on Me", "Cuyahoga"
A cliche, sure - a rock band follows a subdued album with a firecracker. But Life’s Rich Pageant isn’t just about kicking the gear back into speed mode after the moody Fables of the Reconstruction. An arguably even bigger impact lies with R.E.M.’s chosen producer for the album, Don Gehman: a more mainstream name at the time than their previous producers and a carefully deliberated choice. The idea was to polish the band’s sound a little and give it that extra punch you’d expect from a higher profile release, without sacrificing what made R.E.M.’s music their own. A deliberate attempt was made to clarify and focus the band’s sound - some might say as a careful toe-dip into the waters of radio airplay, but I would say as a way bring everything out of the band’s evolving arrangements.
The thing that still jumps out first and foremost from Life’s Rich Pageant is how much of a powerhouse of an album it is. It goes 100 miles a minute heading here, there and everywhere, and it’s the first R.E.M. album which genuinely rocks. There is more muscle to these songs than ones of their kind on the previous albums, partly because of the production but partly also because the bulk of the songs themselves are very no-nonsense and directly punchy. All the flourishes are scattered in select parts throughout the album, which flicks from nature to nature at a moment’s notice: amidst the rockers there’s chaotic playfulness in the form of very off-kilter sidesteps, be it novelty covers or faux-tropicalia undertones, while the approaches taken with the subtler songwriting on Fables of the Reconstruction are still present, but re-tailored for the new approach. The production isn’t particularly incredible from today’s technical point of view, but there’s a marked difference to the previous albums, in particular the first two. There’s a clarity to the sound that hasn’t been there before, and in particular Stipe has been mixed particularly high for once; with him taking the front stage loud and proud for the duration of the whole album, there’s a brand new fire in the band’s belly as the front man no longer hides away among the instruments.
That certain kind of sonic haziness admittedly contributed something to the first couple of albums but I’m happy to take the trade-off between it and the sheer vigour that the band work with here. Life’s Rich Pageant lays its high-energy rock numbers constantly and consistently, and they’re not only a show of power but they’re such good fun to boot. “Begin the Begin” is probably the best of these and continues the tradition of iconic R.E.M. opening tracks, as it powerhouses through its constantly changing structure. It is effectively a rallying cry piloted by Berry’s pounding drums and Stipe’s increased visibility and charisma, and as has become tradition it’s a hell of an opener that lays down the album’s sonic base Many of the album’s best parts similarly are its fastest, and they each have a little something different to offer. “Hyena” is raucous and hyperactive, “Just a Touch” is a manic shout-along that gives no respite (and goes completely hectic in its chorus, particularly with Berry’s drumming), “I Believe” has a smooth flow to it that gives it an elated feel and “These Days” is a bold, accelerating steam train. They all sound like they have come from a brand new band when comparing them to any more robust songs of the earlier albums, and as lush as those songs were, they barely touch the same force that’s present here. It’s an exhilarating set of songs.
The rest of Pageant is a little more hit and miss, in a half-intentional manner given the band’s love for curveballs. The goofy, tropically tinged “Underneath the Bunker” is effectively filler, even if amusing; similarly the novelty bubblegum pop cover “Superman” is superfluous in the grand scheme of things but it’s good fun, with Mills getting his album lead vocal debut with it. It is also somewhat of a hidden track here (according to the mixed up tracklist) even if it was released as a single, and that secret surprise spot is the best place for something silly like it. “Flowers of Guatemala”, “What If We Give It Away” and “Swan Swan H” round off the tracklist in a pleasant way. “What If We Give It Away” is a fairly standard type of R.E.M. mid-tempo they could knock out in their sleep at this stage but it’s also standard good, and the low-key torch song “Flowers of Guatemala” can get really pretty whenever it kicks up its gear a notch - both have their place secured in the selection for a reason. “Swan Swan H” is a bit of a retread from last album’s “Wendell Gee” in terms of being a moody closer (excluding the semi-hidden “Superman”), and while it builds up to something close to lovely towards its end it’s less of a stand out than anything else on the album. Bill Berry once quipped that he wished he had not laid a drum track on the song and giving it some thought, it would probably work a lot better without the marching beat.
Ironically, while Pageant has some of R.E.M.‘s wilder stylistic excursions so far, coming after two somewhat more inconsistent albums it’s clear that the band have had a much more focused vision for Pageant in comparison. This translates to a whole lot more confident performance and the highs of this album are some of 80s R.E.M.’s highs overall. and the album keeps throwing them one after another. I’d hazard to say it’s one of the most energized albums of the band’s entire career: a showcase for the sheer strength the band could employ at will, to the point that it even reflects on the calmer material. For the first time since Murmur it sounds like the band are forging ahead with a clear idea of what they are doing and where they want to be going, and it’s employed to such effect that even with its occasional near-misses it’s a discography highlight. Not to mention that out of all the R.E.M. albums, Pageant has the biggest grin on its face as it powers through its snappy songs. One of the band’s early essentials.
The 1986 I.R.S. Years Vintage re-release bonus tracks are plentiful but very hit and miss, and mostly the latter. There’s a couple of perfunctory covers with Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic” and Everly Brothers’ “Dream (All I Have to Do)”, which are less interesting in practice than they sound in concept (the “Toys in the Attic” cover in particular is a right bore even if R.E.M. covering Aerosmith is a curious idea). Out of the originals “Rotary Ten” is an average instrumental and “Tired of Singing Trouble” is a miniature a cappella snippet whose function is to act as a bridge between the actual album and the bonus tracks, and doesn’t even bear any particular curio value. The only cuts worth of any real interest are the two alternative recordings of the album cuts. “Just a Touch” predates the album by quite a few years and the early live take here shows some of the minor changes the song’s taken along the way. The acoustic version of “Swan Swan H” is arguably the only key track: if you agree with Berry and myself that the song might have sounded a little better had it been stripped down a little, this version here will probably be as close to definitive as you can get.
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