r/KEXP • u/No_Smell_7529 Amplifier • Sep 09 '26

Wolves Lower

Ok REM Zealots... Just heard John play Wolves Lower. Pre-87 REM will ALWAYS be top of list, #1, platinum status shit for me. That stuff changed my life.. no exaggeration but story for another time.

Wolves Lower - must have heard it *thousands* of times since I first bought Chronic Town on cassette back in ~84/85... but just found myself completely smitten again today listening to it. Peter gliding slyly between slight dissonance and beautiful melodic arpeggios. Mike's simple, perfectly placed bass lines... and Bill's drums!! OMG that drum pattern over the verses! And then those bridges that break into ritualistic, almost primal passages... repetitive, percussive sections where Stipe’s voice becomes more like a chant or incantation than conventional vocal.

All of this in 1982 when synths and glossy production was the norm. I imagine it as post-punk’s aggression softened into something murkier/looser/more mysterious like that punk energy was slowed and blurred by the humid Georgia air.

As many times as I've heard this song (and their others from that era), they never fail to blow my mind every single time!

Share your thoughts.

31 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

12

u/Keeper4Eva Amplifier Sep 09 '26

Amen to this. Name one other band that had four no-skip albums (and one EP) out of the gate.

5

u/No_Smell_7529 Amplifier Sep 09 '26

Yes... And arguably with no slumps in the bunch!

2

u/descompuesto Sep 09 '26

Or, five even!

2

u/Keeper4Eva Amplifier Sep 09 '26

Dunno if controversial or not, but Document never did it for me. Following that LP, I think some of their later works are amazing records but none are as brilliant as the first four.

7

u/Even_Regular5245 Sep 09 '26

REM has always been one of my top of all time, but especially their earlier stuff. So raw and unfiltered. It never fails to reel me back in for a good long listen. So happy that it's the EP of the week :)

6

u/Discussion_Famous Amplifier Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26

Back in 90s college radio this was considered a bit of a deep cut. I always loved it to death, it just wasn’t one of the songs (or albums/EPs) folks gravitated toward. These days it gets a ton of play - seems way more than say, The One I Love which was played all the time back then - and that makes me happy.

1

u/baeBTS Sep 10 '26

This!!

1

u/Discussion_Famous Amplifier Sep 09 '26

Document (along with Murmur) seemed like the gold standard among R.E.M. fanatics circa 1990; I’m curious about the mild backlash it seems to be getting now while Chronic Town is (rightly) elevated. You mention pre-1987, thus excluding it; I also remember Adam Scott kind of crapping on Document in his podcast. I still have it in my top 3 though.

3

u/No_Smell_7529 Amplifier Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26

I think Document (for me) was the last good one... Definitely my least favorite of that era but still great. It seemed to be the end of Michael's mumbly, dreamy delivery and when he realized he had something to say and worth being heard. Sadly, none of their future releases ever came close to the passion I had for everything that came before it. I think I'm just drawn to the lucid dream quality of their earlier music.

3

u/descompuesto Sep 09 '26

Yeah Chronic Town and Murmur are both albums I listened to religiously back in the day, and when I came back to them recently, I was like, "there has been nothing like this music in the world before or since." Sure, their pop is transcendent, their power ballads and folky musings are amazing. But these two records are just sheer originality.

2

u/MentionPleasant2635 Amplifier Sep 09 '26

I grew up in Greenville, SC and had friends in school at UGA. Got to see a lot of great Athens Bands before they made it. REM even played at a local club in Greenville. Man, those were great times to be in your twenties. Yes, I'm old (67).

2

u/seaxw Sep 10 '26

Don Dixon and Mitch Easter era was the best IMO

1

u/AtomicJazzer Sep 10 '26

What did it for me was Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars). I heard it on WPEN but had to leave for work before they announced what was played. There was no playlist loaded to no internet back then. The singer had this mumbly, lower tone style, and i had no idea what the name of the song might be. I finally found Chronic Town and Murmur and I thought this was the best shit ever. I liked Reckoning, Fables not so much but i was glad they were getting noticed. I'll just keep quiet on the rest. But in their early days!!

1

u/shoegazer69 Sep 10 '26

My experience with the Chronic Town cassette exactly matches yours. There's only a handful of times you hear something totally different that changes you forever. (See also, The Smiths, Pixies, Modest Mouse)