R.E.M. - Document

Oh, life is bigger. It's bigger than you and you are not me.

I don't own Out of Time, but i do have other R.E.M. albums, including their fifth, Document.

The first thing you should know is that this doesn't sound like 1987 at all. This album is an entire decade ahead of it's time.

The second thing you should know is that "It's the End of the World as We Know It" is two years older than Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

The third thing you should know is that this album is explicitly about the concepts of fire and labor.

The fourth thing you should know is R.E.M. comes from the same wildly eclectic music scene as the B52s: Athens, GA.

It's not a concept album in the way i've been describing them (see what i did there ;) ). Some critics point to Peter Buck's encyclopedically comprehensive rock guitar stylings, some point to Michael Stipe's ability to write obscure but relatable lyrics that manage to be heavily politically motivated but never seem to cross the line into anger or condescension, some say Bill Berry's incomprehensible approach to rhythm frees Mike Mills to play bass like the melodic instrument it really is, and they're all correct. It really is 4 separate individuals working so well together that it's almost impossible to hear one part without the other three in counterpoint. It might take work to understand what's happening or being said, but the result is still completely comprehensive.

Fire and labor. Fire is a metaphor, and Stipe approaches all the meanings and subtleties of that metaphor like he does with other albums and metaphors. Labor, though, is the real core of the album for me. If you don't know the story, the final track of the album, Oddfellows Local 151, is a joke about the winos near Michael Stipe's house being a labor union (or maybe a fraternal organization). But is that a positive or negative statement? Is the union bad or is the wino sleeping in his car bad? Is there wisdom to be gained from listening to a drunken street sermon, or are these people pitiful victims of their own depravity?

Neither. Or, both. This is simply a document of 1987, and more broadly the Reagan Era. Is it meaningful and valuable, or should you throw it  in the fire? Can you really write a love song if the act of writing songs at all is somehow worthless? How can you actually accomplish anything if the people you disagree with make a show of refusing to listen to your side? Someone had to clean up before the party, and doesn't that mean that the work itself is just as valuable as the reward?

Stipe is often considered obtuse and difficult, but that's because he's a gifted semiotician. He takes symbols and signifiers, smashes them together, and forces you to go through the process of building up meaning. Sadly, most people are all too happy to say "oh i understand this part and the rest is nonsense." That's a problem, because the real joy is letting the friction of two contrasting or unrelated ideas vibrate against each other to form a completely new meaning.

I mentioned Peirce a few albums back, but i'm actually a Barthes guy. Roland Barthes was a French semiotician whose ideas were largely dismissed in favor of Peirce in the circles i ran around, but i instinctively think the way Barthes describes meaning and i have to really work to put things in a Peircian perspective. If that sounds like gibberish i can point you to a few good books on the subject, but fair warning you have to really put some mental effort into it.

Regardless, Document is an amazing album, probably my favorite from R.E.M.

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