The Best Albums of 2007

I can't believe what a slacker I am. My most sincere apology to you if you have actually taken a peek at this during the last couple of months and have been disappointed to find no post.

I'd like to share some of my favorite records of 2007. The question is, how many to list? Let's make it the top 23 of 2007...

23. Crowded House, Time on Earth Perhaps a sentimental selection, but a few of the tracks are great.

22. The Apples in Stereo, New Magnetic Wonder An excellent record of alterna-pop that sounds truly sincere.

21. Shout Out Louds, Our Ill Wills Swedish! I love it for the influence of 80's new wave dance that I hear.

20. The Six Parts Seven, Casually Smashed to Pieces Really good instrumental rock music. A lot of instrumental rock focuses on rhythm, but the Six Parts Seven write good melodies as well.

19. Apostle of Hustle, National Anthem of Nowhere I love Broken Social Scene. Andrew Whiteman's side project is great as well.

18. Architecture in Helsinki, Places Like This A really fun album.

17. Elliott Smith, New Moon If Tupac can do it, then so can Elliott. I would love to see a thousand more posthumous releases from this genius. A two disc set with lots of great stuff.

16. Bright Eyes, Cassadaga Conor Oberst adds a little more country to his folk sound for this record.

15. Kevin Drew, Spirit If... Again, I love Broken Social Scene, and this could easily be a BSS release I think.

14. Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha This guy is great. Trained on the violin, his songs feature strings heavily, which I love. Also, he can whistle like I dream about.

13. The New Pornographers, Challengers I like AC Newman's voice.

12. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank Not quite as good as two albums ago, and not quite as successful as last album, but still a good record.

11. Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Of Montreal is now one of my favorite bands. Kevin Barnes writes songs that I can feel.

10. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky I was a tiny bit disappointed to find Wilco songs in every Volkswagon commercial on tv, but Tweedy's lyrics still make me smile. Why shouldn't he make as much money as he can? And his electric guitar playing is a lot better on this one.

9. Michael Penn, Palms & Runes, Tarot & Tea: A Michael Penn Collection Is it fair to include a greatest hits collection? It's my list, so I'll allow it. A few tracks are new versions, so that's good. Including my favorite, "Bunker Hill." I love that song! "New Myth" was the reason I learned to play the guitar.

8. Band of Horses, Cease to Begin A great second record. I expected it not to be as good as their first album, but it's better.

7. Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare Another fun one. Hard to listen to this band without tapping something. I like tapping my hands on the steering wheel while I drive.

6. Robert Pollard, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love As usual, Pollard released a bunch of stuff this year, and a live GBV album. I think he's great.

5. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga That's right, five ga's. A good record. I really like the tunes with horns.

4. Okkervil River, The Stage Names Sadly, I purchased this record too late to make it onto my Best of 2007 compilation, but it makes it into the top five of the year. A great record with lyrics that remind me of Jeff Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel.

3. Iron & Wine The Shepherd's Dog This record is a giant leap for Sam Beam and Iron & Wine. More electric sound than ever and a more diverse collection of musical styles. But it still retains the honesty of earlier records.

2. The Shins, Wincing the Night Away This might have been the record that I was most looking forward to this year. Not a disappointment. Great record.

1. The Avett Brothers, Emotionalism Just a wonderful album. It feels like one of the most honest records I've ever purchased. When these guys sing about love, I really believe in it. They have a unique sound and energy that comes across when I listen to the record. I love it.

Guided By Voices' Alien Lanes

No posts in the entire month of October? So sorry. I've been a little busy I guess. Planning lessons and grading assignments. I should just quit my job so I can concentrate on my blog. Or at least change the name to An Album Whenever I Feel Like It.

My challenge for today's entry was to select a band of cokeheads. I don't know if I have anything that really fits in that category. I briefly considered a Black Sabbath album. (Isn't "Snowblind" about cocaine?) I thought about it and couldn't come up with anything good. (Sorry, Anna.) Instead I relied on the old random number method and I came up with a Guided By Voices album. I think it's an appropriate substitution. At shows they certainly drink a lot harder than any band I've ever seen. More about that later.


Alien Lanes was the first GBV album I bought. I got it in 1996 or 1997, a year or so after it came out in 1995. It was another record that had a big impact on me. I remember hearing it for the first time and being blown away. I thought, "Why isn't everyone making music like this?" It was probably this record that cultivated my interest in lo-fi sound and independent music.

A very quick Guided By Voices background: GBV formed in Dayton, Ohio in the early 80's. The band went through a number of lineup changes before finally dissolving in 2004. The constant in GBV was frontman Robert Pollard. (Whose new solo album by the way should be in my hands shortly. My record store had to order it for me.) The lineup for this record is often called the classic lineup. It features Tobin Sprout, I think Pollard's songwriting foil. (If this lineup had lasted, they would be a new Lennon/McCartney.) Most GBV albums are all Pollard, but this one has a few Tobin Sprout songs. Although Bee Thousand was distributed by Matador Records, this was the first album they recorded after signing with Matador. They're known for their use of lo-fi sound and their prolific output.

This one has to be my favorite GBV record. It has nostalgic value for being my first GBV record, and the songs are phenomenal. There isn't a single song I want to skip. Most of them are only between one and two minutes in length. And despite their brevity, they get stuck in your head because they're so catchy. Pop gems. A lot of the songs end really abruptly and you're rocketed off into the next tune before you even realize it's happening. The pop melody structure is complemented by some bizarre lyrics. All of it fits together to make an album that really appeals to me.

I don't even want to get into a song by song analysis. There are 28 tracks on it! I can't even concentrate on the ones I like because I like them all! Instead, I want to tell a couple of related stories.

I saw GBV at the TLA on South Street in Philadelphia. One of the best shows I have ever seen. EVER. I remember thinking that they put on a real rock and roll show. They were drinking so much beer the whole night. They had a cooler full of bottles on stage with them and it seemed like Pollard opened a new one between every song. He would tilt his head back and drain the bottle and then throw it up in the air back over his head. There must have been a dozen broken beer bottles littering the back of the stage. The bass player kept lighting new cigarettes between songs and dangling them from his lips while he played. They even passed around what I thought was a joint and a bottle of tequila during the show. Halfway through the show Pollard is staggering around the stage while he's singing. Between songs he was slurring whatever he was saying. I remember that a couple of times he counted off the next tune by saying the title and it made me laugh out loud. "This next tune is called one, two, Hot, Freaks!" At the end of the night he dragged the cooler to the front of the stage and started passing out bottles to the people in front. And I'm pretty sure he didn't ask any of them for ID.

Since this was the first GBV album I bought, the first track was the first GBV song I ever heard, and I knew as soon as I heard it that I was going to love the album and the band. The first track is called "A Salty Salute." It ends with the line "The club is open." repeated a couple of times. If I recall correctly, that night I saw them at the TLA they had a neon sign hanging on the back of the stage that read, "The club is open." (If they didn't, they should have.) And I believe it was the first song they played. It is a perfect tune to open a show. Of course I was terribly sad when Pollard announced he would be disbanding Guided By Voices in 2004. But since he is still putting out solo records at a pretty quick pace, and most of it is pretty good, I've been OK. And I'm always holding out hope for a reunion. Check out this clip of an impromptu performance of "A Salty Salute" at an outdoor picnic in Ohio. Pollard has a beer in one hand and a wiffle ball bat in the other! How psyched would I be if I was at a picnic and Robert Pollard was there? And then he played a bunch of GBV songs? I would crap my pants. I have no idea who the jokers are that he's playing with, but they do a fine job. What makes it so great is the crowd singing along and Pollard directing them with the wiffle ball bat.

Loose Fur's Born Again in the USA

Loose Fur is an offshoot of Wilco. In 2000, Jeff Tweedy was invited to perform at the Noise Pop Festival in Chicago with any collaborator of his choice. He wanted to play with Jim O'Rourke, a one time member of Sonic Youth. O'Rourke invited percussionist Glenn Kotche to the sessions in preparation for the festival, and the three recorded music for what would be Loose Fur's self-titled first album, a six song ep. Tweedy's experience with these musicians had a tremendous impact on Wilco. Drummer Ken Coomer was replaced by Kotche and O'Rourke was asked to mix the tracks on Wilco's phenomenal album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Kotche is still a full time member of Wilco and O'Rourke continues to contribute.

Born Again is the second Loose Fur release. Tweedy's collaboration with O'Rourke and Kotche has had a tremendous impact on his songwriting. That impact is illustrated on this album.

I think the primary change in Tweedy's songwriting is that it now seems to focus on a seed that grows into a song, often in random growth patterns, rather than on writing to fill in the traditional skeleton of a song structure. Songs on the first several Wilco albums were for the most part conventional verse-chorus-bridge structures. (Not that this is a bad thing. I love those songs just as much as what Wilco is doing now. Being There is one of the finest albums I've ever purchased, and Summer Teeth is amazing as well.) These songs feature sounds that are not designed to fit together in a traditional sense. They're not just guitars strumming chords while the bass plays a line centered on the root of the chord. Instead, the instruments play separate parts that twirl about each other, like branches growing from a root. Guitar parts and bass parts harmonize and interact. The drums often play in time with the melody, not just an accompanying beat. And the lyrics also seem to grow from imagery rather than storytelling.

The track "Wreckroom" opens with piano, bass, and drum that seem to surge against each other. The lyrics fit between phrases of music, only vaguely resembling a verse structure. There is a very nice instrumental bridge that flirts with sounding like a jam band. Tweedy's bass offers a repetitive groove against which a guitar line grows in octaves. It builds until the guitar, bass, and drum all dissolve in a crash. A guitar riff and a beat emerges from the crash, but is quickly swallowed again. This noise and resolution contrast eventually fades into a droning instrumental outro that is almost four minutes long. It's a very nice tune.

On the album's opener, "Hey Chicken," Tweedy plays electric guitar. I used to hate his electric guitar, but it really has grown on me. It has a really nice distorted sound on this track. The guitar part rocks back and forth between longer classic riffs and staccato phrases that are matched by the bass and drums. Kotche does a really great job of drumming to both maintain a beat and to play with the melody.

"The Ruling Class" is one of my favorite tracks on the record. It has funny lyrics about Jesus Christ returning to a modern world. O'Rourke plays a great electric guitar part against Tweedy's acoustic strumming. He also plays the bass in this tune with a really groovy bounce.

I generally like the tunes that Tweedy sings better, but O'Rourke does an excellent job with "Answers to Your Questions." This is a really good song. The pretty guitar part and sparse percussion and xylophone juxtapose with dark lyrics.

The Olivia Tremor Control's Music from the Unrealized Film Script, DUSK AT CUBIST CASTLE

The Olivia Tremor Control is another band in the Elephant 6 collective, which I discussed in the Of Montreal entry. I'll give a little more detail on that here.


Apparently the first three founding groups of the Elephant 6 collective included the Apples in Stereo, the Olivia Tremor Control, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Of Montreal and other bands became affiliated with the collective later. Founders Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo, Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart of the Olivia Tremor Control, and Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, were childhood friends. Schneider started the Elephant 6 Record Label to release the Apples in Stereo's first record. The Olivia Tremor Control's first record, under the name Synthetic Flying Machine, was the second E6 release. Eventually, the label dissolved. Groups on the label went on to sign with major labels. Now the term Elephant 6 just refers to the group of bands and artists that frequently collaborate. The last Apples in Stereo record, 2007's New Magnetic Wonder, features all of the founding E6 members.

Now for this band and record in particular. The Olivia Tremor Control, OTC, blends experimental sounds with pop music. Traditional guitar and vocal harmony arrangements are offset by tape loops and electronic sound. The songwriting is also an amalgam of traditional and experimental styles. The songs on this record include two to three minute pop gems as well as bizarre compositions ranging from 24 seconds to ten minutes. (The short poppy songs remind me of Guided By Voices. They can cram a lot of hook into such a short tune. And as soon as you find yourself getting into the song, it ends and they're on to the next. It's almost like musical ADD) The beauty of independent music like this is you can hear that these guys had unrestrained creative power. The mixture of incongruous sounds makes the band defy categorization. I don't think a major label would allow such ambiguity. The band's two primary members brought these conflicting sounds together, and their projects since the end of OTC illustrate the difference as well. Hart, the more experimental of the two, continues in the group Circulatory System. Doss, the pop half of the group, makes music with the Sunshine Fix.

The record opens with a handful of songs leaning more toward the pop sound. However, the opening track features tape loops running back and forth intertwined with the song's straightforward rock skeleton. The second track is a one minute instrumental. When the third track arrives, you can tell this band knows how to make a pop song. "Jumping Fences" is driven by a sunny bass line and fantastic chorus of vocal harmonies and counter melodies. The vocal harmony showcase continues into the next songs, "Define a Transparent Dream" and "No Growing (Exegesis)." The two songs almost blend together, connected by a tape loop that moves back and forth from left to right speaker. (Headphones again!) "No Growing" might be my favorite track on the record. The song intros with a guitar and bass riff that is simple and classic. The acoustic guitar enters with a sound so familiar that it gives the song a comfortable feel. The vocals border on Beach Boys precision. The chorus is punctuated with a fantastic horn part. It's just a great pop song. The pop focus continues through the first eleven tunes on the album. I also really like "Memories of Jacqueline 1906" in this part of the album. This song is a perfect snapshot of the OTC sound. It's a two minute song. The first minute is guitar and double-tracked vocal pop, and the second minute is a wild noisy fade that starts with slightly dissonant kazoos and melds into tape loops of varying speed and effects.

Sandwiched in the middle of the album are ten tracks that are all titled "Green Typewriters." This is where it gets a little more unusual. There are still a few song nuggets, but for the most part this section of the record focuses on experimental sound. At the end of the first of these ten tracks you hear the sound of typewriter levers striking paper and the bell of the carriage return moving the typist to the next line. One of the tracks features tapes of voices playing at different speeds. The primary voice is slow and deep, while other voices playing faster make a sort of backing track. Near the end of this section is a track almost ten minutes long consisting of noise.

The band returns to the pop sound to close out the album. There are a handful of catchy tunes here. The very short "I Can Smell the Leaves," just shy of two minutes, is nice. There's one more noisy track, the title tune "Dusk at Cubist Castle." It has a nugget of lyrics in the middle surrounded by loops of sound. The last track, "NYC-25," is another very good pop song. The guitar and bass mirror each other on a groove that pushes the song's beat. The vocal harmonies are sweet on the chorus.

I think this is a very good album. It's perfect for someone who wants to listen to something unusual but is not ready to go into the deep end of the experimental sound pool.

Huffamoose's We've Been Had Again

If you've never heard of Huffamoose, I am not surprised. They are a band from here in Philadelphia. At one time they were poised on the brink of getting national attention. They played Woodstock '94 as an unsigned band. It led to their signing with Interscope Records, and the national release of this album. While touring to support this record, the band ultimately dissolved. I would bet they were struggling to wrap their minds around the fact that they were about to "make it," and to stay the same normal guys they were before making it. Of course, I don't know the guys. I'm just trying to imagine myself in the same situation. Most of the guys are still playing the Philadelphia area.

According to the liner notes, most of this record was recorded at Chill Factor Studios in lovely Ardmore, PA. Right around the corner from where I used to live next to what used to be Annie's. I miss that place.

This is a good album. Really accessible pop music that's much more complex than pop music. There are tangible jazz influences in the lead guitar work. Kevin Hanson and Craig Elkins write smart lyrics.

The first track, "Wait," did get national radio play. It's a great tune. The verses are just unusual enough to contrast with the anthem feel of the chorus.

The songs "Enigmatic" and "Snapshot Family" are also very impressive. Powerful guitar sounds.

But two songs really stand out on the record. They are so beautiful. First, "Buy You a Ring." This is a very interesting love song. It manages to combine a very grown-up view of love with the adolescent feeling of a powerful crush. The song opens with the singer admitting to being in love. Again. He also admits, however, to apprehension.

but this is nothing like I thought it would be
I'm scared all the time
I'm afraid I'm gonna hurt you
I've gotta pay somehow but it couldn't happen to me now

This verse illustrates the childish innocence that makes true love so wonderful.

I wanna be in fifth grade again
I wanna worry about poison ivy
I wanna worry about getting beat up after school
I wanna send you a note

I really love the chorus. Simple and pure.

I wanna buy you a ring
maybe I'll make it myself
do you like rubies and diamonds and emeralds and gold and silver?
I wanna build you a mansion
maybe we'll live in a castle with servants and a pool

My favorite track on the record is "James." It's really a wonderful piece of songwriting. The music is an incredible balance of simplicity and technical playing prowess. Between lyrics the electric guitar plays licks that blend jazz with the pop feel of the song. The lyrics are amazing. I am terribly impressed by Elkins' ability to write a beautiful song from a woman's point of view. (When I bought this album, I was still in my original band Lo-Fi Genius. I was so inspired by this song that I tried to write one myself from a woman's point of view, "Not Like the Other Girls." But I couldn't get it to be beautiful, so I had to settle for making it amusing.) The first verse and chorus describe developing infatuation.

cause James is a freedom fighter and he lives for the moment
his parents are hippies and he sees everything through a rainbow
he's never unhappy cause he never wears a watch
he lives on his mountain bike and he sees beauty in everyone

James says he's gonna change the world
James says that I am his flower girl
and James and I we're gonna make a difference
just wait and see we're gonna set the world free

It's a lovely sentiment. Young and innocent. But in the next verse and the bridge the couple are older. And love gets harder.

it's two years later now and we're both out of college
and we've decided to love one another for eternity
I've got a good job but James says no one understands him
he's an artist and he needs time to find out what that means

he answers to a higher calling
the moon and the sun and the stars are falling
through his time and his space
and I am lucky to be part of it all
he is bigger than life he sees things he knows things
he is not like you and me

I find the feeling of this song so easy to relate to. It's a similar theme as in "Buy You a Ring." There are two halves of love, young and old. Finding love, and falling in love, is young. It's easy. But maintaining love is old. It's hard work sometimes. I really like the line, "we've decided to love one another for eternity." As if it's something you just decide to do.

The last verse is bitter sweet.

James finally found a steady job and now we're gonna settle down
he still loves his music but he knows where his priorities lie
he stepped on his dreams so many times
and wore out the path he needed to take
to find the life he thought would just happen to him
like the changing of a season

This is terribly sad. Did James sacrifice his dreams for the sake of priorities? Perhaps it's a matter of perspective. Though dreams may die, that does not necessarily leave you dreamless. Rather, dreams may be replaced by new ones. What dream is better than love? Must we all make sacrifices for love? Like I said, terribly sad.

Denison Witmer's Live

With the start of the school year, I have found myself unable to write reviews for several days. (As you can no doubt see for yourself.) Perhaps it will be a struggle to keep up all year. Or maybe it's just that the first few days have required a little more time for adjustment. Either way, I'll do what I can to keep putting albums up here. I don't think I'm really letting anyone down because I seriously doubt anyone is reading this. In any case...

Today's entry will be very easy, which is nice. I don't have too much to say about this record. It's very nice, very relaxed. It doesn't demand a lot of attention. Background music.


I started to listen to Denison Witmer during my years working for Tower Records. A coworker told me he thought I might like it based on other things I had purchased. He told me it was very quiet and really nice to listen to at night when going to sleep. So I purchased Are You a Dreamer?, his 2005 release. And I did like it. His music is quiet and relaxing. It's modern folk music. I would compare him to Paul Simon. If you like Simon, or Cat Stevens, or maybe Nick Drake, I would suggest you check this guy out. Of course, he probably won't be very easy to find. I don't think he has a lot of national support. Perhaps a bit more in the PA area. He's from Lancaster, PA. In fact, in the liner notes of this album he calls The Fire, a Philadelphia venue, his "neighborhood hangout." Let's look at this album.

Obviously, it's a live record. It features performances from a handful of places, several in PA, a few in Michigan and Canada. His songwriting is solid. It stands out in the bare context of these versions. Most of them are just acoustic guitar and voice. His playing and singing are both very nice. The tracks that feature guests are the ones that really stand out to me. On a few of the tracks, he is backed by The Six Parts Seven, another band that I really enjoy. (Their last album, Casually Smashed to Pieces, is absolutely phenomenal and I hope to get them on this blog in the future.) In particular, the lap steel guitar of James Matthew Haas. It's absolutely beautiful. (I think I talked about my developing interest in the pedal steel guitar before. In the Rebuild The Wall entry. In the song "Teach Your Children" there's a pedal steel right after the last bridge before the outro. That one note is so perfect.)

Also interesting about this record are the two covers he includes. He plays a version of Neil Young's "Birds" which is very nice. He also offers a cover of the Big Star song, "Thirteen." (I also have to get Big Star on this blog. Their story fascinates me. It's odd that this album came up randomly, because I almost decided to skip the random selection and to do a different album that also includes a cover of this song, Elliott Smith's posthumous New Moon. Smith often played "Thirteen" at live shows. That's what fascinates me so much about Big Star, that a band with very little success came to be so influential.) This song is so beautiful. It really captures a feeling. Every time I listen to it I remember the feeling of being young and having a powerful crush on someone.

Like I said, if you like solo Paul Simon records, I recommend that you give Denison Witmer a try.

R.E.M. In The Attic

I warned that I would be away for the weekend!

Today's record should be an easy one. Nice and quick, which is nice because I have to get to bed early. I'm back at work again. Another school year has started. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with the blog in spite of actually having to go to my job, but just in case I thought I should get a warning out there. (Not that anyone besides me is reading this.)

So I guess I'll have to give a bit of background to this album. Not for the sake of explaining R.E.M. of course, just this record. If I have to explain R.E.M. to you, I think you should stop reading my blog.

In any case, here is the story. R.E.M. formed in the early 80's. They signed with I.R.S. Records. and released the EP Chronic Town in 1982 and their debut album Murmur in 1983. The band built a reputation during the I.R.S. years and obtained great success on college radio. Commercial success came with the album Document, which featured the hits "The One I Love," and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Following this album's success, R.E.M. left I.R.S. records and signed with Warner Brothers Records. In 1988, I.R.S. released a collection of singles and b-sides called Eponymous, and R.E.M. released their first major label record, Green. I could go on with the R.E.M. story from here, but that's not important to this entry. (Except to say I really like the early years with Warner Bros.) What is important is that when I.R.S. Records folded, E.M.I.-Capitol obtained its catalogue. E.M.I. released this record in 1997 without R.E.M.'s permission. For this reason, most don't consider this an R.E.M. album. But it has some nice stuff on it, and it came up in the random number lottery today, so I'll include it here.

This record includes different mixes of the songs "Finest Worksong," "Gardening At Night," and "Can't Get There From Here." Fair stuff.

There are a number of live tracks that are pretty nice. A great version of "Driver 8." I didn't even believe it was live until the end of the song. "Disturbance At the Heron House" is one of my favorites. The live track, "Maps and Legends," includes classic R.E.M. jangly guitar sound...a very nice 12-string accompaniment to Stipe's vocal. "Just a Touch" is a live recording, but it's not a performance. It's live in studio. Their early hit, "The One I Love," is live and acoustic, slow and bare. Nothing like the slick, produced hit that earned them their first commercial success. The album closes with an interesting live medley of "Time After Time," "Red Rain," and "So. Central Rain."

It's the covers like the ones included in the medley that drew my attention. I generally stay away from "greatest hits" collections. I prefer the original album package including the songs put together by the band. And if I had been aware of R.E.M.'s ignorance to this collection, I probably would have avoided buying it as a way of showing my support to the artists. But these covers may have made it too hard to pass up. In addition to the two covers in this medley, we get treated to several other intriguing gems. There's a cover of Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic." Pretty good. "Last Date" is an instrumental written by Floyd Cramer. This is a very good cover of a beautiful song. Floyd Cramer was a Nashville pianist, a studio musician for the most part. He's on a lot of big records. But this song earned him a number two hit and includes some revolutionary piano playing for the year 1960. I'm not sure who's playing the piano on this recording, I would guess Mike Mills, but it's really good. As is Peter Buck's guitar. "Crazy" is a song by another Athens, Georgia band Pylon. (When Rolling Stone called R.E.M. America's best band in 1987, drummer Bill Berry said they weren't America's best band, Pylon was.) My absolute favorite is the cover of "Dream (All I Have to Do)." The way that Stipe and Mills interpret the harmonies of the Everly Brothers is very nice. It seems very earnest. It's not just musicians doing a song they're interested in having fun with. They want to do the song well.

This is a decent collection. There are a handful of unusual tracks. But if you're looking for an R.E.M. album and you really want their "greatest hits," let me suggest you look at one of the other collections that have come out since this one.