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We’re in the ‘80s now! It feels like the threshold of the 1980s turning into the 1990s was a real shift in music. Heading back into 1987, we’re in a whole new world. A world where Bruce Willis released The Return of Bruno. It’s weird to realize he released that album before Die Hard. He was a known actor thanks to Moonlighting, but that was still a big swing.
There were some significant albums released this year. Erik B. and Rakim’s Paid in Full, the first Guns N’ Roses album, and Piledriver, and album from the WWF. However, ultimately I’ve come to realize that it’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine.
That is to say, the album that represents 1987 to me is Document, the fifth album from R.E.M. This was when R.E.M. were still an alternative band a little under the radar. The big hits hadn’t arrived yet, but Document was a splash for Michael Stipe and company. They were the sound of alt rock in the late ‘80s, but they weren’t yet the face of it. This was something of a demarcation point of an album, or both the band and the alternative landscape.
Document also really coalesces around its own pivot point. The two biggest songs from the album serve as the end of Side A and the start of Side B respectively. Those songs are “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and “The One I Love.” They are decidedly different tunes. One is a rollicking bit of lo-fi alt rock, the other a moody ballad. They show both sides of R.E.M.
“It’s the End of the World as We Know It” is as jaunty a tune as you are going to find that’s sort of about the apocalypse. Although, the song is also sort of not about anything. It serves as a predecessor of sorts to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, in terms of being a lot of stream-of-consciousness references. The song is built around what sounds good rhythmically, like a lot of Pavement lyrics. Pavement, of course, dedicated an entire song to R.E.M. (“Time After Time” was their least-favorite song). When I think of late-‘80s alt rock, that’s one of the first songs I think of.
People love Document. They loved it then, and they love it now. It’s the emergence point for R.E.M., and before we knew it “Losing My Religion” would be all over MTV. And we would feel fine.
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