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Document (album)

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Document is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was released in 1987 a few months after their rarities collection Dead Letter Office appeared and is the last album of new material by the band released on the I.R.S. Records label. It is the first album the band worked with producer Scott Litt.

Composition

Document was R.E.M.'s first album co-produced by Scott Litt and the band, a collaboration that continued through Green, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster, and New Adventures in Hi-Fi. The album's clear production and muscular rock riffs helped to move the band towards mainstream success and built on the work done by Don Gehman, who had produced their previous album Lifes Rich Pageant. This release not only launched "The One I Love," R.E.M.'s first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 (it reached number nine), but also gave them their first platinum album.

"Exhuming McCarthy" makes an explicit parallel between the red-baiting of Joe McCarthy's time and the strengthening of the sense of American exceptionalism during the Reagan era, especially the Iran-Contra affair. Starting with the click-clack of a typewriter, it also includes a sound clip of Joseph Welch's rebuke of McCarthy from the Army-McCarthy Hearings: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

The song "Strange" was originally recorded by the post-punk band Wire on their debut album Pink Flag. This version has slightly altered lyrics, changing "Joey's nervous" to "Michael's nervous" in the first verse, and has a considerably faster tempo.

R.E.M. expanded their instrumentation somewhat on the album, adding dulcimer to "King of Birds" and saxophone to "Fireplace".[1] This experimentation would lead to their adoption of the mandolin, which featured prominently on their subsequent albums Green and Out of Time. Furthermore, the band's musicians began swapping instruments both in concert and in the studio in an effort to create new sounds and avoid stagnation.[citation needed]

Design

The original sleeve for the album featured the message "File under Fire", a reference to what Michael Stipe considered to be the central lyrical theme of the album, and also references the chorus to "The One I Love".[2] A similar message ("File under water") could be found on the cover of the band's second album, Reckoning, as well as on the compilation album Eponymous ("File under grain") referring to the idea behind "Talk About the Passion", which was about hunger.[3] Two rejected suggestions for the title of the album—R.E.M. No. 5 and Table of Content—also appear on the sleeve artwork.[4] Other possible album titles included Mr. Evil Breakfast, Skin Up with R.E.M., and Last Train to Disneyland (the last one having been suggested by Peter Buck, who felt that America under the presidency of former actor Ronald Reagan was beginning to feel a lot like the famed amusement park).[5]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[6]
Robert ChristgauA[7]

Robert Christgau praised the album, and called "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" an "inspirational title."[7] Stephan Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said that "Where Lifes Rich Pageant sounded a bit like a party record, Document is a fiery statement, and its memorable melodies and riffs are made all the more indelible by its righteous anger."[6]

Rolling Stone reviewer David Fricke felt that the album was R.E.M.'s "finest to date", and said that "Document is the sound of R.E.M. on the move".[8] Rolling Stone went on to include the album in their list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s (in 41st place), and then ranked it #470 on 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[citation needed]

Track listing

All songs were written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, except as indicated.

Side one – "Page side"
  1. "Finest Worksong" – 3:48
  2. "Welcome to the Occupation" – 2:46
  3. "Exhuming McCarthy" – 3:19
  4. "Disturbance at the Heron House" – 3:32
  5. "Strange" (Bruce Gilbert, Graham Lewis, Colin Newman, Robert Gotobed) – 2:31
  6. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" – 4:05
Side two – "Leaf side"
  2. "The One I Love" – 3:17
  3. "Fireplace" – 3:22
  4. "Lightnin' Hopkins" – 3:20
  5. "King of Birds" – 4:09
  6. "Oddfellows Local 151" – 5:21
1993 I.R.S. Vintage Years reissue bonus tracks
  2. "Finest Worksong (Other Mix)" – 3:47
  3. "Last Date" (Floyd Cramer) – 2:16
  4. "The One I Love" (Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop) – 4:06
  5. "Time After Time, Etc." (Live) – 8:22
  6. "Disturbance at the Heron House" (Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop) – 3:26
  7. "Finest Worksong" (Lengthy Club Mix) – 5:52
  • Note: Although sometimes referred to as such, the first release of this edition does not have the original tracks remastered. They follow the first print of the album and only add the extra tracks.

Personnel

R.E.M.
Additional musicians
Production

Release history

In 1999, the album was remastered by Bob Ludwig and re-released on Compact Disc by I.R.S. Records in the United States. This version came in a replica of the record sleeve made of cardboard. In 2005, Capitol Records (whose parent company EMI now own I.R.S. Records' catalog) issued an expanded DualDisc edition of Document which includes a digitally remastered version of the album on the CD side, a DVD-Audio, DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner on the DVD side, and the original CD booklet.

Region Date Label Format Catalog
United States September 1, 1987 I.R.S. vinyl LP IRS-42059
Compact Disc IRSD-42059
cassette tape IRSC-42059
United Kingdom September 14, 1987 I.R.S. LP IRLD 19144/MIRG1025
Australia 1987 I.R.S. LP 460105 1
Brazil 1987 Epic LP 231111
Greece 1987 I.R.S./CBS LP ILP-460105 1
Japan 1987 I.R.S. LP 28AP-3382
The Netherlands 1987 I.R.S. LP ILP-460105 1
Zimbabwe 1988 CBS LP ASF-3174
Worldwide 1990 MCA Compact Disc 42059
I.R.S. cassette tape IRSC-42059
Worldwide 1992 Universal Compact Disc 19144
The Netherlands May 11, 1993 I.R.S. Compact Disc 7 13200 2 6†
Brazil 1993 Warner Bros./EMI Compact Disc 7 13200-2
Worldwide 1993 EMI Compact Disc 1508
United Kingdom September 1, 1997 I.R.S. LP 0777/CTMCD 337†
Worldwide 1997 EMI Compact Disc 337
Worldwide 1998 Capitol Compact Disc 93480
Worldwide 1999 Capitol Compact Disc 21276
United States 1999 I.R.S. LP 724349946613-4
Compact Disc 72435-21276-2-7‡
Europe 1999 EMI Compact Disc 13200†
United States 2000 EMI LP 499466
United States 2003 Capitol DVD-Audio 90149•
United States 2005 Capitol DualDisc 99398•
United States 2008 Capitol LP 220591

†I.R.S. Vintage Years edition, with bonus tracks
‡Compact Disc remastered edition
•DualDisc remastered edition

A truncated edition of Document was also issued on Armed Forces Radio—catalogue number P-24576—with "Finest Worksong", "Welcome to the Occupation", "Fireplace", "Lightnin' Hopkins", and "King of Birds" on one side and tracks from Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason on the other.

Chart performance

Album
Year Chart Position
1987 Billboard 200 10 (33 weeks on chart)[citation needed]
1987 UK Albums Chart 28 (5 weeks on chart)[citation needed]
Singles
Year Song Chart Position
1987 "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 16[citation needed]
1987 "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" UK Singles Chart 39[citation needed]
1987 "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" Billboard Hot 100 69[citation needed]
1987 "The One I Love" Billboard Hot 100 9[citation needed]
1988 "The One I Love" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 2[citation needed]
1988 "Finest Worksong" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 28[citation needed]
1988 "Finest Worksong" UK Singles Chart 50[citation needed]
1991 "The One I Love" UK Singles Chart 16[citation needed]

Sales certifications

Organization Level Date
RIAA – U.S. Gold November 2, 1987[citation needed]
RIAA – U.S. Platinum January 25, 1988[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ music-nerds.com
  2. ^ www.rem-central.com
  3. ^ everything2.com
  4. ^ R.E.M. in Time: The Story Behind Every Song, Craig Rosen, 1997
  5. ^ Reveal: The Story of R.E.M., Johnny Black, 2004
  6. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Document Review at AllMusic. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
  7. ^ a b Christgau, Robert. "R.E.M." Retrieved June 19, 2011.
  8. ^ Fricke, David (October 22, 1987). "Document By R.E.M." Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
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