NAKED LOVES : 2. R.E.M. - GREEN (1988)

It seems only fitting that R.E.M.'s 1988 album Green is added to the NAKED wishlist of vinyl records we want to eco-press, because apart from the awesome collection of songs that populate both sides of Green, it was thanks to comments and interviews given by the bands singer Michael Stipe that I first became interested in recycling and sustainability. Let me explain...

Michael Stipe had recycling on his mind during 1988/9, explaining to one interviewer how he was giving a disposable razor he had been using a new lease of life by wearing it on a necklace whilst the band criss-crossed the globe on their extensive Green tour. The idea behind this stuck with me and I started thinking about other ways to dispose of my unwanted cans and bottles.

Green was the first R.E.M. album to be released by a major record company after a fautless run of records on fledgling indie I.R.S. Moving to a major was a BIG deal back in the late eighties because long before grunge and Nirvana blew the doors off corporate U.S labels, R.E.M. were the forebearers of infiltrating the mainstream through a combination of great music, tireless support from college radio and endless cycles of touring. In short, they did it the hard way.

So there was a lot of expectation resting on the shoulders of this album, and its release was heavily anticipated by the indie press. What became apparent very quickly was that R.E.M. had not sold out and taken the Warners big bucks and gone soft. 'Green' is a peculiar record and in places you can almost smell the dry southern dirt. It is entirely its own beast and emphatically not something dreamt up around a corporate desk merely to shift a few million units.

I had been following the rise of R.E.M. since 1984's 'Reckoning' inadvertently got left behind after a friend's birthday party. Thanks to a lack of information about the band (we were still without the internet, folks!) and those highest calibre pop hooks, R.E.M.'s rise had been slow but steady. This was made all the more remarkable as their videos (low budget to say the least) were decidedly odd and out of step with those flashy MTV-times, often evoking some long lost era peppered with tumbleweeds and swamp vines. To fans in the U.K. the band seemed quite remote and Michael Stipe's lyrics just made everything more mysterious and beguilling. Dare I say they didn't much resemble an eighties American band and felt more like a long lost obscure act dropped by Island Records in the mid-seventies?!  All I really knew was that Athens, Georgia must be an awesome town because both The B-52's and R.E.M. hailed from there.

Green begins with Pop Song 89 which quite brilliantly kills the elephant in the room regarding R.E.M's plush new home at Warner Records. Although the song is indeed a pop moment, the lyrics are oblique, pondering as they do what exactly the band should be singing about in 1988. 'Should we talk about the weather - should we talk about the government' which could be construed as climate change lyrics a very long time before that term was officially coined. It's a clever introduction that neuters detractors from the very first (pop) song. Get Up and Stand are also stellar radio songs which introduce R.E.M. as real contenders for the Billboard Top Twenty. But look deeper into the album and you will find You Are The Everything, World Leader Pretend, and The Wrong Child, two are almost completely acoustic and showcase Peter Buck's new-found love of the mandolin, an instrument the band would often return to over coming albums, often with dizzying results. World Leader Pretend is more traditional in its guitar, bass and drums set up but the lyric is a glorious broadside against an undisclosed political power and one wonders what the men in suits at Warners really made of this track.

And so it continues across Side Two with Orange Crush revisiting the Vietnam war and quickly becoming a live favourite as the Green World tour progressed into 1989. I recall the band performing it on 'Top of the Pops' and couldn't help but think the world was theirs for the taking.  Turn You Inside Out is a bar room brawl waiting to happen whilst stand-out album track I Remember California closes proceedings with some hefty swagger. The track feels like things long since forgotten and hidden in the attic. Topped off by a brooding Peter Buck guitar solo it was the perfect way to finish their first major label album...except it wasn't because an untitled final song appears out of nowhere to deliver yet another glorious three minutes. Apparently the band all swapped instruments to record this number but even that fact couldn't disguise the fact that it could only be an R.E.M. song. And Green is a truly remarkable record.

The sleeve was simple and direct, draped in Stipe's choice of earthy tones. A burst of orange against bold, black type. Tree bark and branches. Planet Earth. But no sloganeering. Make up your own mind but know that the record is called 'green' for a reason.



Thank you R.E.M. and in particular, Michael Stipe for this introduction to planetary concerns. Over 30 years later NAKED Record Club would be born to try and change the way vinyl records are made. It's our way of looking out for the world we live in.

We hope that this album can be added to our eco-friendly catalogue before too long.

That would be perfect...