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Packaged with a collector’s loving eye for, the 25th Anniversary edition of Green recognizes a most significant milestone in the career of R.E.M. Notwithstanding the nay saying of the alternative music community of the time, the Athens GA quartet’s signing with Warner Bros was a logical extension of their career path to that point. Their previous album, Document, the last with IRS, had vaulted them into the mainstream via the hit single “The One I Love. ” Thus, the signing to a major label made perfect sense as a means of consolidating the group’s stature not just in the United States, but also around the world via the WB record distribution system.
But true to their iconoclastic nature, R.E.M. did not choose to play things safe with their debut. As described so pithily by Allan Jones in his essay, the quartet decided to use their higher-profile platform to make statements general (“Stand”) and specific (“Orange Crush”) on topics they deemed worthy of not just attention, but action. In doing so R.E.M. not only maintained their by now well-honed instrumental style, but further solidified it, not just in terms of their musicianship, but also in the streamlined recording, the result of their continued collaboration with engineer/co-producer Scott Litt.
Any fears REM might go soft in any way shape or form only need to hear resounding tracks like “Get Up” or “Pop Song 89” to know the group was maintaining their integrity (as well as their folk-rock roots) as they stepped into the big leagues of the record business of 1988. The wry irony they had mastered in years past (“Shall we talk about the weather?…Shall we talked about the government?…”) came through as loud and clear as Peter Buck’s hard chiming guitars, Bill Berry’s four-square drumming and the staunch presence of Mike Mills on bass and harmony vocals in counterpoint with the lead singing of Michael Stipe.
And the lead vocalist and increasingly high-profile spokesman/frontman no longer buried the enunciation of his lyrics in the mix or vaguely mouth mumbles (it would be an asset to have them printed here somewhere nonetheless). Seeing the band in concert at the time could allay any remaining vestiges of doubt about R.E.M.’s relevance. Completists might wish for studio outtakes to fill out the first of the these two CDs (or the rest of the show issued instead on a Record Store Day EP), but the inclusion of the majority of a live concert in Greensboro NC on the second disc contains its own logic, in illustrating the ever-growing confidence of a band continuing to do things their own way. The impact of the four-piece chemistry is such it’s not necessary to witness the Stipe’s theatricality to deeply feel his elliptical emotionalism as it seethes through new tunes such as “World Leader Pretend” or the closest this group ever got to an anthem “Finest Worksong.”
Rabid collectors might long for a replication of the limited edition paper-bound hardcover embossed package of Green as originally issues on compact disc, but a poster and postcards enclosed with the booklet packed with vintage photos in a clam-shell box makes this landmark edition a uniform entry in REM’s ongoing reissue series. That very continuity is essential in reaffirming this package as a retrospective statement on its own and fully consistent with what the band was saying at the time Green first came out.
