''Lifes Rich Pageant'' is the fourth studio album by the American

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

, released on July 28, 1986, by

I.R.S. Records I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III and Jay Boberg in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and a ...

. R.E.M. chose Don Gehman to produce the album, which was recorded at

John Mellencamp John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation ...

's Belmont Mall Studio in Belmont, Indiana. This was the only album the band recorded with Gehman, who moved them from the more obscure and dense sound of their earlier albums to an accessible,

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

-influenced quality. The album was well-received critically.

Recording and production

During the first half of 1986, the band took a break from touring to recover energy. They wanted to make a change from the sound of their previous album, with Mills saying "We wanted to get away from the sort of murky feelings and sounds that we got out of Joe Boyd, producer on ''Fables of the Reconstruction">Joe_Boyd.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Joe Boyd">Boyd, producer on ''Fables of the Reconstruction''">Joe Boyd">Boyd, producer on ''Fables of the Reconstruction">Joe_Boyd.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Joe Boyd">Boyd, producer on ''Fables of the Reconstruction''in London". They wanted a "really hard-driving record, but we also like to throw in a lot of things: pianos and organs and accordions and banjos and what-not" and considered working with Gehman as they liked the acoustic sound of his work with

. They initially met for a number of demo sessions at John Keane's Studio in Athens, Georgia, in January & March 1986 (These recordings would later be released as the "Athens Demos" on the 25th anniversary re-release of the album). After being initially skeptical, they embraced the new recording process with Gehman later stating that:

"I liked to spend time on the arrangement and layer in the overdubs and comp the vocals—all this process which, to me, was normal record-making, they had never been through before. When they saw that kind of record-making process didn't take anything away—that it actually added another level of artistic expression—they were very excited by it."

The album was recorded at Mellencamp's Belmont Mall Recording Studio in Belmont, Indiana, in April and May 1986. The recording studio was larger and had newer technology than they were used to, and they enjoyed the area, attending many concerts in nearby Bloomington while there. The band were also happy with the production of the record and the extra clarity of the vocals, bassist

Mike Mills Michael Edward Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., hi ...

saying:

"Don (Gehman, the album's producer) is good at layering things so there can be a lot of things going on but you can still hear everything. And as far as Michael's vocals go, it's a combination of things: Michael is getting better at what he's doing, and he's getting more confident at it. And I think that shows up in the projection of his voice. The overall sound of everything was so good, we didn't mind having the vocals mixed as loud as they were."

Music

The ecologically minded "Cuyahoga" refers to the once heavily polluted

Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River (see ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...

that flows into

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. The song includes the lyric ''we burned the river down'', which refers to the several occasions (most famously in 1969) when the river actually caught fire. At the end of "Just a Touch" frontman

Michael Stipe John Michael Stipe (; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Stipe was born in Metro Atlanta in January 1960. Due to his father's militar ...

can be heard screaming the line "I'm so young, I'm so goddamn young", quoting longtime influence

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

's live cover version of

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

's "

My Generation "My Generation" is a song by the English rock band The Who, written by guitarist and primary songwriter Pete Townshend. One of the band's most recognizable songs, it was placed number 11 by ''Rolling Stone'' on its list of the " 500 Greatest S ...

" released on the B-side of her 1976 single " Gloria", which she also uses at the end of her cover version of " Privilege (Set Me Free)" from her 1978 album ''

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

''.

Packaging

The album title is based on an English

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

. Its use is very old, but R.E.M.'s use is, according to guitarist

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.; he played the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his caree ...

, from the 1964 film '' A Shot in the Dark'', minus the apostrophe: :'' Inspector Clouseau opens a car door, falling into a fountain.'' :Maria: "You should get out of these clothes immediately. You'll catch your death of pneumonia, you will." :Clouseau: "Yes, I probably will. But it's all part of life's rich pageant, you know?" The cover of the album is a photograph of drummer

Bill Berry William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guita ...

, on the upper half, and a pair of

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

, signifying an environmental theme, on the lower half. It also alludes to Buffalo Bill.

Release

With R.E.M.'s fan base beginning to grow beyond its

college rock College rock is rock music played on student-run university and college campus radio stations located in the United States and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. The stations' playlists were often created by students who avoided the mainstream rock p ...

boundaries, ''Lifes Rich Pageant'' proved at the time to be the band's most commercially successful album in the United States, peaking at number 21 on the ''Billboard'' charts and heralding the band's first

gold record Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

. In the UK, the album managed a number 43 peak. The ecologically conscious " Fall on Me" (a personal favorite of Michael Stipe) and a cover of

the Clique A clique is a close social group. Clique or The Clique may also refer to: Math and computing * Clique (graph theory) ** Clique problem in computer science Business and brands * Clique (vodka), a Latvian vodka sold in the United States * Clique ...

's "

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

", sung by Mike Mills, were the only singles released from the album (the single version of the latter removed the sample from one of the

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...

movies that began the album version).

Reception

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' included it in their list of the "12 Essential 1980s Alternative Rock Albums". ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' listed the album at #52 on its list of "Best Albums of 1980s" saying "Lifes Rich Pageant stands as a nearly seamless transition between the band's formative period and their commercial dominance." In 2000, it ranked at number 162 in the list of

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

's All-Time Album Top 1000 List. Anthony DeCurtis, writing a contemporary review for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', called it "brilliant and groundbreaking, if modestly flawed", praising it as "the most outward looking record R.E.M. has made." He found that it "carries on... the dark Southern folk artistry of last year's ''Fables of the Reconstruction''" and "paints a swirling, impressionistic portrait of a country at the moral crossroads".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

gave the album B+ in a dismissive review that complained of a lack of progress from earlier albums. Retrospective reviews of the album in the context of the band's later work (beginning with the following original studio album, ''

Document A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes ...

'') have been positive. Gavin Edwards, writing in 2003, gave it four stars, praising "Fall on Me" in particular as "the finest song in the R.E.M. canon. A lullaby of modern anxiety, it's flexible enough to serve as a potent metaphor for acid rain, nuclear warfare, satellite surveillance or any other modern phobia you choose". Stephen Deusner, writing for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', calls it "invigorating", citing it as R.E.M.'s first transitional album, simultaneously their "most pop-oriented and accessible album up to that point" and "most overtly political collection, with songs addressing environmental crises and political malaise".

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis (born 13 September 1971) is an English journalist. He is the head Rock music, rock and pop music critic for ''The Guardian'', and a regular contributor for ''GQ''. In addition to his music journalism for the paper, he has written ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' says it "may represent the band at their absolute zenith... imbued with a swaggering confidence absent from its murky predecessor". Petridis also singles out "Fall on Me" for its "beautiful opacity" and the "sumptuousness of its melody". Andrew Mueller in '' Uncut'' argues that it represents R.E.M. embracing the mainstream: "For the first time, it had occurred to REM that they had a constituency – and, indeed, that it might be possible and desirable to build on that" with an album where "Every note... fizzes and crackles with the urgency of people who’ve made their minds up". Both DeCurtis and Deusner praise the production work of Don Gehman, comparing it favorably to their previous album ''

Fables of the Reconstruction ''Fables of the Reconstruction'' (or ''Reconstruction of the Fables'') is the third studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was released on June 10, 1985, through I.R.S. Records. It was the band's first album recorded outside ...

''. DeCurtis said Gehman "has done an outstanding job of hardening R.E.M.’s sonic jolt" while Deusner stated of Gehman that by "giving the melodic leads their own space, he emphasizes the muscle in Berry's beats and the intricate interaction between the rhythm section".

Track listing

All songs written by

and

, except "Superman" by Mitchell Bottler and Gary Zekley. Original release: Side one – "Dinner side" #" Begin the Begin" – 3:28 #"These Days" – 3:24 #" Fall on Me" – 2:50 #" Cuyahoga" – 4:19 #"Hyena" – 2:50 #"Underneath the Bunker" (unlisted track) – 1:25 Side two – "Supper side" #

"The Flowers of Guatemala" – 3:55 #"I Believe" – 3:49 #"What If We Give It Away?" – 3:33 #"Just a Touch" – 3:00 #"Swan Swan H" – 2:42 #"

" (unlisted track) – 2:52

Personnel

Personnel taken from ''Lifes Rich Pageant'' liner notes. R.E.M. *

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

on "I Believe" *

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, backing vocals,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

, lead vocals on "Superman", co-lead vocals on "Fall on Me" *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

, backing vocals on "Superman" Production *M. Bird – illustrations *Jim Dineen –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

*Gregg Edward – mixing at Can-Am Recorders,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

*Rick Fetig – engineering * Don Gehman – production, mixing *Ross Hogarth – engineering *Stan Katayama – engineering *

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– mastering, at Masterdisc,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, New York, United States *Sandra Lee Phipps – photography * Juanita Rogers – back cover painting *R. O. Scarelli – packaging *B. Slay – illustrations

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Singles

Certifications

Release history

Notes *† I.R.S. Vintage Years edition, with bonus tracks *†† 25th anniversary edition, with bonus disc

Notes

References

External links

R.E.M.HQ on ''Lifes Rich Pageant''
* *: (I.R.S. Vintage Years edition) * *: (I.R.S. Vintage Years edition)
Talk About The Pageant: When R.E.M. Came To Bloomington In 1986
{{Authority control 1986 albums Albums produced by Don Gehman I.R.S. Records albums R.E.M. albums