Whether it's deserved or not, some records just get a bum rap. Sometimes it makes sense – there have been occasions when the makers of the “bad record” in question were in an unfortunate place personally that reflected in the band's music or had been inspired by something that seemed like a good idea in theory but ended up being ill-advised in practice – and sometimes no one is ever quite sure why or how a record flopped but, either way, those records (like The Pod by Ween, pioughd by Butthole Surfers, My War by Black Flag and Pearl Jam's Yield) go down in history as being the bad weeds dotting the garden of rock n' roll mythology.
On that list of misunderstood records, few have so high a profile as R.E.M.'s Fables Of The Reconstruction; since its' original release in 1985, it has been noted several times over that the album was less-than-well-received by the rock press and by fans. Further, conjecture has flown regularly that the band didn't particularly like the album either; as pointed out by the Spin Alternative Record Guide, only “Driver 8” has ever spent a significant and enduring amount of time in R.E.M.'s concert set lists and, in the twenty-five years since its' release, the band hasn't exactly gone out of its' way to defend the album either.
Does that mean even the auteurs of Fables Of The Reconstruction regard it as an ill-advised step in their evolution? In the liner notes of the twenty-fifth anniversary reissue of this most famously dogged album, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck says:
“Over the years a certain misapprehension about Fables Of The Reconstruction has built up. For some reason, people have the impression that members of R.E.M. don't like the record. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's a doomy, psycho record, dense and atmospheric. It creates its' own strange little world, illogical but compelling. It's a personal favorite, and I'm really proud of how strange it is.”
With that (could it really be the first?) defence and endorsement of the album, the obvious next step is to look – twenty-five years on – and see how well it might have aged.
Looking at it now, the truth is that Fables Of The Reconstruction is the bottle of fine wine in R.E.M.'s catalogue; while some of the band's other titles have endured (Murmur remains an 'indie masterpiece,' Automatic For The People is still regarded as a moody thing of beauty) or actually depreciated in standing (fans sneer at Out Of Time and Monster now, in spite of the fact that both were revered at the time of their respective releases), listening to the reissue of Fables now – in the context of how rock has progressed into the twenty-first century – reveals that the record is actually a stunning, disillusioned thing of beauty.
It's true that Fables Of The Reconstruction sounds very much unlike anything in R.E.M.'s catalogue, even now; from the opening of “Feeling Gravity's Pull,” there is an undefined tension and trepidation in Michael Stipe's voice which is echoed by Buck's sinewy guitar and Mike Mills' parenthetical bass line. The worry turns to sadness then the chorus cracks open with a forlorn violin and reflective melody to provide relief to the verses and a fluid roll as contrast for the halting, harmonic thread of Buck's verse guitar figure. The song is tormented, clearly, as the verses and choruses sit at odds with each other and continually struggle for the dominant emotional role in the song but, now, it translates far better because many bands (including both Dinosaur Jr. and Broken Social Scene) have taken a similar tack and refined it in their own way, thereby making the sound more familiar – if only outside of R.E.M.'s songbook.
From there, “Maps And Legends” continues the vibe set by “Feeling Gravity's Pull” but finds Stipe sounding even more morose and exhausted than before. Things do lighten up exponentially by “Driver 8,” “Life And How To Live It” (which, contrary to popular belief, does bear threads of the sounds and emotional elements that the band would continually revisit, even through Accelerate) and the skittering mania of “Can't Get There From Here,” where the band finds its' feet and starts moving in a way that fans will recognize as fairly orthodox for R.E.M.
There is a catch here that may have been what hung fans up in 1985 though, and may have also been why the band has always shied away from only performing select tracks from Fables at most: all of the songs here are self-reflexive in that, whether the song is dark or whether it's light, it can't survive without a counterpart. Simply said, songs like “Feeling Gravity's Pull,” Maps And Atlases,” “Kohoutek,” (the watery) “Good Advices” and unusually (at the time anyway) countrified crooning of “Wendell Gee” positively need the relief provided by “Driver 8,” “Life And How To Live It” and “Auctioneer (Another Engine)” to translate the difference for listeners. There is (whether intentional or not) actually a very lush and captivating emotional dynamic here, but you can't pull it apart or it'll deflate; both emotional poles of the record share a symbiotic relationship with each other which is likely why the singles (“Can't Get There From Here,” “Driver 8” and “Wendell Gee”) didn't go over particularly well – in each case, there was 'yin' with no 'yang.' Looking back at it now, Fables Of The Reconstruction is actually a very good and mature work for all of those reasons, but fans simply weren't ready for it and had no idea how to make it work in a live setting; unless of course they were to play it from beginning to end, which they never did.
Was any of that design on the band's mind as they recorded the album back in '85? It's possible, and the demos included on Disc Two of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the record but, to be honest, the impression lefy is that R.E.M. really was exhausted, even before the recording sessions for the album started. Michael Stipe sounds like he's rehearsing aimlessly on the demo versions of “Can't Get There From Here” and “Driver 8” and Peter Buck's normally clean, jangling Rickenbacher sounds uncharacteristically muddy here, while “Green Grows The Rushes” sounds as if the band is still hammering out the finer points of the song's arrangement as they shuffle along through the demo at a hair less than full speed.
Needless to say, there's no mistaking Disc Two for anything other than a set of demos, but that doesn't mean it's without its' charms. The early takes of “Maps And Legends,” “Life And How To Live It” and “Feeling Gravity's Pull” are actually fine, very spare versions that illustrate how strong the songs are, naked, and long-time fans will thrill to that. Likewise, the songs that fell on the cutting room floor are worth checking out; on “Bandwagon” and “Hyena” particularly, fans get to hear some things they likely never thought they would – like Michael Stipe sounding genuinely frustrated and annoyed (“Bandwagon”) and just how loose the band could be without falling apart without falling apart completely (“Hyena”). These are, of course, very modest returns for the second disc but, taking the band's own obviously difficult and fatigued circumstances into consideration, fans owe it to the band to take a fresh, second look at Fables Of The Reconstruction. Those still skeptical should look at it this way: reissues are theoretically supposed to breathe new life and interest into an album right? Well, unlike so many others, the reissue of Fables Of The Reconstruction actually does that.
Artist:
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Album:
The 25 th Anniversary Edition of Fables Of The Reconstruction is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
