- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Document is R.E.M.’s sixth album and their commercial and creative breakthrough into the mainstream of popular music, with three major hits.
R.E.M. – Document (1987): I cannot really improve upon what Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote about R.E.M. for Allmusic: “R.E.M. marked the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, ‘Radio Free Europe’ was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early ’80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, R.E.M. had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground.”
Document is R.E.M.’s sixth album and their commercial and creative breakthrough into the mainstream of popular music. Three major hit songs are on this album: the Top Ten single “The One I Love”, “Finest Worksong”, and what is in many ways the archetypical R.E.M. song, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, combining an upbeat compelling rhythm with impenetrable lyrics about the ultimate downer.