Life's Rich Pageant (Deluxe Edition)

After the moody and mysterious Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M. teamed up with producer Don Gehman to make the hardest- rocking album of their career to date. Michael Stipe’s vocals were pushed to the front of the mix and Peter Buck’s jangle was punched up to a guitar roar on songs such as “Begin the Begin” and “These Days” and given an extra snarl for “Cuyahoga,” “Hyena” and “I Believe.” The single, “Fall On Me,” showcased a haunting, dizzying melody, while “Swan Swan H” played like a forlorn British folk song from centuries past. The album solidified the band’s college-radio base and set them in motion to become one of the ‘80s biggest groups. The Deluxe Edition of the album comes with 19 bonus tracks, the “Athens Demos” the band recorded to guide themselves into the formal recordings. The loose demos include a number of great tunes, including an anarchic, harmonica-bleeding version of “Bad Day,” a stealth-mode spy-tune in “Two Steps Onward,” a dark and murky “March Song” and kinetic renditions of “Cuyahoga,” “I Believe” (where Stipe doesn’t have all the words) and the punkish “Just a Touch.”