They released Automatic on the same day that I started college, great great album
Monster when I was in second year which I think is poor
Same with me but I like that album even if not their finest. Iāve Been High, She Just Wants to be, The Chorus and the Ring and The Lifting (particularly the demo version) are all excellent I think.
Songs I meant
You must have stayed back a year as Monster was two years later 
. Monster came out the month I started secondary school.
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I donāt think Iāve listened to it in about 20 years tbh
Iām off to the gym
Fire up top 15 best REM songs for a lad to make a playlist
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Iād say my maths is right.
But the staying back a year did happen, a few times in fact 
To be honest I think I took a dislike to Monster and never gave it a go, by that time I was listening to more English, Irish and Cork (
) bands.
Strange Currencies appeared on an episode of the bear and blew me away
Automatic - October 92
Monster - September 94
I didnāt actually buy Monster until October 95. Iād a taped copy until then. I bought it at around 11pm on a choppy ferry ride back from the UK and it was the second time I ever bought an album on CD. A few years later, I realised that there was two identical inner cards in the CD tray and always wondered was mine a one off error or if that happened to a whole batch of Monster CDs.
Begs the question, are you in second year or third year in the summer before you go back to school 
UCC didnāt start back till October
Oooooft. Iāll take that so. Monster is a September 27th release (yes, I just did a Google ).
What if you didnāt go to college?
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Iām not quite sure.
My favorite REM album is Fables of the Reconstruction. I bought it second hand in Freebird Records when it was over the Bus Stop Newsagents on Grafton Street.
I was working at the time.
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I love that album as well.
It has a weird southern folky vibe even if it was recorded in London with Joe Boyd,
I played Wendell Gee to my little lad during the week - he didnāt appear to like it.
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I have three older brothers, music snobs like myself, so I was being played REM for as long as I can remember.
Looking back I often think about the release of Whatās the Frequency Kenneth as extraordinary.
A belter of a rocker of a song, following the mellowness of Automatic which itself came after seven of the finest albums youāll hear. The longevity was incredible,
I think they dipped after that. That said the next period produced their best song in my view in E-Bow the Letter alongside some other gems such as Electrolite, Iāve Been High and the aforementioned Daysleeper but the albums were hitting 7 out of 10 (some lower) instead of at least 9 up to then.
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Great album. I think the opening notes of Feeling Gravityās Pull is open there with the best opening to a R.E.M. album (alongside Radio Free Europe and Begin The Begin).
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Maps and Legends following up is superb.
Monster is an interesting record for a band that was at the height of its popularity. In a sense, one could say it was their In Utero, if less effective, in response to their growing commerical popularity.
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I wonder if they will ever get back together, I never got to see them live.