I’ve said before that Green is in my top 5 REM albums, fighting it out with Life’s Rich Pageant for top spot, while Automatic for the People holds the door shut to keep Murmur from getting in. I divide REM into two eras, there are more but I’ll keep it simple. The two eras are Before Document and After Document. Green is the best of that latter period. It updates some styles from the earlier period and takes the rock elements that came in during Document. I was 19 when Green came out and it was in constant rotation. They’re all pretty great, but standouts for me are Pop Song 89, Orange Crush, The Wrong Child, World Leader Pretend and the Untitled cut that ends the album. Heck, even Stand, though killed by overplay at the time, is a pop gem with its Cars-like chorus. It was great to revisit this album!