R.E.M went into the Automatic for the People sessions wanting to make a harder rock record. They instead came out with an acoustic led album that is one of the greatest explorations of death and mortality in all of rock music…

Out of Time refined the pop sensibilites of R.E.M's previous record to create something that is both bright in musical tone and shy and paranoid in the details. Oh, and it has "Shiny Happy People" on it…

R.E.M's transition to Warner' Bros. with Green brought some great victories and some small failures. And they would lose some hardcore fans along the way. But why should they care: they were popular and minted!..

These R.E.M. entries are later than expected, but here we are: one we look at interesting Letters, and then at an excellent Document

After the darkness of Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M. saw fit to throw themselves a big and great party called Lifes Rich Pageant. Sponsored by Green Peace.

R.E.M created their darkest and most American album yet, Fables of the Reconstruction in the most turbulent, most moody and most American location they could. London…

Reckoning is so much a mirror of Murmur in tone and perspective that it was most definitely intentional…

They are somewhere in the bowels of the essential writing comments. When I have more time I hope to find all the artists we did and preserve them better (though I used to write not nearly as much for these as I do now)

We're going to be doing The Velvet Underground for the first band of the new year if you wanna join the conversation then! (We already did PJ Harvey and Tom Waits; you're in for many treats.)

No Frank Zappa? Wuss.

Now at the Solute's Record Club we will explore the career of that other big, defining eighties rock band: R.E.M. And with their debut album Murmur it is a surprise that there was any competition

I never thought I'd see a comedy episode that could be compared to Antonin Artaud's Jet of Blood

For a band defined by ambition, Reflektor is without question the biggest example of it yet…

Incidentally, 2010: the greatest year for music of the 21st century…until this year, honestly.

Arcade Fire's The Suburbs winning the Grammy for Album of the Year was such a good decision that it was almost definitely an accident…

I also enjoy the TV spin - off, Black Mirror

Neon Bible is bombastic almost to a fault, but is still a great record that demonstrates Arcade Fire's growing confidence and ambition…

This week on The Solute's Record Club we are going through Arcade Fire, who for their debut Funeral settled on nothing less but one the greatest albums ever made…

I'm somewhat a fan

*Leo looks sad under natural light*