R.E.M. “Fables of the Reconstruction” 1985. Today, January 4th, is Michael Stipe’s birthday (b. John Michael Stipe, 1960). Fables of the Reconstruction was R.E.M.’s third LP and the one I’m least familiar with (of their early stuff anyway, I kinda lost interest in them from the mid-90′s on); in fact, I didn’t realize we had it in our collection until I went looking for an R.E.M. record to spin today. Anyway, it went to #28 in the US and #35 in the UK. It’s a loose concept album, an exploration of “southern gothic” and pastoral American imagery. The only songs I know from the album are a couple of the singles that would appear on later R.E.M. comps: “Cant Get There From Here” (which sort of charted – it went to #10 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart), a phrase used by folks giving (un)helpful directions to travelers, and “Driver 8″ (#22 Mainstream Rock chart) about a railroad line. R.E.M. also released “Wendell Gee” (a song about an actual person, I guess, a name that definitely has a Southern ring to it) as a single in Europe. Other tracks overtly representing the album’s themes are “Maps and Legends,” “Green Grow the Rushes” and “Auctioneer (Another Engine).” It’s definitely not one of my top R.E.M. albums but is distinctly their sound: jangly, kinda sad and opaque, heavy use of acoustic instruments like the banjo, etc.