Mat Mon Aug 03, 2009 1:02 am
I probably should have elaborated.
Dookie hasn't really aged well. It's pretty shallow when you think about it. I enjoyed listening to it at the time, and some songs remain great ("Basket Case," "When I Come Around") but it doesn't hold up.
The Downward Spiral was pretty revolutionary, but very noisy and sludgy, with a number of songs that go nowhere. As far as electronic/industrial rock, it's been surpassed. In fact, I'd argue that it was surpassed the very next year by Garbage's debut album.
Mellow Gold holds up surprisingly well; it remains one of Beck's better albums. Just relies a bit too heavily on vocal distortion.
Monster is possibly my favorite REM album to this day; it's a close call between that, Out Of Time and Accelerate. It's pretty perfect high energy rock with plenty of interesting twists, and very few low points.
Throwing Copper has it all. It has energetic, interesting songs all over the place, like "The Dam At Otter Creek," "Lightning Crashes," "I Alone" and "White, Discussion," epic songs like "TBD" and "Pillar Of Davidson" that echo in your head long after listening, and even the slight missteps ("Waitress," "Top," "Shit Towne") are perfectly listenable simply because the band puts so much effort into performing them. Live was uncertain, experimental and energetic at that time, and part of the problem with them currently is that they're too comfortable and polished, and it's made them quite bland. They've made five albums since 1994, but Throwing Copper still remains their best one.