Fables of the Reconstruction
| R.E.M.
Fables of the Reconstruction
Fables of the Reconstruction, also known as Reconstruction of the Fables, is the third studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on I.R.S. Records in 1985. The Joe Boyd-produced album was the first recorded by the group outside the United States. It is a concept album with Southern Gothic themes and characters. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
R.E.M.'s overlooked and transitional third album from 1985, produced by Joe Boyd, receives the deluxe reissue treatment.
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Rolling Stone
Listening to Fables of the Reconstruction is like waking up in a menacing yet wonderful world underneath the one we’re familiar with.
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Drowned in Sound
Birthed in a haunted old South, forged in a drab England, paranoid, sensual, nonsensical and true, Fables... was undeniably something of a diversion on the route to indie rock stardom.
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Consequence of Sound
It marked a turning point for the Athens gentlemen and foreshadowed the great work to come.
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A.V. Club Music
Fables could have been one shadowy, incongruous mess, but instead, R.E.M. pulled off one in a long trail of shadowy, incongruous masterpieces.
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Pop Matters
The “difficult second album” is a hoary old music biz cliché, but it was R.E.M.’s third album that really put the pioneering alt-rock group to the test.
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Uncut
Now in deluxe, demo-heavy format, REM’s ‘doom’ album sounds a positive triumph.
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BBC
A dark, dangerous but delightful record that’s as good – if not better – than new.
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Slant Magazine
The album marked the first time that Michael Stipe abandoned his purely impressionistic lyrical style with the purpose of writing songs that were “about” something.
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KEXP
I want to adore this. I know I will soon.
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All Music
A dark, moody rumination on American folk -- not only the music, but its myths -- Fables is creepy, rustic psychedelic folk, filled with eerie sonic textures.
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U Discover
Fables Of The Reconstruction continued the band’s steady infiltration of the mainstream.
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Escapist Magazine
Still, with its problems, it's still a very good product.
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Sean Is Here
Man, there is no better time to get into Fables.
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The Line of Best Fit
Fables of the Reconstruction does not sound like it came out twenty five years ago; rather, it sounds like a display at the Smithsonian museum, discovered deep underground and preserved in amber.
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No Ripcord
Fables absorbs from the moment it lets go, proving to be the first unpredictable R.E.M. experience into thought provoking meditations such as isolation, loss, and the essence of one’s importance in life.
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Seattle Pi
It's not the perfect album, as it has some repetitive song structures to speak of. But R.E.M. proved back in 1985 that even when it wasn't at the top of its game songwriting-wise, it still put out material better than most of its contemporaries.
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On Magazine
Expansive, mysterious and ideas-laden.
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Don Ignacio's Music Reviews
All in all, Fables of the Reconstruction doesn't have any terrible songs on it, and there's enough good stuff to keep this a must-have for fans of this group.
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Glide Magazine
‘Reconstruction of the Fables’ makes just as much sense Fables of the Reconstruction.
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Salon
Oddball album that never quite found its place in time.
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Remring
I can only look back at myself and remember that it was these elements that got me so enamored with R.E.M. in the first place.
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Penny Black Music
A must buy if you are a fan.
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Koll Not Reviews
A sophisticated and fantastic masterpiece of an album.
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Record Collector Mag
Despite Peter Buck’s recollection of “scrambling to finish songs”, almost everything here sounds fully formed.
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Festival Peak
Here amid the rusty skies and stifling summer heat that the South’s intoxicating mythology really comes to life.
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The Solute Record Club
Fables of the Reconstruction is a record unified by its collective messiness.
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Aphoristic Album Reviews
Fables Of The Reconstruction is a little inconsistent and disjointed, but it’s still a very good early album.
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Adrian's Album Reviews
There truly is something disquieting about the whole experience.
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Flowering Toilet
I don't think it is any kind of exaggeration to say that the album changed my life. And I still regard Fables Of The Reconstruction as one of the finest rock albums ever made.
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QRO Magazine
Everyone who likes R.E.M. knows how great Fables of the Reconstruction was.
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Mark's Record Review
This is a different type of Southern Rock.
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Only Solitaire
It's not fast/slow that matters. It's the darkness that matters.
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Robert Christgau
Trading energy for ever richer textures, their impressionism sacrifices its paradoxical edginess: it's doleful, slower, solidly grounded but harder to boogie to nevertheless.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
It marks an interesting shift in the band's approach.
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Hotpress
'Fables' has a decidedly pastoral feel, a sense of searching for long lost roots pervades Stipe's dense, almost impenetrable lyrics.
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Medium
REM would go onto to enhance my musical sensibilities forever. Miss those dudes.
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Punk News
The album was polarizing when released, and saw the band departing from the art/punk sound of albums like Murmur and embracing more folk and Americana elements.
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