All Along the Range

Dead Letter Office - 1987

Here it is: the obligatory B-sides and rarities album. Dead Letter Office is a fun little diversion, but not really a proper R.E.M. album. If anything, it shows the band's influences as well as having fun. One thing is for sure, they love the Velvet Underground. Dead Letter Office boasts three covers of their songs: "There She Goes", "Pale Blue Eyes", and "Femme Fatale". Other covers include a drunken rendition of Roger Miller's "King of the Road" (complete with Mike Mills shouting out chord changes to Peter Buck), Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic (a send up performed with such enthusiasm, it has to be heard to be believed), and Pylon's "Crazy" (Like "Superman", R.E.M. makes this song their own).

As far as the originals go, "Burning Down" and "Bandwagon" are fairly decent, but the real winner is "Ages of You". It's a moves a good clip, has that signature early era, Buck "chuga" guitar for the verse, and some great backing vocals by Mills. It definitely feels like a song that barely missed the cut to appear on one of the regular records.

Other than that, there's not much to comment on. "Voice of Harold" is amusing for the first few minutes (Michael Stipe reading the liner notes of a gospel album over the music of "7 Chinese Bros."), but it wears out its welcome fast. Its greatest accomplishment is making me to appreciate the Reckoning track even more. "White Tornado" is fun surf rock, but it works mainly as a showcase for Peter Buck and Bill Berry's respective guitar and drumming prowess.

Dead Letter Office is for R.E.M. completest and fans of their early years. It's a fun record, but not very deep. It's best listened to when working in the garage or cleaning the house.

5 out of 10