I love REM but I feel they lost something special when they switched from IRS to WB. Fables of the Reconstruction, Life's Rich Pageant, Reckoning and Murmur are all lights out albums released by IRS. Even their B-side album Dead Letter Office is good. From the moment they released Green in '88 or '89 they went from being a southern rock, college band to a slicked up, ultra produced version of what they were. Moments of brilliance but no consistency and none of that essential southernness that initially made them special. JMO.