Lost On The Shelves: R.E.M. Dead Letter Office (CD*)

An old work colleague, now a friend, Jim L., recently suggested I listen to Dead Letter Office (he will hopefully delight in the double meaning). Wow, this was overlooked in my collection. The album gathers B-sides from before and through thier first four albums (1981-1986). It included orignals and covers of three Velvet Underground songs (“There She Goes Again,” “Pale Blue Eyes” and Femme Fatale”) and songs by Aerosmith (“Toys in the Attic”), Roger Miller (“King of the Road”), and fellow Athenians (GA) Pylon (“Crazy”). Here is how Peter Buck, the band’s guitarist, described the project:

“I’ve always liked singles much more than albums. A single has to be short, concise and catchy, all values that seem to go out the window as far as albums are concerned. But the thing that I like best about singles is their ultimate shoddiness. No matter how lavish that packaging, no matter what attention to detail, a ’45 is still essentially a piece of crap usually purchased by teenagers. This is why musicians feel free to put just about anything on the b-side; nobody will listen to it anyway, so why not have some fun. You can clear the closet of failed experiments, badly written songs, drunken jokes, and occasionally, a worthwhile song that doesn’t fit the feel of an album. This collection contains at least one song from each category. It’s not a record to be taken too seriously. Listening to this album should be like browsing through a junkshop. Good hunting.“

I didn’t get on the bandwagon until their debut album, Murmur, in 1983. I loved Murmur, but I somehow didn’t keep up with the band’s following three albums. I did a bit of checking in with Document in 1987, but I didn’t really fully embrace the band until Out of Time in 1991. Although I purchased Dead Letter Office when it was released in 1987, it has been gathering dust on my CD shelf ever since. At the time, I appreciated the novelty that it was – even though its primary purpose was likely to accelerate the end of R.E.M.’s record contract with I.R.S.

Now at the age of 66, comfortably retired with my lovely Laura, I have the time and the frame of mind to listen intently to albums that I missed or dismissed. Coming back to the Dead Letter Office now with an open mind and heart, coupled with 40 years of listening experience, I love it. It is the founders of indie rock letting their freak flag fly.

R.E.M. ultimately became so big, critically, influentially, and commercially, that it is easy to forget their origins as college music nerds who appeared to come out of thin air with a fully realized vision with their first single, “Radio Free Europe,” in the summer of 1981, followed by the equally fully realized EP Chronic Town a year later. This collection serves as a reminder of their genius, quirkiness, and vision during their early days as the original indie-rock band, before they reached the top of the charts and began snagging Grammys once they transitioned to a major label.

My big takeaways from Dead Letter Office are:

• They are a rock band. Well, of course they are, but their easy listening jangle and ultimate success kind of undermines the fact that they are rockers.
• Michael Stipe is a great singer. On the early albums, he became famous for mumbling and being buried in the mix. But this collection helps you appreciate his underrated pipes.
• We all know guitarist Peter Buck can jangle, but he can also shred.
• Every rock band needs an excellent rhythm section, and R.E.M. had one with drummer Bill Berry and bassist Mike Mills.
• Mike Mills is the perfect backup singer for Stipe.
• Although the band had a sound from day one, and they perfected that sound over time, Dead Letter Office gives you a sense of how that sound was formed and the band’s influences.

I am so glad that old friend Jim L. prompted me to pull Dead Letter Office off the CD rack and give it an attentive listen. This is a wonderful collection if you have any interest in R.E.M.

The collection is available on streaming services, but as the 15-song Dead Letter Office and the 5-song Chronic Town.

P.S. The liner notes were written by Peter Buck and are reason enough to buy a physical copy of the collection. They are informative and fun. The CD can easily be found used for under $5.

*I consider the CD the best value of the formats available (CD, vinyl, and cassette), as it included the songs from the EP Chronic Town as bonus tracks, and that is why I bought that format at the time.