Continuing my look at 1984, first by counting down my own top five albums of that year.
#1. Reckoning – R.E.M.
Thirteen years ago, I named R.E.M.’s Reckoning as their fourth-best album, an opinion I’ll stand by today as I declare it my favorite album of 1984. The alternative rock legends’ second full-length release captures so much about when makes them one of the all-time greats.
Classic R.E.M. tracks such as ‘Harborcoat,’ ‘So. Central Rain,’ ‘(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville’ and today’s SOTD epitomize the muddled jangly pop sound that made me fall in love with R.E.M., though I didn’t discover the band until their follow-up, Fables of the Reconstruction (still my favorite of their albums).
Superstardom would come seven years later with the release of 1991’s ‘Losing My Religion’ and Out of Time, but for my money R.E.M.’s most consistently great era was that span between ’83 and ’86, when a scrappy college band was recording some of the greatest music of the era.
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy
Woman offers, “Pull up a seat”
Take in one symphony now
We’ve just begun to battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel
Turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waited, hold it to you
In the colored, come another
[Chorus]
Seven Chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain
She’ll return
She will return
[Verse 2]
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy
Woman offers, “Pull up a seat”
Take in one symphony now
We’ve just begun to battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel
Turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waded seven seas
Swim the color, come another
[Chorus]
Seven Chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain
She will return
She’ll return
(She will return)
(She will return) Oh
[Verse 3]
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy
Woman offers, “Pull up a chair”
Take in one symphony, Mao
I guess we lost that battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel
Turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waded seven seas
Swim the color, come another
[Chorus]
Seven Chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years the Communi did reign
She will return
She’ll return
She will return
She’ll return
Meet Me In Montauk 
It wasn’t hard to predict that whatever REM album that came out in 1984 would at or near the top of your list.😀
When Dana told me last night (yes, last night!!) that you were doing a deep dive into albums from ‘84, the first thing I thought was… well, Fables didn’t come out until ‘86. That, my first year at UF, is the one where my musical taste evolved and deepened, as it does for many a college student I’m sure. Sadly, R.E.M. was nowhere on my radar in 1984.