They have been a cornerstone of rock for many years now. I lose interest in much of their newer stuff, but they were at the top of the game at their peak back in the 80's and early 90's, and probably were one of the biggest factors that helped preserve rock music as a thoughtful medium in the form of "alternative rock" when they broke on the scene back in the early 1980's. That is a historic part of their legacy and perhaps their biggest accomplishment in my mind. The "Beatles" of alternative rock, perhaps?
"Automatic For The People" and "Out of Time" are the two I know that can still hold my interest from start to finish. Some decent material on these also for use in evaluating audio systems. These albums played a big part in my discovering that smaller monitors from Dynaudio and Totem are capable of producing some very involving sounds!
Also worth mentioning is REM is one group whose more recent recordings have really been hurt by their apparent "loudness wars" tendencies. Accelerate and Live at the Olympia in particular are two I have that push the loudness wars barrier into questionable territory. A shame since much of their older and most popular stuff was pretty well done!
"Automatic For The People" and "Out of Time" are the two I know that can still hold my interest from start to finish. Some decent material on these also for use in evaluating audio systems. These albums played a big part in my discovering that smaller monitors from Dynaudio and Totem are capable of producing some very involving sounds!
Also worth mentioning is REM is one group whose more recent recordings have really been hurt by their apparent "loudness wars" tendencies. Accelerate and Live at the Olympia in particular are two I have that push the loudness wars barrier into questionable territory. A shame since much of their older and most popular stuff was pretty well done!