REM: The band that defined, then eclipsed college rock

Lyrically, the album saw the band turn to face the world around them. World Leader Pretend is a deft criticism of the remote ruling classes - "I proclaim that claims are left unstated" - while Pop Song '89 neatly tackles claims the band had sold out by purporting to be, in Stipe's words, "the prototype of, and hopefully the end of, a pop song".

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