Music enthusiast or not, I would suggest that nearly everyone esteems one album in their collection as favorite. I try to stay away from the word favorite, simply because I believe its futile-to-impossible to objectively identify just one favorite album above all others from the vast cornucopia that none of us could truly traverse in one lifetime.
Rather, I have one album I would call my most personal. It's not something I recommend to friends, because, albeit selfishly, I believe this album was conceived, written and recorded just for me. Difficult, I find it, to describe what's so great about this record but suffice it to say it resonates with me. In fact, that's probably the best way to define good music. If there's no resonance, it's just fluff.
Suppose its fitting that it's by one of those no-fence-sitters bands, R.E.M. In other words, you either love 'em or you don't. But they're not polarizing, there is a difference. Polarizing is a pompous buzzword anyway.
New Adventures In Hi-Fi, released in September 1996 is my album. The critics loathed it, and I'm glad they did. It's not their album anyway.
So to Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe: I just want to say thank you. My world would be emptier without this.
And that woud be terribly uncool.
