Orange Crush

"Now that U2 has become America's spokesband for human dignity, it's difficult to remember that R.E.M., the quiet Georgians with the elliptical lyrics, once competed with U2 for the title of world's best rock band. With U2 triumphant and R.E.M. fading into near-obscurity, And I Feel Fine reminds listeners that R.E.M., not U2, made the most memorable music of the 1980s."

Over at Slate, Dan Kois compares U2 and R.E.M. and comes down firmly on the side of the latter. I couldn't agree more. I'm vaguely fond of Bono & Co. but R.E.M. is a whole other level. On sheer number of songs on my i-Pod (which I finally maxed out three days ago, btw) alone, R.E.M. beats U2 by a factor of 5 to 1. And some of the U2 songs I don't even like that much.