Gorgeous, weird, immersive, haunting, pop-folk-indie-rock. The third and best album from my favorite band, crisped up but not too noticeably altered with a 25th anniversary remaster. Disc 2 is a series of live demos, most of which closely resemble their album counterparts and all of which are definitely playable (also, they feature Mike Mills's "secret weapon" backing vox more prominently than the album). Fables takes the brand of incipient indie that R.E.M. established with Murmur and Reckoning and cements it in a Southern-gothic pseudo-narrative. Absolutely beautiful and enthralling at every step.
Start with 2 or 6. FCC clean. –Andy

Disc 1:
1 - Nervous and tight; metallic guitar and peeking vocals
**2 - Huge, lush, and certain; harmony-flooded paean to eccentricity
*3 - Minor-key guitar rock, nice murky riffs
4 - Slow, quiet start into a bright, classic R.E.M. sound, one of those that makes you think Stipe just naturally talks in song form
*5 - Dark and bass-heavy, with something deeply neurotic right below the surface
**6 - Ridiculously fun folk-rock romp, great build-ups and drawled-out vox
7 - Pleasant contemplative pop with plenty of guitar jangle
8 - Big mumbled-vox bliss-out
*9 - Driving instrumentals in a brooding, urgent rock number
10 - Sentimental rock in the vein of "Camera," great harmony-fastened chorus hook
*11 - Wistful, vocals-centric folk-pop ballad, fantastic two-part vox, banjo, strings

Disc 2:
1 - Demo of 1.9, interesting extra vox
*2 - Demo of a b-side; folky, light, grabbing; once again, nice backing vox from Mills; check out the studio version on Dead Letter Office (we have the 12")
*3 - Demo of 1.6; fantastic whoop from Stipe at the start; missing a key vocal part from the album version, but still lots of fun
4 - Demo of 1.3, not much different
5 - Demo of 1.1; cool snare part not present on the album
6 - Demo of 1.10; mostly the same, a bit more intimate without all the effects
7 - Demo of 1.7; some extra "la"s in the intro, otherwise similar to album version
8 - Demo of a vigorous Lifes Rich Pageant (their next lp) track; interesting to hear it Fables-style
9 - Demo of 1.8; less spacey without effects; different guitar tone is interesting
*10 - Demo of 1.4; works particularly well in the live format
11 - Demo of 1.2; definitely wants the full production, but still a fantastic song
12 - Demo of 1.5, very similar to album version
**13 - Previously unreleased song, fun and catchy rock, uses a lot of the same material as "I Believe" from Lifes Rich Pageant
*14 - Demo of 1.11; beautiful song, in striking contrast to the production-heavy album version