I don't know whether it's purely nostalgia but I regard Document as an R.E.M. album quite like no other. The nostalgia element comes from the fact this was my first exposure to the music of R.E.M. at the age of 8, six years before I became a fan and made the connection between "that cassette my Dad used to play in the car" actually being by my newfound favourite band.
Songs like Fireplace through to Oddfellows Local 151 are, in my opinion, some of the best understated album tracks of their career. Songs full of menace and dirty electric guitar. Fireplace in particular is full of menace and I just love Stipe's voice.
Musically it's all power chords except for the middle 8 which re-appears at the end of the song during the long horn solo. The drums are powerful, as they are on a lot of Document, and the bass is lively too. The piano part helps add to the menace of the song, during the verse mostly echoing the melody that Stipe sings. For obvious reasons I haven't tried to reproduce the Horn parts neither have I attempted to substitute them for any other instrument.
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