REM back in the day were rather good i thought. It wasn't mindblowingly good, but it was certainly fresh and decent musicianship too. I liked the first two albums a lot. The third one was a little off for a number of songs, but when they were on...as in Orange Crush, they were incredible. Interestingly enough I stayed away from them for a long time because all the freaks in my school listened to them (high school). I only really got into them and saw them live when they toured in 2002, unfortunately, they were already going stale. By now they've dropped off my radar screen quite a bit
Better?