YMMV / Document

• Awesome Music: The whole album. It's considered one of their best records.
• Broken Base: This was R.E.M.'s last album for I.R.S. Records before they jumped to Warner (Bros.) Records, and there is a segment of the fanbase that doesn't recognize anything they recorded after this.
• Chorus-Only Song: "It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" averts this due to many people knowing "LEONARD BERN-STEIN!".
• Covered Up: Like with their cover of "Superman" on Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M.'s cover of "Strange" on this album tends to eclipse the original version by Wire in popularity, much to the vocal consternation of both Wire fans and Hardcore Punk fans in general. Both tend to admonish the cover for what they saw as R.E.M. missing the point of the original version's slower, more abrasive sound (the cover is played closer to R.E.M.'s typical Jangle Pop style), and it extends to a point where many openly despise R.E.M.'s entire catalog as a result. Punk fans certainly take no compromises, it seems.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: While the lion's share of critical praise goes towards Automatic for the People and hardcore R.E.M. fans are likely to pin Murmur, the band's debut album, as their greatest, Document is one of a multitude of other albums that considerable camps of fans will tout as the true holder of the title.
• Genre Turning Point: The success of the album and the singles "The One I Love" and "It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" marked the beginning of the mainstreaming of alternative rock that would culminate in the release of Nirvana's Nevermind in 1991.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The song title "Exhuming McCarthy" became amusing to look back on after 1998, when R.E.M. enlisted Pat McCarthy (no relation to Joseph) to produce their material up until 2004.
• Memetic Mutation: Not being able to remember most of the lyrics to "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" has been a common source of jokes since the song's release.
• Misaimed Fandom: Those people who didn't get that "The One I Love" was sarcastic, and definitely not a love song. Notably, unlike most examples, R.E.M. themselves are fine with this.
• Retroactive Recognition: The cinematographer on the video for "The One I Love" is Alton Brown, who would later create Good Eats.
• Signature Song: While "Losing My Religion" is their signature song overall, "The One I Love" and especially "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" are still strong candidates for this in regards to R.E.M.'s discography.