Trivia / Fables of the Reconstruction

• Creator Backlash: The album was largely disowned and derided by the band for a good while after its release, partly due to its Troubled Production. The group has, however, softened up to it considerably in the years since. Notably, the band announced they would no longer be performing the song "Kohoutek" live in 1997; exactly ten years later, when the group conducted a series of "live rehearsals" at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, they decided to dig it out for the occasion — but not before Peter Buck requested that the group apologize before performing it.
• Creator Breakdown: The album was recorded during an intensely turbulent period for the band, the result of poor weather, homesickness, strained relations between the band members, the pressures of R.E.M.'s growing fame, and physical and mental health problems all stacking atop each other (Michael Stipe in particular was in the throes of a mental breakdown from a botched vegan diet and paranoia from the AIDS crisis as a closeted queer man). The results are reflected in the darker, more gothic sound of the music.
• Dummied Out: The liner notes list "When I Was Young" as part of the tracklist, itself considerably out of order. "When I Was Young" was ultimately cut after the packaging had already been printed, and the tracklist was presumably rearranged into its final order at around this point too. "When I Was Young" would be rewritten as "I Believe" on Lifes Rich Pageant, although a Fables-era demo was released 25 years later on this album's deluxe edition, under the name "Throw Those Trolls Away".
• What Could Have Been: Elvis Costello approached the group about potentially producing the album, but for one reason or another ended up dropping out. Elliot Mazer, Police producer Hugh Padgham, and Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks were other candidates.

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