Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A
Chicago Tribune
Entertainment Weekly	B−
Pitchfork Media	8.5/10
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Uncut
The Village Voice	B+

Fables of the Reconstruction, also known as Reconstruction of the Fables, is the third studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on I.R.S. Records in 1985. The Joe Boyd-produced album was the only one recorded by the group outside of the United States but is a concept album of Southern Gothic themes and characters.

Despite the growing audience and critical acclaim experienced by the band after its first two albums, Murmur and Reckoning, R.E.M. decided to make noticeable changes to its style of music and recording habits, including a change in producer to Joe Boyd and in recording location to London, England. Boyd was best known for his work with modern English folk musicians, including such acts as Fairport Convention and Nick Drake.

It was still a conceptual record by R.E.M. standards: lyrically, the album explores the mythology and landscape of the South, and the title and chorus of "Cant Get There from Here", the album's first single (intentionally misspelled, like most contractions and possessives in R.E.M. titles), is a rural American colloquialism sometimes used in response to a request by travelers for difficult directions (the video for the song received airplay on MTV).

The opening song, "Feeling Gravitys Pull" (sic), describes falling asleep while reading; Michael Stipe's lyrics also reference surrealist photographer Man Ray, setting the tone for the album. The song was a musical departure for the band, making use of a dark, chromatic guitar figure by Peter Buck, and a string quartet, while R.E.M.'s previous albums had opened with rhythmic, "jangly" rock songs.

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