West of Rome LP

Michael Stipe produced Vic Chesnutt's second album after discovering him playing open mics around Athens and deciding to champion his early records. Chesnutt, who used a wheelchair following a car accident as a teenager, wrote plain spoken, darkly funny songs that get compared to Flannery O'Connor as often as to other songwriters. New West has reissued it, and it's still the high point of his catalog by most accounts, no argument needed.