{"id":25701,"date":"2023-07-25T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25701"},"modified":"2023-07-21T12:45:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T16:45:32","slug":"album-review-r-e-m-around-the-sun-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/25\/album-review-r-e-m-around-the-sun-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: R.E.M. — Around the Sun (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Picking up after my last post\u2019s lengthy contextualization, here\u2019s my look at Around the Sun<\/i>, newly reissued as a 2LP set.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaving New York\u201d certainly comes as a shock to a listener raised on \u201cRadio Free Europe.\u201d Michael Stipe\u2019s vocals are clear, out front and wholly intelligible. Piano and strings figure prominently in the mix; Peter Buck\u2019s guitar is understated, and Mike Mills\u2019 bass is equally subtle. If one had told me that the song was a Stipe solo track, I would have believed them. Mills\u2019 backing vocal work \u2013 a secret ingredient to what made R.E.M. great \u2013 is either absent or nearly so; the harmony vocals in evidence sound like Stipe overdubs. There\u2019s not a thing wrong with \u201cLeaving New York,\u201d but it doesn\u2019t sound like peak R.E.M.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectron Blue\u201d features more keyboards. The synth textures suggest Berlin-period Bowie, and the glitchy percussion work \u2013 oddly prominent in the mix \u2013 is perhaps too trendy by half. When guitars do make an appearance, they are seemingly used as decoration, not as core components of the song.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Outsiders\u201d is pleasant enough, though a bit nondescript. Buck\u2019s guitar is a bit more prominent \u2013 I even detect a whiff of jangle(!) \u2013 but keyboards continue to dominate. Bill Rieflin\u2019s drum work on the song is wonderfully evocative; it might not remind anyone of Bill Berry \u2013 nor should it \u2013 but it fits the song quite well.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t any kind of major fan of KRS-One\u2019s guest vocal on Out of Time<\/i>\u2019s \u201cRadio Song,\u201d but neither did I hate it. So when Q-Tip raps on \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d I greet it with a shrug. Honestly, to my ears the song\u2019s rap-dominated second half belongs on a different record.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake it All Okay\u201d is more piano-led melody. But the song is strong, and Buck\u2019s guitar figures adorn the arrangement in admirable fashion. The tune displays faint echoes of Mott the Hoople\u2019s \u201cAll the Young Dudes.\u201d Four tracks in, R.E.M. has served up the first truly memorable tune on Around the Sun<\/i>. Fans who came on board \u2013 as many did \u2013 around Out of Time<\/i> would have likely appreciated this track. Unfortunately, Mills\u2019 backing vocals are buried in the mix.<\/p>\n

Acoustic guitar forms the basis of \u201cFinal Straw,\u201d a song that sounds of a piece with Out of Time<\/i>. A leftover from that album\u2019s writing sessions, perhaps? Solid arrangement, too. The album seems to get better as it unfolds: \u201cI Wanted to Be Wrong\u201d folds in familiar elements from R.E..M.\u2019s classic period while remaining consistent with its \u201cnew\u201d more keyboard-dominated sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cWanderlust\u201d is as close as the band comes in 2004 to writing a bouncy pop tune. Their skill at doing so raises the rhetorical question: what if they had pursued that direction with more vigor? We\u2019ll never know, but this song is an overlooked highlight of Around the Sun<\/i>. That said, fans of R.E.M.-style guitar jangle may come away unsatisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoy in the Well\u201d has all of the ingredients of the best mid- and late-period R.E.M., but the tune somehow feels like a rewrite of a few other of the band\u2019s songs. Certainly not bad, it\u2019s merely a bit undistinguished. The electric piano textures are a nice touch, though. Happily, \u201cAftermath\u201d is a winner, on a par with \u201cWanderlust\u201d and as such one of the album\u2019s strongest cuts. Rieflin\u2019s drums and the multiple keyboards and strings dominate the mix; guitars take a back seat.<\/p>\n

In contrast, squalling guitar feedback provides the opening of \u201cHigh Speed Train.\u201d But as it happens, that\u2019s a red herring; the tune as a whole is built around spooky keyboard sounds. Layered, countermelodic vocal lines hearken back to early R.E.M., but not much else about the song does so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Worst Joke Ever\u201d has some lovely keyboard\/string arrangement work. The song itself is modest; it\u2019s the arrangement that makes it worth hearing. But the tune doesn\u2019t leave a lasting impression once it\u2019s over, and its style does feel like a retread of older R.E.M. ideas. Were it not for Stipe\u2019s inimitable lead vocal, \u201cThe Ascent of Man\u201d could be mistaken for any of several dozen other bands. The gospel-flavored Hammond organ is nice enough, and Buck\u2019s (or McCaughey\u2019s) electric sitar is a nice little bonus. But it remains somewhat faceless.<\/p>\n

Around the Sun<\/i> wraps up with its title track. Here R.E.M. sounds something like, well, R.E.M. But keyboards continue their domination, and the meditative, contemplative character that pervades the record remains.<\/p>\n

Where Monster<\/i> put me off somewhat because it seemed to rock a bit too hard, Around the Sun<\/i> feels like soft middle-age: mature, sophisticated, thoughtful…but lacking in the rock department. In no way an embarrassment, R.E.M.\u2019s 13th<\/sup> studio album is merely unremarkable. Many critics and fans alike have tended to agree (the rest seemed to hate it; I know of no one who loves Around the Sun<\/i>).<\/p>\n

Happily, and to my surprise, after that album\u2019s 2008 follow-up Accelerate<\/i>, R.E.M. finished on a very strong note with Collapse Into Now<\/i>. In celebration of its new vinyl reissue, I\u2019ll cover that one next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Picking up after my last post\u2019s lengthy contextualization, here\u2019s my look at Around the Sun, newly reissued as a 2LP set. \u201cLeaving New York\u201d certainly comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,64,65,73],"tags":[1773,1817],"class_list":["post-25701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-r-e-m","tag-rem","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25706,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25701\/revisions\/25706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}