{"id":26266,"date":"2023-10-12T05:30:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T09:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=26266"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:31:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:31:44","slug":"album-review-r-e-m-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/12\/album-review-r-e-m-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: R.E.M. \u2013 Reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Imagine, if you will, that it\u2019s 1984. You\u2019re a serious fan of R.E.M., owning and treasuring their debut EP Chronic Town<\/i> and the pair of albums they released, 1983\u2019s Murmur<\/i> and 1984\u2019s Reckoning<\/i>. The brooding jangle, the cryptic and indecipherable vocalisms of Michael Stipe, the band\u2019s groundbreaking and resolutely indie mindset. But suddenly, you\u2019re captured and placed into cryogenic stasis. When you awake, it\u2019s 17 years later. Once you regain your composure, you discover that the band from Athens, Georgia has a new album, Reveal<\/i>. So you listen.<\/p>\n

And you don\u2019t know quite what to think.<\/p>\n

My own experience isn\u2019t all that different, albeit without the freeze bit. As I\u2019ve related previously, I was an early fan of the group, but they sort of lost me by the time of 1994\u2019s Monster<\/i>. I recall seeing images of a shaven-head Stipe, with a bright blue stripe painted across his face. What<\/i>? I remember thinking that R.E.M. and I had somehow moved in different directions. Honestly, I didn\u2019t hear anything they released post New Adventures in Hi-Fi<\/i> until more than a decade after the band called it a day.<\/p>\n

On the occasion of a new vinyl reissue of Reveal<\/i>, however, I\u2019m going to set aside my preconceptions as as best as I can and review the album on its merits. (Coverage of 2008\u2019s Accelerate<\/i> will follow.)<\/p>\n

In one sense, the album\u2019s opening track, \u201cThe Lifting\u201d bears traces of R.E.M.\u2019s mid-period sound. But the smudgy, noisy and cluttered arrangement feels woozy and deliberately unfocused. It\u2019s as if a pop song of sorts is buried amid the murk, but it\u2019s hard to identify the outlines of it. At times the song sounds as if another very different song is playing at the same time; the crosstalk is unsettling and prevents (this) listener from fully engaging with the song. Such an approach worked brilliantly for Radiohead, but the murky aesthetics don\u2019t seem to suite R.E.M. as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve Been High\u201d opens with some glitchy sonics that recalls Suzanne Vega\u2019s 99.9F\u00b0. The tune shifts into a meditative mood, and it becomes clear that on their second album without founding drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. is beginning to come to terms with his absence. Real and\/or electronic percussion figures prominently into the song. What\u2019s else that\u2019s missing \u2013 and this will prove to be a defining feature of much of Reveal<\/em> \u2013 is Mike Mills\u2019 voice. On previous records, his vocals \u2013 whether in harmony, as response to Stipe\u2019s call, or as a countermelodic device \u2013 aren\u2019t employed at all. To return to my cryogenic construct for a moment, it\u2019s as if what one awoke to was not an R.E.M. album at all, but instead a Stipe solo project.<\/p>\n

Happily, \u201cAll the Way to Reno (You\u2019re Gonna Be a Star)\u201d has much of the classic R.E.M. character to recommend it. Peter Buck\u2019s guitar jangle enlivens the song, a tune that would have fit seamlessly on Out of Time<\/i> a decade before. The tune certainly doesn\u2019t rock in any significant way, but it features a strong melody and some wonderfully heartfelt Stipe vocals (but again, no Mills vocals). Buck\u2019s spaghetti western tones coexist nicely with some understated gurgling synth textures.<\/p>\n

Buck\u2019s acoustic guitar informs \u201cShe Just Wants to Be,\u201d another song that balances familiar R.E.M. character with its late-period sound. A sweeping arrangement unfolds eventually; it\u2019s almost Spectorian in its sweep. And this time \u2013 unlike \u201cThe Lifting\u201d \u2013 the woozy arrangement works. Buck\u2019s soaring guitar leads fly over the whole thing.<\/p>\n

That noisy, clattering quality returns on \u201cDisappear.\u201d Sawing cellos flit in and out of the mix, and the song\u2019s waltzing \u00be meter \u2013 a technique applied to many of R.E.M.\u2019s ballad-leaning compositions \u2013 evokes memories of 1992\u2019s Automatic for the People<\/i>. The piano-centric, static and somewhat triphoppy \u201cSaturn Return\u201d suggests that the band has spent a lot of time listening to OK Computer<\/i> and Kid A<\/i>. Indisputably great as those albums are, it remains an open question whether the world of 2001 needed two Radioheads.<\/p>\n

Speaking of piano, that instrument forms the core of \u201cBeat a Drum,\u201d a lovely and crystalline ballad redolent of Carole King. The drum machine textures even work, giving a slight bossa nova sheen to the arrangement. By this point, listeners seeking a rocking R.E.M. may begin to suspect that they\u2019ll come away empty-handed. But as mellow and melancholy music goes, \u201cBeat a Drum\u201d is a winner.<\/p>\n

And then comes \u201cImitation of Life.\u201d Buried deep into Reveal<\/i> \u2013 it\u2019s the second track on Side Two \u2013 the song combines most everything that makes major-label era R.E.M. a treasure. The record\u2019s strongest melody, a soaring arrangement with beautiful string part, the song even features some vocal harmonies, the first time such has appeared with any prominence on the album. The band must have known they had something special on their hands, as \u201cImitation of Life\u201d was released as a single, and it took the #1 spot on the Adult Alternative charts. (Adult Alternative?<\/i> I guess that\u2019s where we were with R.E.M. in 2001.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSummer Turns to High\u201d returns to the dreamy vibe. It\u2019s a gentle and lovely song, with some nice Leslie-effected guitar work from Peter Buck. There\u2019s a vaguely 10cc character to the song. But again, Berry is missed, as is Mills\u2019 vocal work (if it\u2019s there, it\u2019s hard to discern).<\/p>\n

Acoustic and baroque textures figure into \u201cChorus and the Ring.\u201d Faraway gunshot percussion, accordion and other bits of filigree adorn the song. It\u2019s a pretty melody, but the song has the feel of an intro that never breaks into the song itself. Buck opens \u201cI\u2019ll Take the Rain\u201d on acoustic; this is at least the fourth time on Reveal<\/em> that he\u2019s done so. Mills\u2019 bass — a key ingredient in R.E.M.\u2019s appeal \u2013 finally gets some prominence. The elegiac tune shimmers and shines, with the arrangement building, pulling back (with ghostly bits of pedal steel here and there) and expands again.<\/p>\n

That electronic feel returns for an odd and uncharacteristic closer, \u201cBeachball.\u201d The horn work and wood-block drum machine suggest what might happen if Herb Alpert and an \u201880s synth band got together. There\u2019s also a vaguely late-sixties Beach Boys feel to the track; maybe that explains the title?<\/p>\n

Reveal<\/em> certainly improved upon its predecessor, 1998\u2019s Up<\/i>. And honestly, it\u2019s not fair to measure R.E.M.\u2019s 12th<\/sup> long player against its debut made nearly two decades earlier. A perplexing album in many regards, Reveal<\/i> shows R.E.M. at a curious point in its history. And while it never rocks, viewed against the backdrop of popular music in 2001, it\u2019s a very good record, one that\u2019s far better than one might have expected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine, if you will, that it\u2019s 1984. You\u2019re a serious fan of R.E.M., owning and treasuring their debut EP Chronic Town and the pair of albums they released, 1983\u2019s Murmur […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,62,64,65,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","cat-51-id","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\/26266","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=26266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29842,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26266\/revisions\/29842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}