R.E.M.'s new album Around the Sun

Todd H · 10-04-2004, 09:59 PM

Any other longtime R.E.M. fans picking this up tomorrow? I've heard Leaving New York, which I really enjoyed. I haven't heard any of the other songs on the CD however. Still, it's R.E.M. which always means I'm buying it no matter what.

Lee Scoggins · 10-04-2004, 10:27 PM

Quote:

"Old Van Halen, when I was in it - classic Van Halen - makes you wanna drink, dance and screw, right? And the new Van Halen encourages you to drink milk, drive a Nissan and have a relationship." - David Lee Roth

Great quote!

Bill GrandPre · 10-04-2004, 11:08 PM

I'll definitely be getting it. I still have a lot of love for the post-Berry R.E.M. and I think "Up" and "Reveal" are vastly underrated. I've only heard "Leaving New York" but I thought it was excellent.

10-05-2004, 08:26 AM

My $0.02:

I suggest listening to it (http://www.remhq.com) before you purchase. I'm glad I did, and I'll be passing on this one. I liked Reveal, but I just coudn't get into Around the Sun. I do like Leaving New York, but nothing else struck me as particularly memorable. This is a very subdued effort, which can be good (like Automatic For the People), but this one just doesn't seem to have any "spark" for me.

John Pine · 10-05-2004, 11:16 AM

Thanks for the link Dave!

**HTF Ads**

Ted Lee · 10-05-2004, 12:05 PM

ditto john. nice link!

i'll be checking it out more thoroughly (the videography looks pretty cool) later. for now, i'm sampling the album while i work.

Joe Kamsan · 10-05-2004, 02:26 PM

Thank you for the link Dave.

I'll pass.

Even Leaving New York, which others seem to like, is fairly bland. Really really disappointing.

Edit: meant to write bland, instead of bleh - where on Earth did I pull that one out of.

Ted Lee · 10-05-2004, 03:40 PM

not bad. i think i'm gettin' old cuz i like the more melodic relaxed stuff now. so this fits my bill pretty well. i figure bb will have it for 10 bucks, so it'll definitely be worth that.

10-06-2004, 10:25 AM

Unfortunately, I agree with this review:

http://www.theonionavclub.com/music/...e=4040#review2

Quote:

R.E.M.'s early years were marked with mystery: Singer Michael Stipe, hidden behind a curly mane, sang lyrics that seemed free-associative, when they were discernable at all. That strangeness, and the ability to spring forward with the occasional dizzyingly great pop song, constituted a large part of the Georgia group's charm. With each album, R.E.M. slowly emerged from its gauzy cover, becoming one of the most famous and revered bands on the planet. Just when it seemed to get more popular than diehard fans could have imagined, the group would peel back another layer, add some pop, and sell a ton of records.

On rare occasions, R.E.M. has tested its own limits and floundered: The rock moves of 1994's Monster still ring a bit false, and moments on 1996's New Adventures In Hi-Fi seem undercooked. But since they were made in service of a higher goal—finding the next layer, figuring out what R.E.M. should become—those moves always felt forgivable. On the occasions they really paid off, as on the band's first post-Bill Berry album, Up, the results could be staggeringly good; at middle-age, R.E.M. was making music as relevant and exciting as its early-youth material. Surprisingly, particularly in light of 2001's solid Reveal, the new Around The Sun may push the limits of fans' patience, though likely not much else.

In eliminating both the mystery of its early years and the restless spirit of more recent times, R.E.M. leaves just exactly what R.E.M.-haters probably felt the band made all along: midtempo, largely hookless adult rock. It's a shame to see the detractors proved right, but aside from the album bookends "Leaving New York" and "Around The Sun," Around The Sun does little to keep itself from drowning in a mire of thumb-twiddlers. Listening to an R.E.M. record shouldn't inspire a constant reach for the fast-forward button, but just about the only thing here that even inspires a raised eyebrow is the tacked-on appearance of Q-Tip on "The Outsiders," which marks the most incongruous guest rap on a rock track since, well, R.E.M.'s "Radio Song." Perhaps Stipe and company felt that Around The Sun would mark an adventurous move into the flatlands, or an experiment in removing all but the most basic elements of its sound to create something profoundly simple. Instead, it mostly sounds like indifference from a group that can, has, and likely will go miles deeper than this.

Here's another interesting review:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...xkcikkdbbc9~T1

And another:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record...-the-sun.shtml

And the rest:
http://www.metacritic.com/music/arti.../aroundthesun/