R.E.M., ‘Around the Sun’
By user • Oct 14th, 2004 • Category: Album Reviews
Michael Stipe sang, “It’s the end of the world as we know it,” in 1987.
It wasn’t, but the 1992 masterpiece “Automatic For The People” should have been called, “It’s the end of R.E.M. as we know it.”
What happened to the favorite sons of ‘80’s college radio, who grew into the most important American band of the decade? Where are Mike Mills’ harmonies, Stipe’s bellowing voice and Peter Buck’s jangly experimentation?
The trio has outgrown the band that has defined the Athens, Ga. Natives for more than 20 years. R.E.M. hasn’t grown up; they’ve grown old.
Stipe spends his days producing films. Buck, the band’s primary songwriter, now writes most of his tunes for his side project, The Minus 5.
R.E.M.’s maudlin 13th release is the band’s least direct effort. Teetering between boring, melodrama and dark, try-too-hard tales of isolations, the 13 songs cone across as a lackluster attempt by a band that went back to the studio and gave things another go-round just to stay fresh and relevant.
When in fact, the only relevance “Around The Sun” has is to the story of Icarus.
Northern Star, Oct. 14, 2004
user is
Email this author | All posts by user