| Product Summary | | Label: Warner/reprise/maverick | | UPC: 00093624889427 | | Release Date: 10/5/2004 | | Buy.com Sku: 63840609 | | Item#: MYEYJ4 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Leaving New York ~ R.E.M. |  | | 2. Electron Blue ~ R.E.M. | | | 3. Outsiders, The - (featuring Q-Tip) ~ R.E.M. | | | 4. Make It All Okay ~ R.E.M. | | | 5. Final Straw ~ R.E.M. | | | 6. I Wanted To Be Wrong ~ R.E.M. | | | 7. Wanderlust ~ R.E.M. | | | 8. Boy In The Well ~ R.E.M. | | | 9. Aftermath ~ R.E.M. | | | 10. High Speed Train ~ R.E.M. | | | 11. Worst Joke Ever, The ~ R.E.M. | | | 12. Ascent Of Man, The ~ R.E.M. | | | 13. Around The Sun ~ R.E.M. | |
| Around The Sun, R.E.M.'s first new studio album since 2001's gold Reveal, is as emotional and ulti- mately uplifting as its "Leaving New York" single. With a renewed band dynamic and songs influenced by world events, Around The Sun surprises and satisfies and is both political and poignant. Says Michael Stipe: "Even the most depressing R.E.M.song is going to have a glimmer of hope." For fans of one of rock's most acclaimed bands, hope revolves around R.E.M.
"Undercut by passion and urgency." Alternative Press
"Often recalls 1992's Automatic For The People in its sobriety of purpose." Uncut
"Stipe's cleanest melodies and most inviting vocal performances in years." Village Voice
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | R.E.M.: Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck. | | Additional personnel: Hahn Rowe, Ken Stringfellow, Q-Tip, Scott McCaughey, Bill Rieflin, Jamie Candiloro. | | Audio Mixers: R.E.M.; Jamie Candiloro; Patrick McCarthy. | | Recording information: Compass Point, Nassau, Germany; Criteria Studios, Miami, FL; The Hit Factory, New York, NY; The Warehouse Studio, Vancouver, British Columbia, Cana. | | Photographer: Thomas Roman Dozol. | | Ten years after the commercial zenith of Monster and seven years after the departure of linchpin Bill Berry, R.E.M. have never seemed as directionless as they do on their 13th album, Around the Sun. To a certain extent, R.E.M. have seemed unsure ever since Monster -- sporadically brilliant as it is, New Adventures in Hi-Fi was an effort to clear the decks and redefine the band in the wake of its breakthrough to superstar status. It pointed in a few directions the group could follow, but Berry left the band before they could follow those paths, leaving Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe at a bit of a loss on what to do next. They initially responded with the overly experimental, overly serious Up in 1998, which gave way to the classicist Reveal in 2001. While these two records were of a piece -- heavy on keyboards, containing far more deliberate performances than anything recorded with Berry -- they had different characters and feels, which was not unusual for R.E.M.; since the careening, ragged Reckoning followed the hazy, dreamlike Murmur, each album had an element of a surprise, offering something different than what came before. That's not the case with Around the Sun, which refines and polishes the blueprint of Reveal to the point that Q-Tip's rap on "The Outsiders" fades into the background as if it were another overdubbed keyboard or acoustic guitar. This is as slow and ballad-heavy as Automatic for the People, but where that album was filled with raw emotion and weird detours, Around the Sun is tasteful and streamlined, from its fussy production to its somber songwriting. Automatic may have been obsessed with death and regret, but it was empathetic and comforting. In contrast, Around the Sun offers no weighty themes -- it dabbles in politics and relationships, but the lyrics never seem to mesh with the music -- and it's emotionally removed, keeping listeners at a considerable distance. Here, R.E.M. write songs like craftsmen without distinction -- the songs are sturdily constructed but bland, lacking musical and lyrical hooks. The band sound as if they were going through the motions, hoping to save the tunes in the mix. With their layered, low-key production, R.E.M. seem hell-bent on leaving behind anything that could be construed as their signature sound, so keyboards and drum machines are pushed to the front as Buck's guitar strums instead of jangles and Mills' background vocals are buried in the mix under Stipe's double-tracked harmonies. Change is all well and good, but this doesn't feel like organic change; it feels like the end result of too many hours in the studio tinkering with synthesizers and overdubs, resulting in a record as studiously serious as Wilco but as radio-friendly as U2. By straddling these two extremes, R.E.M. wind up with a record that's neither fish nor fowl -- all the quirks in the production have been sanded down and glossed over so it can slip right onto adult alternative rock airwaves, but it's too insular, too overthought to appeal to either a wide audience or R.E.M.'s dwindling cult following. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine | | The follow-up to 2001's laid-back REVEAL, AROUND THE SUN finds R.E.M. mining a similar vein of dreamy, mellow rock. "Leaving New York" sets the tone with Peter Buck's chiming guitar and Michael Stipe's plaintive vocals at the fore, while "Electron Blue" continues the band's occasional forays into electronic territory with keyboard-driven atmospherics. Other standout tracks include the haunting "The Outsiders" (which features rapper Q-Tip, recalling OUT OF TIME's "Radio Song" with KRS-One in execution if not in tone) and the folky, defiant "Final Straw," a blatant condemnation of fear-instilling governmental policies. | | Not as exploratory as other latter-day R.E.M. albums NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI (1996) and UP (1998), AROUND THE SUN occasionally echoes the ensemble's lauded AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE's laconic feel, though it doesn't quite match that record's gravitas. In any case, this outing displays the 24-year-old band in a surprisingly relaxed and comfortable mode, and who says that's a bad thing? |
Producer: R.E.M.; Patrick McCarthy; R.E.M.; Pat McCarthy |
Engineer: Jamie Candiloro; Jamie Candiloro |
Musical Guests | | Q-Tip |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 10/05/2004 | | Original Release Date : 2004 | | Catalog ID : 48894 | | Label : Warner Bros. Records (Record Label) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00093624889427 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.99)
- 3 stars out of 5 - "R.E.M. here resemble their classic selves."Rolling Stone (p.151)
- Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Records Of 2004 - "[A] disc of frankly spiritual and acutely topical protest ballads, draped in futuristic PET SOUNDS strum and hum." Spin (pp.112-14)
- "AROUND THE SUN is R.E.M.'s return to folk-rock chamber music..." - Grade: B- Uncut (p.100)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "These 13 songs are sung by people exhausted by the trials of their country, haunted by ghosts of its promise, tentatively hopeful of renewal or reconciliation." Uncut (p.75)
- Ranked #16 in Uncut's "Best New Albums of 2004" - "[A] set of powerfully reflective songs populated by the walking wounded rather than shiny happy people." Alternative Press (p.113)
- "Thirteen studio albums into their career, R.E.M. can still throw listeners for a loop. 'The Outsiders' is as velvety smooth as Massive Attack..." - 4 out of 5 Billboard 6 of 10
Venerable pop-rockers R.E.M. display little artistic progress on "Around the Sun," the group's 13th
Rolling Stone 7 of 10
Around the Sun is full of what are ultimately anti-power ballads, the kind that question rath - Barry Walter
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