MattA75's Full Review: Around the Sun [Digipak] by R.E.M.
Things have not quite gone R.E.M.'s way since the parting of ways with drummer Bill Berry. There was once a promise amongst the four original members to break up if one of them were to leave. But the band decided to continue on, and needless to say, their musical output since has been a series of peaks and valleys, with the valleys counting for a good amount of that time.
Up, the first album without Berry, wasn't a bad effort, considering. The single for the Andy Kaufman film, The Great Beyond was terrific. Then came 2001's Reveal, which had a couple of moments amongst a bunch of songs that blended together and bored the listener to death. They recovered nicely with last year's greatest hits package, which featured two excellent new songs, including the energetic Bad Day. So now, the band is back with Around the Sun, and sad to say, there are once again more valleys than peaks. The good news is that there are a few more bright spots here than on Reveal.
The first single, and opening track, Leaving New York, is a sweetly melodic midtempo track that recalls R.E.M.'s jangly past while including enough of the band's more atmospheric experimentation of the last couple of albums. The early highs don't stop there though. Electron Blue features a great vocal performance from Michael Stipe, and to come up with adjectives to describe this song is hard. It's a mix of electronic fuzz, piano, drums, and even a bit of quiet, layered in guitar. I'm not quite sure how the song works, since there's really no way it should, but it does.
Make It All Okay is a solid piano driven ballad, not quite as upbeat or hopeful as previous R.E.M. fare like Nightswimming, but it at least has some passion and some fire in it. Not to be lost are the contributions of guitarist Peter Buck to this song; his little bits of interplay are the glue that keep the song rolling.
Just as wonderful is I Wanted To Be Wrong, which has a great vocal hook and more good work from Buck, this time on acoustic guitar. The track that immediately follows is the most playful R.E.M. allow themselves to get on the record. Wanderlust is a stomping bit of acoustic folk pop that weaves other elements into its shuffling arrangement. If only a few more songs on this record had this much goofy energy, it may have turned out to be a much more satisfying effort.
Even the songs over the first 2/3 of the record that I'm not a big fan of aren't bad songs necessarily, they just have flaws that I can't ignore. The Outsiders would work perfectly fine if it ended before Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest re-started the song. His skills are just fine, it just feels uncomfortable, as if the song is extended unnaturally. The fact that the song literally stops and restarts gives it a choppy, uncomfortable feel.
Other tracks, like Final Straw, are ok enough songs, but they just have no life, no personality to them. There's being dour and there's being boring, and well, these songs are just plain boring.
And speaking of boring, the last four tracks or so on this album drag on like you wouldn't believe. Much like Final Straw, they have no life, no energy, nothing engaging about them at all. They're just sort of there, kind of floating into your ears and out the other side, putting you to sleep, boring the hell out of you. The songs blend together and begin to resemble the type of 15 minute long opus that any fan of rock and roll should dread.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Around the Sun [Digipak] by R.E.M.](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/e6/bc/29/2002283449-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.