R.E.M.
Reveal
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R.E.M.
Reveal
Warner Bros., 2001
RiYL: Beach Boys, Brian Eno, High Llamas, Built To Spill |
Somewhere on a farm near Athens, Georgia, U.S.A., atop a moving tractor, with the morning sun shining down on his workman's cap, one-fourth of what was once the biggest rock band in the world is probably smiling contentedly. Bill is at home, he is no longer part of R.E.M., and he's living the life he longed for when he got up the courage to break the news to his three good buddies in 1997 that he wasn't into being a rock drummer anymore.
But in a very different part of the same country, I'm staring quizzically at my stereo as it plays the latest recording by said three good buddies. They're still calling themselves R.E.M. But having spent more than half of my short life listening to music made by the band of that name, I'm not so sure I believe them.
Sure, Reveal exhibits many characteristics indigenous to R.E.M. I can clearly hear Michael Stipe singing, Peter Buck playing guitar, and Mike Mills augmenting his elegantly crafted melodies the many ways he knows how. But there's something about this record, even more so than 1998's Up, that makes it sound like the product of a different band comprising three members of what used to be R.E.M.
Technically the group's 12th full-length album, Reveal arrives just over 21 years after Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe first played in front of an audience of University of Georgia students at a friend's birthday party. The full history of those 21 years is too extensive to go into here, but the four enterprising musicians made some amazing albums on their way to becoming possibly the world's biggest rock band by the early '90s. They went on hugely successful world tours in 1989 and 1995 to celebrate their most arena-friendly albums, creating yet another excellent road record out of soundchecks and live performances from the latter. But sometime in the year following its release, Berry (who had suffered a life-threatening aneurysm on the tour) decided he had had enough. The remaining three went through some tough times and self-examination before producing Up and following it with yet another tour in 1999.
While cavorting around the world on this latest jaunt (accompanied by top sidemen Ken Stringfellow, Scott McCaughey and Joey Waronker), the trio went through one of those find-yourself moments when they realized they were still a pretty good band without Berry. They had been unsure of this fact during the recording of Up, as various drummers and synthetic beat-producing machines rolled through the studio and the band made valiant attempts to keep what they knew as R.E.M. going. The results then were wonderful in their own way, but they were certainly a transition. The songs as a whole sounded different, but still bore resemblance to the band's earlier incarnation: almost as if the other fellas were compensating for Berry, trying to piece together the last R.E.M. album in a "proper" fashion before bowing out gracefully, in an Abbey Road-kind of way.
But through the making of that album and its subsequent tour, it was realized that this version of R.E.M. rocked on its own terms, and didn't have to "make up" for the lack of Berry. Buck, Mills and Stipe decided they wanted to continue making music together, and they happily worked up Reveal over the year that followed the tour.
Many adjectives have been thrown around in reference to this latest album: lush, atmospheric, beautiful, summery, melodic. All apply. This is R.E.M.'s pop record.
The album is the band's most cohesive since 1994's Monster. While both of the last two efforts have been collections of experiments, showing the band's willingness to try new things and spread out their repertoire, Reveal is one of those albums you can put on during a summer's afternoon and let it smoothly play through. It actually sounds like it was crafted with that exact scenario in mind, as a lot of its sugary sweet soundscapes can function as either ambient background music for a picnic or headphone music for a tanning session. It's surely a warm weather album, and the abstract guitar and keyboard flourishes that dot its tunes often sound like breezes passing through thick heat.
Reveal as a whole is very sonically intricate. The production of the album is about as far away from the immediate, raw sound of, say, Reckoning as can be -- new adventures in hi-fi, to be sure. But Reveal is a grower,and the more one listens even to potentially boring creations like "She Just Wants To Be," the more one appreciates the layers of tones and sounds that complete them. Some of the songs that lack traditional drums (the pulsating "I've Been High" and the haunting dirge "Saturn Return") show a band that has allowed itself to drift very far away from its roots and still excel in other idioms.
Lyrically, those who have followed Stipe through his many stages will probably be right with him at this point. Many of the songs are laced with an "abstract snapshot" of lyric, Stipe trying to convey a single moment in time or crucial point in someone's decision-making process by stringing phrases together. This method can be very evocative, as in "All The Way To Reno," where a hard-luck entertainer drives into the Nevada desert with pipe dreams of making the big time, or beautiful closer "Beach Ball," in which an oceanside dusk is summoned with remarkable clarity. Still, occasionally Stipe's bubbly effervescence at the beauty of life produces lyrics so happy as to seem slightly disingenuous, such as "The Lifting"'s "The weather's fine, the sky is blue / It's perfect for our seminar" or first single "Imitation Of Life" and its persistent chorus ("That's cinnamon that tasted good / that's sugarcane / that's Hollywood"). "Beat A Drum," the melodic centerpiece of the album, features a disappointingly simple refrain of "This is all I want / it's all I need / this is all I am / it's everything."
Just a touch too many of these moments imply that Stipe perhaps wasn't quite as attentive to the lyrics this go around in favor of spending more time composing the intricate melody lines and helping orchestrate the juxtaposition of the other instruments, such as the sharp, buzzing violin storm that opens "Disappear" or the subtly nuanced keyboard layers of "Summer Turns To High."
The latter is one of the album's finest wares: a tiny, organ-fueled number that brings to mind past minimalist exercises like "Parakeet" from Up or "Fuck Me Kitten" from Automatic For The People. Stipe emits sticky, warm imagery ("Laughter, wine and nectarines / the fireflies and time / move like syrup through the evening), as the band manages to evoke a vivid musical picture of a hot summer day. Short, two-second blasts of drum rolls serve as transitions between verses and bridges, but beyond that, the percussion is minimal, in a dramatic, Pet Sounds manner. This is the type of summer single I think some of us were expecting to hear once we got to the 21st century.
And there are a certainly few other tracks on Reveal that rank with the band's most captivating. "All The Way To Reno" is a sad, but somewhat hopeful tune, laden with one of the most elaborate music beds the band's ever laid totape. It's sort of a lilting, southwestern space ballad that simultaneously conveys hardship and beauty. "Chorus And The Ring" is one of the weirder and most compelling things to come from the R.E.M. camp in recent years, with completely wacky lyrics and melodic phrasing that makes it sound alternately like a Brill Building demo, a middle-American folk song, and an Irish sea chantey. And "I'll Take The Rain," as cheesy as its restrained "adult contemporary" sound might seem upon first listen, is destined to be one of the group's trademark ballads.
Reveal is varied in structure, and intricately patterned, but cohesive. It is a different animal than an "old" R.E.M. album. It may be the sound of a band on its last (or close to its last) legs. But it is definitely a strong musical accomplishment.
If you have been listening to rock music during the last two decades, you probably already have your ideas about R.E.M. and you know what it is you like or don't like about their music. However, I will say this: on some level, you're bound to find Reveal interesting. For the hard-core fan, it's a garden of delights to explore, compare, dissect or memorize. For the casual aficionado of the band's "hits" output, it'll prove a pleasant, hook-filled cake of an album. And there are plenty treats as well for the other segments of their fanbase.
Bill is missed, and there is no question about that. But it is definitely refreshing to hear three-fourths of this great band still trying to experiment and try new things 20 years on. The results are fun to listen to, and intriguing once explored. When all the votes are counted, it may not rank among the most classic R.E.M. albums, but Reveal has a class all its own. A new summer soul.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.