The inscrutable elegance of Murmur, an affable open-heartedness to fans and bands alike, and countless miles of hard touring, had by 1984 turned REM into darlings of the American underground.
Reckoning, remarkably, deepened the band’s mythology, projecting a kind of existential restlessness wrapped in webs of gorgeous guitar arpeggio and interweaving vocal textures. The band’s range broadens here, incorporating everything from Velvets-style drone to a touch of honky-tonk, as singer Michael Stipe, swathed in Southern twang, shades the would-be fatalism of “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville” with layers of melancholy.
There’s nary a stumble; the glorious harmony-and-jangle rush of “Harborcoat” and the pounding dirge “So. Central Rain” remain career highlights. Too bad Universal couldn’t assemble a Reckoning Sessions set, though, considering the quality of attendant outtakes; a fine live tape from Chicago 1984 that captures the group’s scruffy stage persona comprises the bonus disc.
LUKE TORN
For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive
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Reckoning, remarkably, deepened the band’s mythology, projecting a kind of existential restlessness wrapped in webs of gorgeous guitar arpeggio and interweaving vocal textures. The band’s range broadens here, incorporating everything from Velvets-style drone to a touch of honky-tonk, as singer Michael Stipe, swathed in Southern twang, shades the would-be fatalism of “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville” with layers of melancholy.
There’s nary a stumble; the glorious harmony-and-jangle rush of “Harborcoat” and the pounding dirge “So. Central Rain” remain career highlights. Too bad Universal couldn’t assemble a Reckoning Sessions set, though, considering the quality of attendant outtakes; a fine live tape from Chicago 1984 that captures the group’s scruffy stage persona comprises the bonus disc.
LUKE TORN
For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive
Post to Twitter
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