There's probably an experimental animal lurking somewhere in R.E.M., but this always innovative band never goes off the deep end in Reveal, their latest album. This album still has old-fashioned things like melodies, choruses, and verses. Stagnant it isn't, though. R.E.M.'s music always seems to float off somewhere, in the best way possible. Their latest collection of songs is a group of bittersweet musical slices of life that evoke an emotion, a mood, and a reaction sonically and lyrically.
Reveal only further solidifies R.E.M.'s position as masters of the melody. The atmospheric arrangements are top-notch. Strings soar and even the most subdued acoustic guitar lines find a way to roar.
The yearning in Stipe's voice is at times as palpable as it was in "Everybody Hurts." Lyrically, the faux glitz of places like Reno ("All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)") and Hollywood ("Imitation of Life") lie side by side with the melancholy but hopeful realism of "I'll Take the Rain" (quite possibly the best track on the album). The title sounds hopeful enough, but it hides a deeper meaning. "Have I missed the big reveal?. . Do my eyes seem empty?" Stipe asks in "I've Been High." He later admits, "I've been high . . . but sometimes life washes over me . . . I dive into a pool so cold and deep . . . and when I swim I fly so high." That metaphor may also be one of the best ways to describe R.E.M.'s music: lyrical and musical highs and lows intermingled and awash with the listener. The sheer tunefulness of this album and the tender longing buried deep in its themes make it a close cousin to 1992's Automatic for the People in more ways than one. In my opinion, it's also probably their best album since that opus. A superb record.
5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Brian A. SmithReveal is an album that should have been released before REM's last release, Up. It would have been a much more logical progression from New Adventures in Hi-Fi. The group has almost returned to an old form, with lyrical pictures and stories set to music, with Michael Stipe portraying obscure movies ("Imitation of Life"), yearning ("I've Been High"), and themes of summer ("Imitation of Life,"…The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Glenn McCartyIt's somehow comforting that REM is still making quality albums after all these years and all these trials. True, boy bands ran off Billy Corgan last year, but nearly twenty years and one less drummer later, the genre-creators from Athens are still alive and kicking with a refreshingly mature, self-assured album that likely won't outsell any of its trendy, good-looking contemporaries, but is a…Similar sounding releases
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