R.E.M. - Reveal (2001) WMA320

After the release of Automatic For The People,R.E.M. were probably considered along with U2 to be one of the premier rock acts in the world.Three subsequent albums and they found their place had been taken by harder hitting rock acts and a world taken over by dance music.Very much like U2's last release this album will see R.E.M. gaining the ultimate triumph-they've seen off the 90's pretenders and are now set to return to the top of the rock tree.For this is easily their best work in nearly a decade.
On reading the first reviews of this c.d. I sort of had the impression that it was going to be their most commercial work yet.The first magnificent single Imitation Of Life had an instant appeal for me and I expected each subsquent album track to be the same.Well I was totally wrong.There are no other tracks with that sort of instant appeal-but give this c.d. a few listens and you discover tracks of great depth,songs that have an upbeat almost summer feel to them and yes their most accesible work in years.Yeah I think this album will be huge and the main reason for this is that there are no dud tracks,no over-indulgent experiments-just good quality songs that epitomised R.E.M.'s early work and that you'd get on 50% of the tracks on Monster,New Adventures... and Up! Track one starts this c.d. off in great style-the most immediate thing to notice is the use of swirling synths and Stipe sounding in great form.It's the sort of song that makes you think "oh this is a return to what they do best".Track 2 is a really beautiful atmostpheric track-people have compared this to Massive Attack or Portishead.Once again there is very little guitar here-synths and drum machines give this ballad a mininmalist feel .The guitar returns spectacularly in track 3-the riff dominates and sounds like deep country sounds.Lyrically it's quite funny-and vocally it's one of the albums highlights.So after 3 tracks you realise that this is going to be a great album.Track 4 starts off with an acousitc guitar and this song initially has a bit of a folk-ballad sound.Then the chorus kicks in and you get all sorts of Wurlitzer effects-it's one of these songs that really takes a while to grow before you realise how good it is.The contrast between the low key start to the instrumental section with full strings section is incredible.Track 5 Disappear with it's references to Tel Aviv and Agadir is really like something taken from Automatic ... without the multi-layered harmonies.

Saturn Return is another amazing track.At first I thought it sounded very like Airportman from Up.Piano chords,feint guitar and a myriad of distorted background effects added to Stipe doing falsetto-it's a darker more atmostpheric track then the majority of songs on this c.d.Beat A Drum has a complete change of mood-it's a real summer song with nature seemingly painted in all it's glory-this song will cheer you up no matter what sort of day you've had.Then we have the amazing and most commercial song on the c.d. Imitation Of Life-my God what a chorus.It's got to be the best R.E.M. single in ten years.The summer feeling continues with the next song that has a real Beach Boy feel to it.

The summer feeling goes for the next song Chorus And The Ring-few keyboards on this song.It's mostly gentle electric guitar and sounds very like early R.E.M.The next song is a beautiful sentimental ballad,the chorus is a real sing along strong chorus and like most of the songs on this c.d. it's a pretty slow tempo song.The last song has once again got an upbeat feel to it,with certain Latino influences,a brass interlude and a full string compliment again.A great way to end this wonderful c.d.

I've had this c.d. for nearly a week now and I haven't stopped listening to it.This is just a great c.d. and the best return to form of one of the best rock bands in the world.

by Ian Creamer

TRACKLIST:

01 - The Lifting.wma
02 - I've Been High.wma
03 - All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star).wma
04 - She Just Wants To Be.wma
05 - Disappear.wma
06 - Saturn Return.wma
07 - Beat A Drum.wma
08 - Imitation Of Life.wma
09 - Summer Turns To High.wma
10 - Chorus And The Ring.wma
11 - I'll Take The Rain.wma
12 - Beachball.wma

WMA 320Kbps 44100Hz STEREO