Reckoning (studio album) by R.E.M.

From HoldenM 03/23/2025 22:34

Maybe my new favorite R.E.M. album?? This thing rocks.

From Jboy56 05/08/2024 13:39

Liked

Good follow-up to Murmur, it starts with 4 strong tracks with So. Central Rain being the biggest highlight of the whole album, then we get 4 weaker ones (Camera would be great if not so long), and by the end we get 2 gems with Little Anerica being probably the most underrated on the record.

I like the live feel of this album compared to Murmur, which feels more like R.E.M. still finding themselves. Used to love watching "Left of Reckoning" also

Really good album. I appreciate that REM couldn't just keep churning out albums with the same sound and approach forever but those IRS discs really are special. I don't agree that the band was lousy after going to the majors but they were definitely different.

From seb7 12/02/2020 05:28

My favorite of REM’s, and also the best with murmurs right behind. Extremely high highs and meh lows

A really mature album considering that this was only their second and rarely hit these heights again

From Boltzmann 09/03/2018 11:57

Murmur no. 2... eh, why not

From Brad1770 01/02/2018 03:53

One of my favorite R.E.M albums , clearly better that Murmur IMO . "Pretty Persuasion" & "Don't Go Back To Rockville" sit comfortably as 2 of my all time R.E.M tracks . Only 2 tracks bomb here in "Time After Time" and "Second Guessing" , everything else is either good or great. Oh and it stands the test of time really well as I never get tired of listening to it.

As a traditionally structured guitar-pop album, this couldn't be much better. Because its melodies are so perfect and unsentimental, I haven't tired of it after more than 30 years. I think it helps that the songs are not explicit, because in that way they keep the listener's imagination active. It's not just that you can lay your own shifting meanings into the lyrics depending on your state of mind, but at many points the music is layered and opaque without being muddy, which must have been a very hard balance to achieve, and that keeps it interesting after many years. They also avoided some of the fashions of the day that might have dated their sound and came up with an original sound connected to uniquely American folk traditions. For a band that idolized New York punk, they surprisingly gravitated toward a folk sound that was probably very true to their personal experiences having grown up in the deep south. I think the band got weaker later when they tried to sound more like their New York and glam-rock idols. Early R.E.M. sometimes bring to mind the sensibility of Harry Smith, who was both a mysterious avant-garde bohemian artist, based in New York, and an archivist of American folk music. I think both R.E.M. and Harry Smith can be placed in a continuum of uniquely American creativity that combines the avant-garde with folk traditions.