It's hard to imagine a rock group more devoted to one another than R.E.M.. Though Athens' finest broke up in 2011, repeatedly insisting that no reunion would ever happen, in 2016 guitarist Peter Buck told The Guardian, "Technically, the band broke up...But we didn’t really. We’re just not making records or touring." So, they're hanging out together? The closeness of these four men seems to run deeper than just being in a rock band together.
This is why the greatest disruption in their career came in 1997 when drummer Bill Berry left the band. For most bands, drummers especially are interchangeable, but R.E.M. were never the same without Berry. R.E.M. had vowed to break up if any member left the band, but Berry told his bandmates that he would not quit if it would be the end of R.E.M., so they continued with his blessing, but in a state they never expected to find themselves in.
Michael Stipe famously remarked on MTV, "Mike and Peter, as R.E.M., are we still R.E.M.? I guess a three-legged dog is still a dog. It just has to learn how to run differently." Stipe's usual way with words perfectly summed up the uncertainty with which R.E.M. would be going forward.
Ranking R.E.M.'s post-Bill Berry albums
R.E.M. sounded uncertain on these five albums, and that uncertainty hit its nadir in 2004 with Around The Sun, the band's worst-received album (though I like it... more on that later...) But this gave R.E.M. a new sense of purpose, as they set out to prove they still had it. Had Around The Sun not happened, or been better received, that would've been their swansong. The writing was on the wall, the end was nigh, but only if they could go out on a high.
The final two albums were a triumph because they allowed R.E.M. to go out in style after the previous fifteen years had been quite a rollercoaster for the boys and their fans.
Up (1998)
Up sounds like dating someone who's not over their ex. Bill Berry may not be on Up, but his absence is all over it. It sounds as if R.E.M. are trying to honour Berry's absence by changing their sound to something airier and less percussive, rather than simply hiring a session drummer and trying to continue as if nothing's changed. But that makes Up an album about absence and emptiness, which is no fun for anyone.
Absence and emptiness are very relatable feelings; if R.E.M. had managed to channel them into the music, it would've been quintessential R.E.M., invigoratingly intimate and vulnerable. But Up maintains the pretense that they're moving on to a new Berry-less sound. That sound is, in reality, maudlin experimentation that goes nowhere.
The frustrating thing is that to call R.E.M.'s music Maudlin is like calling water wet, yet they usually make it work. Can you imagine "Everybody Hurts" being a good song, let alone a great song if it were by any other band? But where "Everybody Hurts" is anthemic, the equivalent tracks on Up (and there are a lot of them) just wallow.
Like any ill-fated romance, Up starts with passion, opening track "Lotus" is deceptively lively and fun. What's strange is that "Lotus" and Up's other highlights, like the defiant "Walk Unafraid" and the lovely "Daysleeper" are pretty excellent, and come off as portraits of what Up should've been. "Daysleeper" and "At My Most Beautiful" even have that raw emotionality that the maudlin experimental tracks were going for. "At My Most Beautiful" is even a little uncomfortably emotional, but the fearlessness it takes to write songs like that is what we love about R.E.M.
Those highlights, especially "At My Most Beautiful" also stand out for being too well-developed to fit in here. "At My Most Beautiful" goes somewhere, building to an orchestral crescendo, where most of the other tracks end with a whimper.
Up's greatest strength is its experimentation, and the best illustration of how experimental Up gets is "Hope," which sounds like "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen played on a Pacman machine. R.E.M. never stood still, and they deserve credit for trying something so new. It's just a shame we can't have a little bit of fun.
Best lyric:
The bull and the bear are marking their territories
They're leading the blind with their international glories
I am the screen, the blinding light
I'm the screen, I work at night
From "Daysleeper"
Reveal (2001)
The first track on Reveal, "The lifting," is a sequel to Up's "Daysleeper." "The Lifting" is a cheerier number, words of encouragement for the character who "cried the other night, and can't even say why" It's tempting to think of Reveal as a do-over for Up, same meditative low-tempo lo-fi numbers, the same experimental instruments, synths, and songwriting but with a cheerier outlook and more coherent songs, it's a pleasure to listen to, wall to wall loveliness.
The problem with Reveal is that nothing's particularly memorable. These songs, save for the single "Imitation of Life," have no hooks. This cannot possibly have been an oversight, given R.E.M.'s mastery of pop structure. Again, it's a noble experiment, but it doesn't quite work out. But at least the result is a pleasure to listen to, especially after the ordeal that was Up.
Reveal is neither fish nor fowl, too bright and airy to be considered experimental, but too hookless and strange to be a conventional pop record. It's the definition of a fans-only album. If you need more than "It's R.E.M." to make you want to listen, it will be a frustrating experience, but if you're happy following the three-legged dog wherever its whims take it, then you'll find that Reveal is the dark horse of R.E.M.'s catalogue.
Best lyric:
Easy to poke yourself square in the eye
Harder to like yourself, harder to try
From "Saturn Return"
Around The Sun (2004)
And so we come to Around The Sun. As someone who writes about music on the internet, I am familiar with those "Bad Albums by Great Artists" listicles, and Around The Sun always ends up on those, near the top. Albums with toxic reputations like this usually get reassessed after a decade or two, but I don't see any reassessment for Around The Sun on the horizon. Every great artist with a long enough career releases one bad album, but Around The Sun wasn't just received as a bad album, it was scandalously bad. It nearly scuppered their legendary status. Even R.E.M. won't defend it.
As you can tell from this ranking, I disagree. I actively love Around The Sun! And this isn't a reassessment, it's been one of my favourites all along.
It's not a perfect album, of course, but the biggest problem I see is that it's not greater than the sum of its parts. It's 13 songs that have nothing to say collectively.
But boy do these songs get their point across individually. Around The Sun has no secrets. Even when the lyrics are nonsense, they're loud and clear. As someone who can be reduced to a jibbering mess by Michael Stipe's voice, this is all I ever wanted. As for the way the songs are structured, though there are experimental elements to keep everything interesting, the songs are concise, economical, hooky, and know exactly where they're going. There's none of the directionless meandering that marred the Up and Reveal
Not all the songs are great, it might have been a stronger album with three or four fewer tracks. But there are more highlights here than on Up and Reveal combined.
It's hard for me to reconcile this with comments from the band suggesting they were bored and just going through the motions, because R.E.M. sound especially engaged and passionate, especially on the one-two punch of protest songs "I Wanted To Be Wrong" and "Final Straw." Then again, other highlights like "The Boy In The Well," "The Outsiders," and the bafflingly absurd "The Ascent Of Man" do sound like songs R.E.M. could've written in their sleep, but this says more about the talent of these guys than it does the quality of the material.
Best lyric:
Then I raise my voice up higher
And I look you in the
I offer love with one condition
With conviction, tell me why
Look me in the eye
Tell me why
From "Final Straw..." though the whole song gives me goosebumps
Collapse Into Now (2011)
There is a sense of finality to Collapse Into Now. Not many bands get to plan their last album, but Collapse Into Now was intended as their swansong all along. It's the first R.E.M. album with the band on the cover, and look a that, Michael Stipe is waving goodbye.
Collapse Into Now commits the cardinal sin of new albums by old bands, featuring songs that sound too much like older, better songs, reminding us of better albums. There's a song that sounds like "Half A World Away," one that sounds like "Finest Worksong," and even one that sounds like "E-Bow The Letter," and "Country Feedback," R.E.M.'s two best songs played at the same time.
This self-plagiarism was shown in a new light when R.E.M. announced that they were disbanding six months after the release of Collapse Into Now, they were not fumbling around trying to recapture better days, as some had assumed, they were looking back wistfully, and giving fans a new kind of retrospective. When R.E.M. was no more, Collapse Into Now began to feel like a homage to their past.
Artists tend to either look backward, repeating the same stuff over and over again, or look forward, refusing to acknowledge their past. Those in the latter category tend to alienate fans, as we unashamedly love the older stuff. By honouring the past, R.E.M. honours the fans who made these strange poetic dorks into global superstars.
As a parting gift to fans, Collapse Into Now is the most cohesive album on this list, despite being the most varied and diverse.
Best lyric:
With just the slightest bit of finesse
I might have made a little less mess
But it was what it was
Lets all get on with it now
From "Discoverer"
Accelerate (2008)
The day before Accelerate came out, R.E.M. were a spent force, the day after they were born again. After Accelerate, R.E.M. sounded twenty years younger, but without the weariness that made their actual younger selves sound like old souls. Accelerate has an energy that R.E.M. had never before exhibited.
To anyone who'd followed the band for the past ten years, Accelerate must've been no less than a miracle. After the "Around the Sun" debacle, R.E.M. felt they had to prove they still had it in them, and they did that by transforming themselves into a breathtakingly sharp and formidable live act. Accelerate's mandate was to put that live energy onto a record, bands often struggle to translate live energy into the studio, but on Accelerate, R.E.M. make it look easy.
Accelerate kicks you in the face immediately with "Living Well Is The Best Revenge," the most inspiring anger song ever written. "LWITBR" is a song so lively it makes Accelerate seem fast and gritty even in its slower moments. No one song has ever had as much impact on an album as "LWITBR" does. Every song on Accelerate is great, but if they weren't "LWITBR" would carry the album.
Those slower moments are where R.E.M. proves that they can still do quiet and tender, with their trademark tension and wit. The mutant ballad "Houston" is Accelerate's secret centrepiece and the heart of the album. While "Supernatural/Superserious" is a song that speaks to the audience like only R.E.M. can.
Accelerate is like nothing else in R.E.M.'s catalogue, and came at a time when nothing less would've done.
Best lyric:
Don't turn your talking points on me
History will set me free
The future's ours and you don't even rate a footnote now
From "Living Well Is The Best Revenge"
Honorable mention:
Nature abhors a vacuum but what's between your ears?
From "Man-Sized Wreath"