Rem - Reckoning [2 CD Deluxe Edition]
![Reckoning [2 CD Deluxe Edition]](/images/Reckoning-2-CD-Deluxe-Edition-B0027WNRK4-L.jpg)
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Category: Music CD
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Music CD Cover
Artist: RemEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2009-06-23
Music Label: A&M
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Harborcoat
- 7 Chinese Bros.
- So. Central Rain
- Pretty Persuasion
- Time After Time (Annelise)
- Second Guessing
- Letter Never Sent
- Camera
- (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
- Little America
- Femme Fatale*
- Radio Free Europe *
- Gardening at Night *
- 9-9 *
- Windout*
- Letter Never Sent*
- Sitting Still *
- Driver 8 *
- So. Central Rain *
- 7 Chinese Bros.*
- Harborcoat*
- Hyena*
- Pretty Persuasion*
- Little America*
- Second Guessing*
- (Don't Go Back To) Rockville**Previously Unreleased
Free Music Notes for Reckoning [2 CD Deluxe Edition]
Free Music Review: I reckon this reissue is worthwhile to pick up since we have a 1984 concert don't sell your original CDs just yet though...
Hit: 5 Stars
Elvis Costello once suggested that much of the music of the 1980's was a wasteland. One band and album I'm sure he wasn't referring to was REM and "Reckoning".
I'm not sure if "Reckoning" is REM's finest moment but it certainly is ONE of their finest albums. The band's second album (not counting their EP "Chronic Town")found them expanding on the sound from their "Chronic Town" EP and "Murmur" album giving us more with less--the arrangements are more direct and the performances even more energetic than their debut album. Veering towards Americana and all of its variety in the sounds on the album, "Reckoning" marked a major step forward for one of America's most important bands to come out of the 80's.
Greg Calbi's mastering improves on the original CD in some ways but isn't quite as strong as the limited edition Gold CD that Mobile Fidelity put out a decade ago. Detail is clearer but the album is noticeably louder than previous editions diminishing both the dynamic range and occasionally the power of some songs. That said, "Reckoning" sounds extremely good even if it was compromised somewhat during the mastering process (Calbi tried to keep as much dynamics as possible but keep in mind he was a hired hand and had to do what his bosses asked him to do). Michael Stipe's lyrics are as cryptic as ever but also a bit clearer. Mike Mills' ("Don't Go Back)To Rockville" (a song that Mills wrote for a girlfriend at while still in college)got reworked for the album at a more leisurely time signature creating a hit when it appeared on college radio in 1984.
The real gem here though is the second disc of a live performance. Although it is missing a couple of the tracks that have appeared on bootlegs that have circulated for years, it's a very good concert performance with the band on fire with energetic readings of material from their first, second and even one track each from what would be their third and fourth albums. Opening with The Velvet Underground "Femme Fatale" the band then jumps into their first single "Radio Free Europe" and finally closes with a powerful reading of ("Don't Go Back)To Rockville)"
EDIT: Just a note on Michael Stipe's singing. A couple of people have complained that he's off-key here on a number of tracks. Yep. This is a warts and all concert. The performance of the band itself is electrifying but the purpose of including this concert was to show how the band WAS during this tour and we get an accurate picture of that. They could have cleaned up the vocal using Pro-Tools and let Michael redub his signing. Instead, the band chose to let it stand warts and all. That's what I love about R.E.M.--like The Band they never apologize for their mistakes just present the music as it is/was and let the fans decide if its worthwhile to pick up their music. Personally, I kind of find it charming as this was only their second album and second major tour (not counting the "Chronic Town" EP of course).
END OF EDIT:
My only complaint is that the original album was short enough to allow the inclusion of the some of the singles included on the import version released a couple of years ago. That edition included "Windout", "Moon River", another version of "Pretty Persuasion" recorded live in the studio and "Tighten Up" the classic song originally recorded by Archie Bell and the Drells. It would have made this collection a bit more complete. Yes, I realize that many of these songs appeared on the collection "And I Feel Fine" but the mastering there by David McEowen was less than ideal.
The packaging is typical for these "Deluxe Editions" where the CD packaging fits inside a slipcase. There is also a fold out "booklet" that includes an essay on the recording of the album and a full color album sized poster of the original album cover on the flip side. Overall, this is a fine set with a nice remaster done by Calbi and if you factor in the concert I reckon you'll probably want to pick up this classic album again.
Reckoning [2 CD Deluxe Edition] Poster
Reckoning "confirms R.E.M. as one of the most beautifully exciting groups on the planet." wrote NME in 1984. R.E.M.'s second full-length album also prompted The Washington Post to proclaim that "there isn't an American band worth following more than R.E.M." Twenty-five years later, Reckoning remains a fan favorite for capturing R.E.M. during the youthful freshness of a new, fiercely independent American music scene.The two-CD Reckoning - Deluxe Edition features the original album remastered plus a bonus disc of a previously unreleased concert recorded during the band's Little America tour at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom on July 7, 1984 and broadcast on WXRT. On the Deluxe Edition's bonus disc, the group not only performs eight of Reckoning's ten songs, "Gardening At Night" from 1982's Chronic Town EP and "Radio Free Europe," "9-9" and "Sitting Still" from Murmur but also new songs that had yet to make it onto tape: "Driver 8" would later debut on R.E.M.'s third album and "Hyena" on its fourth.
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