Rem - Reckoning
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.94 You Save: $8.00 (67%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.89 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Reckoning
Free Music Review: One of many pinnacle moments
Hit: 5 Stars
After just getting REM's latest, Reveal, I found myself pulling out what I believe to be, along with Automatic for the People, one of their best.Reckoning is the full realization for REM's original sound, it literally clarifies the work done on their debut, but is not overproduced to lose the energy and creativity of this now legendary band.
Michael's voice in these early recordings was unbridled and passionate, compared to his more professional and artistic efforts in recent years. Peter's guitar work is infectious and Mike Mills' harmonies are joyful.
Every time I listen to this CD, whether as a hormone pumping, emotional 18 year old in 1984 or as a mature and more refined music lover today, I find myself singing passionately along with Michael as he pleads for forgiveness in So. Central Rain or describes that special something in a girl in Pretty Persuasion.
I long for a new REM CD that once again focuses on sheer power pop and less on high production value.
Free Music Review: Great Chemistry, Great Album
Hit: 5 Stars
This album was another great release in the same style as Murmur. R.E.M. at this point had established themselves in the music circuit with their jangly Rickenbacher guitars along with singer Michael Stipes' sweet, yet slightly muffled vocals. Not to forget the other members who make R.E.M.-Billy Berry with his hard hitting sturdy drumming amd the melodic bass of Mike Mills.
This release is a bit tighter and stronger than their first as heard on "Harbercoat" and "7 Chinese Bros.", because of it's overall meatier rhythm. Then it has "So. Central Rain", a mournful moody ballad about a love lost. which we all have experienced. The song "Pretty Persuasion" delivers in a big, hard hitting way as a perfect rock song. Overall the band still doesn't disappoint, with each song on this album proving their great chemistry and excellent songwriting abilities.
Free Music Review: Best album of all time
Hit: 5 Stars
I first was attracted to R.E.M. by way of hearing Document many years ago. I picked this one up by mistake, didn't listen to it but made a tape of it anyway. Thus I first heard the album in the back of a bus in eastern europe by some strange, cosmic turn of events. One of those things that was only meant to happen. By the time it got to Camera, there were tears rolling down my face. And then Rockville, the song that really floored me. I too once knew a girl from rockville. As I listened again, I reached an experience music had never given me before,an epiphany. I felt it was speaking directly to me. It was the first time I had ever heard my language spoken. From they crowded up to Lenin... to Jefferson, I think we're lost, Everything i had been trying to say for 19 years was beautifully summed up in one piece of music. Feelings were expressed that I just didn't have the words for. Thank you mr. Stipe.Free Music Review: Vacation in Athens is calling you
Hit: 5 Stars
In all the years I've been listening to this CD (and I listened to it a lot today as well), I find that my favorite song of this album keeps changing. Rockville. Harborcoat. Time after Time (I'm naming my first daughter AnnElise). Today, though, it's Letter Never Sent.Dammit, each song on this CD is totally different than the next, and just about every one of them deserves to be a hit.
Ranked against my favorite REM albums, it's hard to not put this one at the top. Fables, Murmur, Life's Rich Pageant...they are all great. I don't know if it's my favorite REM album, but I know that I wouldn't want to live the rest of my life without this masterpiece. I guess the main point is, if you enjoy Life's Rich or Murmur or any other REM album, you will definitely LOVE Reckoning.
Now if you'll excuse me, vacation in Athens is calling me. Buy Reckoning today. Don't waste another year.
Free Music Review: a true classic
Hit: 5 Stars
While I agree with the assessment that this is R.E.M.'s finest hour, I do have one quibble. What the hell is so great about "Don't Go Back to Rockville"? Frankly, it's as lame as anything I can recall them doing. To me, it conjures up thoughts of the pig squealing scene in "Deliverance", i.e., the apotheosis of the notion that the South is nothing more than a wasteland of inbred cretins. Look no further than M. Stipe for the poster boy of this campaign.Back to the tunes. "South Central Rain" and "Pretty Persuasion" are damn fine works. There is sublty without muddiness, a major distinction from "Murmur".
This work has stood the test of time, but I'm here to say that I prefer the less well known tunes to those that have received major airplay (e.g., the aforementioned "Don't Go Back to Rockville".)