Reckoning by R.E.M.

Pros: Three outstanding songs, seven otherwise strong songs...
Cons: Sometimes overshadowed by Murmur...

While rock and pop contemporaries in the early 1980’s owed a lot to the punk movement and called themselves the New Wave, REM was something entirely different. Their sound was organic and modern yet at the same time comfortable. REM was one of the ...

Pros: Jangling, quirky classic tunes; R.E.M. started to gain major attention with this
Cons: Sounds almost nothing like R.E.M. from the 1990s

R.E.M. truly started to receive some major attention with this, the second full-length release from the band. While 1983's Murmur was a fantastic release, the songs here tend to be more vibrant and, perhaps more importantly, more...

Pros: Not a single weak song here, it’s a freaking masterpiece
Cons: That they departed from this sound later… but few good things last forever

When these days I think about R.E.M., I’m surprised at how much I actually don’t care about those huge hits of theirs… almost as much as I love their albums. You think you know the band that sang ‘Shiny Happy People’? Yet you’ve ne ...

Pros: A handful of these songs are well worth the price of admission
Cons: It's nowhere near as compelling as Murmur.

(Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Review Body" section. The section titled "Track Reviews" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and ...

Pros: A darker mood, a starker piece.
Cons: The lush arrangements are gone.

REM came out of nowhere in the early 80s, going against the grain, becoming the first "college radio" band. They did it on the strength of word-of-mouth and constant touring. Since then, their popularity has grown and each band member has tried to...

Pros: "Southern Central Rain", "Camera", "Seven Chinese Brothers", "Pretty Persuasion"...
Cons: "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" seems slightly out of place.

So, after you've made the critically-acclaimed-mystical-cult-classic debut album, what do you do next? Well, as the band themselves seemed to realise, you face a moment of reckoning. REM's second album is noticeably less murky, less mysterious than its...

Pros: Professional Sophomores ( not counting EPs and stuff)
Cons: Zilch

I'm a nerd! I'm sitting here at my computer, looking at Dusty's Cow Palace, snapping my fingers to the old R.E.M. song, "Letter Never Sent." Wow, that was a good album.

I miss the '80s. I was "coming of age," early 20s, listening to R.E.M.,...

Pros: Great Album from R.E.M.
Cons: None

After the critical and commercially modest success of band’s debut album “Murmur”, R.E.M. were now becoming one of the most promising new groups of the 1980s. When “Rolling Stone” named “Murmur” as the best album of 1983 above the huge-selling...

Pros: Great representative R.E.M. album. Offers a glimpse of what they could become.
Cons: So much there, yet some of it is filler.

When you hear about the early days of R.E.M., it has absolutely nothing to do with religion misplacement or universal pain. At one time, they made some of the most influential music in the nation. Even if you couldn’t tell that from the radio.
...

Pros: an early work that stands as a masterpiece
Cons: themes border on the dark side; not a “happy” album, under 40 minutes of music

I don’t precisely recall how it all happened, but over time I have added five R.E.M. CDs to my music collection.

I am a fan of R.E.M.’s early work, so not surprisingly -- of the five titles I have in my collection -- my favorite CD is an early...

Pros: What a cool tone!
Cons: They overuse that cool tone!

Every time I listen to a "classic" album (this time purchased for $3 on tape), my perceptions get wildly changed. Which just goes to show you, I should really stay in more. Nothing I'd heard before had prepared me for early-period...

Pros: At their best, really
Cons: 1984 will never happen again

Vinyl, spinning on a cheap, third or fourth hand stereo with bad speakers and a dirty needle. The record matched, on loan from the library, always easy to find, no longer wanted in the era of the CD. Overcast, low sky, early evening (but in winter, it's...