R.E.M. - Around the Sun (2004)

1) Leaving New York; 2) Electron Blue; 3) The Outsiders (feat. Q-Tip); 4) Make It All Okay; 5) Final Straw; 6) I Wanted to Be Wrong; 7) Wanderlust; 8) Boy in the Well; 9) Aftermath; 10) High Speed Train; 11) The Worst Joke Ever; 12) The Ascent of Man; 13) Around the Sun

Better than its reputation but it's close - the dreadful overproduction and generally anemic nature of the album are only overcome by the core of largely solid songs hiding underneath.

Key tracks: "Leaving New York", "Electron Blue", "Aftermath"

After Reveal, R.E.M. seemed to be consciously moving towards a wilder, thrillingly energetic rock direction with all guitars blazing, and they were actively mining their past for inspiration. The compilation single “Bad Day”, soundtrack cut “All the Right Friends” and live-only treat “Permanent Vacation” were all songs from the very early days of the band that had only previously been heard as rough demos, but now repurposed very faithfully by a matured, experienced band in a more muscular form. This would become the dominant direction for the band’s last years, with the 80s-guided Olympia concerts, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now all coming from the same path of action. Having reached their third decade, R.E.M. were ready to be the fiercest they’ve ever been.

Which is why Around the Sun continues to be the weirdest thing in the entire R.E.M. discography. In-between this perfectly linear, logical progression in sound is this borderline random curveball with no rhyme or reason. Around the Sun is devoid of all the energy the band were clearly full of, slowly descending back to the ground right as the band were lifting off. It barely register above mid-tempo even in its wildest moments (which is an exaggeration to say to begin with), and this is after the band stopped themselves from going even further along that path - there’s some anecdotes going around where apparently Peter Buck’s main take on each song was to make it even slower. It comes off like the intention was to consciously stagnate.

The production is the big bad, though. After their generally good standards across their back catalogue and the particularly gorgeous production of the last two albums, Around the Sun drops the ball completely. It’s compressed, monotonous and completely devoid of any dynamics or life, all one-tone sonic wallpaper that stifles over everything. There’s little to no spirit to any of the musicianship and the only reminder that this is R.E.M. instead of a collection of session musicians are Stipe and Mills’ vocals. Stipe does his best to sound connected but the production washes it over with a wave of lethargy. The best descriptor for Around the Sun is plodding and it’s not flattering at all. The impression it leaves is R.E.M. stopping their new wind still and taking their third decade towards an early retirement home.

It’s likely to come as a surprise then that Around the Sun still turns out decently, all things considered. This is in spite of its flaws - the general malaise and the stifling production are two constants the album never shakes off, and Around the Sun could be twice the album it is if it was free of them. But the songs, for the most part, still work. Around the Sun is an album of slow-burners that occasionally come off a little over-long or samey, but it’s kind of hard for R.E.M. not to do something that sticks. There’s enough minor stand-out moments to make most songs register positively, even if sometimes describing them individually seems pointless. You can say most of the same things about “Make It All Okay” or “I Wanted to Be Wrong” than you can about “The Ascent of Man” or “The Worst Joke Ever”, for example - similar structures, similar tricks, all mid-tempo without committing too much into any particular emotion, but with a standout melody or section somewhere in them that gives them something unique remember them for. It’s R.E.M. in mid-life crisis stadium torch song mode and whilst it’s not their most flattering form, they do find ways to make it work throughout. Here and there the occasional blunder rears its head: the bouncy but overtly fluffy “Wanderlust” is just too air-headed to be anything but filler, and the protest song “Final Straw” probably would have more bite to it if it didn’t sound so plastic thanks to the utterly cluttered production trying to spruce up what is at its core a folk protest song. It’s a shame in case of the latter, because there’s potential there to be something far more emotional. It’s an example of the epidemic Around the Sun is fallen ill of, with an album-load of decent ideas crying out for a better presentation.

Lion’s share of the good will is done by the opening trio, which is actually a genuinely great run of songs. “Leaving New York” alone is a R.E.M. classic: a gentle, bittersweet mid-tempo in the style that R.E.M. at this point excel in, with a glorious chorus that is so obviously golden from the first time you hear it. The real star are the backing vocals, which start fairly innocuously but soon become the song’s driving force, with around four different vocal layers trading lines and harmonies towards the song’s end. “Electron Blue” is the liveliest song of the collection, with everyone sounding engaged and Stipe especially delivering his most memorable performance on the album, backed by layered percussion and Buck’s wild e-bow textures. It’s also the one song where the album’s production choices actually compliment the tune: the shiny, pure aesthetic of the sound mashes particularly well with the musical ideas and lyrical concepts (the song being about a sci-fi drug made of light). “The Outsiders” is a strange but compelling one. R.E.M. have expressed their love for hip-hop before but “The Outsiders” comes closest to really bringing it out, with a steady, tight beat which completely leads the song and is so obviously inspired by the genre that when Q-Tip makes a guest appearance towards the end, finishing the song off with a verse of his own, it’s a perfectly natural fit. Stipe doesn’t rap, but his dreamy, murmured tone lends to the song’s hypnotic feel and even the chorus barely lifts a finger, only just giving Buck’s lead guitar line more prominence. It’s a song that builds a very particular, slightly off-kilter mood but which works so well and is easily the most interesting song on the record.

Other key highlights include “Aftermath” which is an incredibly unassuming little pop song that doesn’t make much ruckus about itself but sounds so effortless that it whisks away the rest of the album’s stiffness away: it’s a real smile-maker, a rare moment on the album where R.E.M. sound like they’re feeling what they’re playing, and it makes it one of the great unsung gems of their back catalogue. The title track (the first one in R.E.M. discography!) is also a particular stand-out: it whisks away any structural routines, with a clear split down the middle between its sky-reaching first half and the gently descending second part. It’s a strange ending to Around the Sun because where the rest of the album is sometimes conventional to a fault, in its last steps it breaks away completely from the simple sing-along choruses and gentle melodies. It’s out of place and hints at an album that’s perhaps meditative but taking a path of its own devising - a more interesting album made out of the same building blocks.

But that’s obviously not what we have. Instead, Around the Sun is an odd moment of ennui and stagnation which doesn’t slot comfortably if you view it as part of the bigger picture, and which feels distant from how engaged and personal R.E.M. were before. It sounds older than its years, if you can call an album that - it’s something you’d expect from a band who aren’t fully into what they’re doing anymore. Around the Sun is a clear dip in judgment, but credit where it’s due to R.E.M. for still getting through it fine enough. Even when half the time the music resembles career musicians clocking in shifts, these professionals know what they’re doing when it comes to making decent songs, even if not career highlights per se.

Rating: 7/10