Reveal - R.E.M. (CD 2001)

New Adventures in Hi-Fi was basically my "first" R.E.M. album, and at the time, reviews were pretty harsh. I always secretly liked it, and in recent years I have found that I wasn't the only one. Up came along, and I picked it up, more or less for the sake of just having it. While a few songs struck a chord with me, the disappearance of drummer Bill Berry obviously took its toll on the sound, and what remained was mostly an endless veneer of ambient pop, with Michael Stipe's voice sounding as lonely as ever. Of course, he was practically all that remained of the old sound. "The Great Beyond"..

This is a rewrite the original review was the first and only review I ve had that was only a helpful plus looking back, it was pretty pitiful, so here s a new version, which hopefully better reviews this album but I still haven t quite got the swing of music reviews. I've have been a long time REM fan and at the time that the Reveal album was to come out, I was eagerly waiting for the new album to be released. I had heard the new single, Imitation of Life on the radio for a few weeks before hand and at the time, I was not sure what exactly I was expecting of the entire album, but I think...

It's been a long time, but R.E.M. have finally completed a project every bit as worthy as their masterpiece Automatic for the People. After hearing the incredible single from the Man on the Moon soundtrack Into the Great Beyond, I knew that this band had not lost their edge. On the contrary, Michael Stipe and company finally realized it's not their experimentalism their listeners crave - it's acoustic instruments. It's string sections. It's Stipe crooning about himself, about trivial southern things like lemonade and hurricanes. R.E.M. released two epic bombs with both New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

As a long-time fan of R.E.M, I must confess that I was extraordinarily disappointed with R.E.M's latest effort "Reveal." After hearing all of the critics praise the album, I was excited when purchasing this album. Would my favorite band finally break out of the funk it's been in for the last couple of albums? Unfortunately, the answer for me is most definitely NO. Don't get me wrong, the album has several inspiring songs that are vintage R.E.M and are worth the purchase price of the album alone. The songs "I'll Take The Rain" and "Disappear" contain haunting lyrics that invoke deep personal...