R.E.M.

The first R.E.M. record produced by Scott Litt mixes exuberant rockers with more brooding numbers. The political engagement hinted at in earlier, eco-friendly songs like "Fall On Me" is given freer rein this time out, with mixed results: "Exhuming McCarthy" is so bouncy you don't care what they're singing about, whereas "Welcome to the Occupation" is dull AND didactic.

It is no accident that R.E.M.'s finest album to date opens with the anthemic reveille "Finest
Worksong," a muscular funky-metal wake-up call that is an unmistakable declaration of
intent. "The time to rise/Has been engaged," bleats singer Michael Stipe over the industrial
scrape of Peter Buck's guitar and the martial locomotion of bassist Mike Mills and drummer
Bill Berry. "We're better/Best to rearrange." Document, the fifth in a series of sin... More >

Their commercial breakthrough eschews escapism without surrendering structural obliqueness, and after six years of mushmouth I wouldn't have thought it possible either. Maybe they finally figured out that intelligibility doesn't equal closure (can't, actually). Or maybe they just wanted to make sure everyone knew how pissed off they were. In any case, these dreamsongs are nightmares of a world in flames, the kind you remember in all their scary inconsistency because you woke up sweating in the middle. How it will all end I couldn't say, but it's a healthy sign that their discovery of the outside world has sharpened their sense of humor along with everything else. Inspirational Title: "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." (Grade - A)