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R.E.M: "Reveal" |
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Warner Records
As one of the headlining groups of the "alternative" rock style, REM has never taken a conventional approach to music. While bands around them drowned their music with loud guitars and garbled lyrics, REM approached music from a melodic standpoint; lyrics and vocals were emphasized over rehashed riffs. Despite the angst and pain that would swallow songwriting in the early '90s, REM continued singing about sorrow, happiness and politics not because it was trendy, but because it's what they had always done. The band remains consistent in the new century; Reveal may stand as one of the most veracious recordings of recent memory.
The advantage to being simply one of the world's biggest bands means that you get to make music on your terms. If a wet-behind-the-ears band ever turned in REM's Reveal as a demo tape to a cranky label executive, they'd be thrown out of the office before the tape hit the desk. If a sophomore band ever made this album they would be laughed off as having gone "quirky" and being out of touch with the current scene.
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The sound is not conventional, and the radio hits are far between. The catch here is that REM is not a new band, and have behind them the strength of a past and esteem that is steeped into musical lore.
Reveal will be a commercial success, and will produce radio hits that would be otherwise ignored, like it or not.
The sound of this album is strangely counter-rock, filled with flighty, drawn-out numbers and sweeping combinations of dreamy fact and fiction. Its success lies in its bold ambition, which never quite over-reaches. The first radio single from the album, "Imitation of Life" manages to make a cliché unique ("you want the greatest thing / the greatest thing since bread came sliced"), a testament to the bands continued lyrical ability. The song is infectious; one of the best the band has offered from any of its many albums, and a future "Greatest Hits" candidate.
Reveal may not be the album that garners REM any new fans, but do they really need more? For continued fans, and those willing to give it a listen, this is a great album.
By Dave Brosha, CanEHdian.com
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