“Wasn’t really listenable”: the one album REM regret
If you’ve released a classic debut album, a lot of listeners will end up speculating when to expect a dip in quality, and often, the idea of the ‘sophomore slump’ or ‘second album syndrome’ is something that artists have to overcome and prove that they’re not going to fall victim to. Only the best acts manage to keep going beyond this and avoid diminishing returns so early on in their career, and you might be able to argue that a band like REM had plenty of consecutive records from the beginning of their career that lived up to expectations or beyond.
After the release of their 1983 debut, Murmur, all of their albums were met with critical and commercial acclaim for almost two decades, and it’s perhaps not until 2001’s Reveal that signs of deterioration began to show. The album wasn’t as lauded as their 11 previous efforts, and even if it was disappointing in terms of its reception, the fact that they’d managed to last this long without a damp squib of a record is testament to how illustrious the Athens, Georgia group were.
However, the album did have some moderate successes, even if it wasn’t regarded by music critics as being on par with their most glorious moments. Tracks such as ‘Imitation of Life’ and ‘All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)’ performed relatively well and are worthy additions to the band’s impeccable singles catalogue, and there are a handful of album tracks dashed throughout that are representative of the REM of old, who were hanging on to their status by continuing to be consistent.
Given this, did REM really have any failures in the 15-album career? By their own estimation, they absolutely did, and despite the album they as a group despise still managing to perform well in the charts, it had a torrid critical reception, and the fans who did sink their money into purchasing copies of the record were ultimately left underwhelmed for the first time in the band’s history.
Released in 2004, Around the Sun, the band’s 13th album, was heavily criticised for being drab and lacking in any inspiration. Perhaps the group had finally run out of steam, perhaps tensions between members were high, or perhaps the well of ideas was completely barren at this point, but no amount of excuses is going to convince any hardcore REM fan, or indeed the band, that this is anything but their worst record. Even their attempts to spice things up, such as inviting guest vocalist Q-Tip to perform on the record, felt like a missed opportunity and fell completely flat.
Guitarist Peter Buck has perhaps been the most vocally critical of this album, and in a 2008 interview around the time of Accelerate, the follow-up album to Around the Sun, he explained exactly why he still feels disappointed that they couldn’t keep their hot streak alive. “It just wasn’t really listenable,” Buck explained, “because it sounds like what it is, a bunch of people that are so bored with the material that they can’t stand it anymore.”
The four-year wait between this record and the much more positively received Accelerate was perhaps what the band desperately needed at this point, and gave them an opportunity to recentre themselves and begin writing in a way that sparked enthusiasm and creativity. Despite them only releasing one further album after that, 2011’s Collapse Into Now, it became very apparent that Around the Sun was always destined to be the most underwhelming release in REM’s catalogue, and the only truly rotten release in their 31 years as a group.
