Review Summary: R.E.M. follow up Murmur with another classic record
Not that this album doesn’t get a lot of praise, but I think it’s not uncommon to see people gloss over Reckoning ever so slightly. The narrative on R.E.M. seems to generally go something along the lines of this: they debuted with Murmur and became a pillar of the nascent American alternative scene in the process, then released Reckoning, a strong if inferior follow-up, before going on to get bigger and bigger before eventually breaking into the mainstream. Let me tell you something though, far from any kind of sophomore slump, Reckoning is an essential part of the band’s story that sets itself apart from Murmur, and is a classic in its own right.
Murmur, with its murky, forest at night vibe and inscrutable song-craft, still sounds like it came from nowhere and is one of a kind in that sense. Whilst lots of music bears its influence there isn’t really much out there that sounds quite like it, and the band themselves never really recorded another album that followed up on its vibe, or even tried to. Reckoning, however, is a sort of musical ground zero for the band and it set the template that they would build off from here on. The songs are still mysterious and enigmatic (What exactly is a Harborcoat? Why can’t Michael Stipe go outside without it? What do any of the lyrics to that song even mean?), but they are now ever so slightly more anthemic, melodically focused and, yes, radio-friendly. Perhaps a little of the magic and atmosphere of Murmur has been lost, but it has been replaced by a renewed sense of purpose and a whole lot of gusto. Reckoning even contains their first bona-pop song in the country-tinged (and admittedly still quite understated) “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville”, and what a perfect little pop song it is, with its tinkly piano and tender melody. This is where R.E.M. became the band they would be from this point onwards, and it is with Reckoning that they took their first steps towards one day helping to break alternative music into the popular conscience.
More important than any of that though, is the fact that the music here is an absolute joy to listen to. The first four songs of the record in particular are a perfect distillation of everything that was so special about early R.E.M: restrained and subtle and yet full of enthusiasm and life, mumbly but sweetly melodic; these are special songs ladies and gentleman. The band never go bombastic here, there’s no need to, and the understatement of the songs doesn’t stop their emotiveness or vitality from coming across. The tone of Michael Stipe’s voice is soft and wistful and he sings in a way that obfuscates much of what he’s saying. This restrained approach works to the benefit of the songs. The phrases that do stick out clearly are lent extra meaning - “I’m sorry”, “I am tired of second guessing”, “Did you never call? I waited for your call”,” If we fall by the side, will you be remembered?” etc, and the words that don’t come through - or that are nonsensical - provide imagery and feeling while allowing the listener to fill in the blanks and find their own meaning.
The songs are in some ways rather simple in their construction, but they’re full of clever tricks and details - see the three piano notes that punctuate the beginning of each verse of “7 Chinese Bros”, or the thunderous ending of the otherwise rather sunny “So. Central Rain”, like a sudden heart attack that twists the song round and ends it on an unexpected and rather chilling note. A lesser band would have used the (jangletastic) riff that opens “Pretty Persuasion” throughout the song, but R.E.M. hold back, saving it’s repetition until the middle eight of the song, at which point they charge back into it - which actually gives it far more impact and is immensely satisfying (they would go on to use the same trick for later songs like “Driver 8” and “These Days”). You could carry a whole song on the back of a riff that strong, but R.E.M. knew better. Most bands use backing vocals to simply support the main vocal - but Mike Mills is far more creative with his, either harmonising in a different time from Stipe - as on “Pretty Persuasion” - so that the vocals dance around each other and interlock, or even singing a different verse entirely - as he does on “Harborcoat”.
Moments like these are again reflective of what made early R.E.M. special; the idea that what made a great song was not complexity but ingenuity and creativity. You can really feel a sense of exhilaration for playing music listening to Reckoning, and it's a large part of what makes it all so charming and magical. This would go on to inform indie rock’s entire outlook on music - this is where it begins, right here with bands like R.E.M. who just played whatever music they wanted to play, and who realised that you didn’t need guitar lessons to play guitar or singing lessons to sing, you just needed to think outside of the box. This attitude was of course inherited from punk, and a fair number of the songs here, for example “Second Guessing” or “Pretty Persuasion”, do have a sort of punkish energy to them. But the sense of abandon being established here is one very different from that of punk; the songs on Reckoning don’t snarl or spit; they shimmer and sparkle. And it doesn’t end with the attitude, the musical template for indie and alternative is right here just as much as on Murmur, in the understatement of the vocals, the jangle of the guitars and the structure of the songs. Even small things, like the little instrumental interludes that bands like Pavement would sometimes have on their albums, or the tendency for indie bands to have a go at a country infused ditty every now and then, have their origins here. A whole new approach to being in a band was emerging, and records like Reckoning were part of the rule book.
I could pick holes - the second half isn’t as strong as the first, the two slower songs are a little weaker than the others - but I’m not going to because everything here adds to the listening experience in some way. The aforementioned slower songs (“Time After Time (AnneElise)” and “Camera”), for example help to pace the album and give it a natural ebb and flow, whilst also providing variety. Furthermore, all the songs here are at the very least good, and if Reckoning seems to dip in quality at some points on first listen it’s only because the best stuff is so perfect.
So yeah, this a wonderful album, and one that doesn’t show off its brilliance but rather just IS brilliant without having to be obvious or attention grabbing about it. That was a big part of what was special about early R.E.M., that understated brilliance, and it was something that they lost with time. There’s so spoon feeding here, they’re not trying to get stadiums of people to sing along, they’re not trying to get lighters in the air or rock out or anything like that; they’re just playing their songs and leaving it up to you to unpackage them. But there are songs here, and they are fantastic songs.
9
