REMtrospective, 3: Reckoning
May 7th, 2008 by Curt Holman in Listening Stack
Title: Reckoning
Released on: April 10, 1984 (U.S.)
Favorite tracks: “Little America,†“Time After Time (annElise)â€
Back when we were college students following R.E.M.’s new releases, a friend of mine once told me that he heard of a rock band that, after their Acclaimed Breakthrough First Album, wanted to call their next album Disappointing Follow-Up. (I don’t recall which band it was.) Reckoning, released 364 days after Murmur, shows no trace of the sophomore slump. In many ways, it’s a step forward: the songs are brighter, tighter and peppier, and the music draws on some surprising genres and cultural influences. It’s a good album.
So why do I like Murmur so much more than Reckoning? There’s nothing wrong with Reckoning, but it’s not even a close rival with its predecessor. I think it has something to do with the way that certain albums can be more than the sum of their songs.
Murmur makes a statement – it’s R.E.M.’s declaration of rock music principles. The instruments may not completely subsume the lyrics, but they have such an equal footing that it’s like an expression of solidarity among the band members: the sound is bigger than they are. There’s a unity to Murmur the same way that, to chose a couple of examples, XTC’s Skylarking or Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run have a unifying message and vibe. By comparison, Reckoning, like, say Nonsuch or Born in the U.S.A., feels more like a collection of good songs. To me they don’t have the same oomph collectively that they do individually.
I may prefer Murmur not in spite of the fact that many of Reckoning’s songs seem more accessible and (college) radio friendly, but because of it. Murmur’s songs seem to emerge from their landscape, speaking their own language. Many Reckoning’s songs speak to more familiar pop song concerns, or at least, they have choruses that seem to. If you listen to them superficially, they can be easily explained away:
“Second Guessing†= Someone keeps trying to second-guess Michael Stipe, which is so irritating. Maybe they should break up.
“So. Central Rain†= Michael Stipe screwed up and is sorry about it. He’s standing in the rain, that’s how sorry he is.
“(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville†= Rockville’s a bogus place. Don’t go back there.
“Pretty Persuasion†= She’s pretty and hence can persuade you to do confusing things. Relationships! Go figure.
There’s nothing wrong with a simple, straight-ahead rock song about romance (obviously, most rock songs are about nothing but). If I had to pick one song for a time capsule that would sum up R.E.M.’s sound and influence in college/indie music from 1980-1985, “Pretty Persuasion†would probably be it.
And I’m not saying the songs are really that shallow, but they don’t fire my imagination the way that most of Murmur does. My two favorite songs on Reckoning — the trance-inducing “Time After Time (annElise)†and the rousing rave-up “Little America†– are the most “mysterious.†Of course, “Harborcoat†isn’t exactly “easy†– however energetic, it’s as oblique as anything they’ve done. Sometimes it sounds like two completely different sets of lyrics are being sung simultaneously.
I hear more of the Velvet Underground influence in Reckoning. “Camera†reminds me of one of those languid Lou-Reed-on-heroin tunes, and “Time After Time†has similar hypnotic strains as “All Tomorrow’s Parties.†I’m not enough of a musicologist to say that “Time After Time†and “Seven Chinese Brothers†draw influences from actual Asian countries, but they evoke exotic cultures. (I suspect that “Brothers†is about as authentically Chinese as “Turning Japanese†is Japanese.) “Rockville†is a neat little alt-country tune – I’d love to hear an actual, iconic country musician like Willie Nelson do a cover for it.
Question: DO bands generally do R.E.M. covers? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard one, and it’s easy to understand why, especially with the early ones. Somehow I don’t think they’ll do “R.E.M. Night†on “American Idol†– and if they did, they’d probably all do “The One I Love†and “Everybody Hurts.â€
Another question: Did R.E.M. move away from using gender-specific pronouns, especially “she,†in songs that appear to be about relationships, like “Pretty Persuasion?†My impression is that as R.E.M. developed, the relationship songs became more first-person or gender neutral, and gender-specific pronouns would turn up in songs that mentioned characters (ex. the mother in “Belong,†the talk show guest in “New Test Leperâ€).
Early listening conditions: Reckoning is the first R.E.M. album I was aware of as a discrete album, as opposed to whatever REM songs I’d happen to hear at parties or wherever. I listened to it mostly on a tape recorded Dec. 1, 1986 (with Paul Simon’s Graceland as the reverse side). At some point a few years later I saw “Left of Reckoning,†James Herbert’s 20-minute video of the album’s first (or “leftâ€) side as the band walks around Ruben A. Miller’s Whirligig Farm in Rabbittown, near Gainesville, Georgia. I found it almost unwatchably tedious.
I’m not sure I knew that REM’s manager’s name is/was Jefferson Holt, so the “Little America†line “Jefferson, I think we’re lost†obviously has a hidden meaning.
Click here for Murmur.
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