Warner
Alternative Rock, 2001

I have been following R.E.M. on and off since their The Ones I Love days, but I never really got into them until the album Out of Time. Reveal, their 2001 effort, is significantly more sedate than their heyday music. I confess I do miss the “Fireee!” cry of The Ones I Love, but Reveal has some beautiful gems. The heartrendingly beautiful I’ve Been High is one.

Tracks like All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star), Imitation of Life, I’ll Take the Rain, and The Lifting are typical R.E.M. folksy rock tunes – pleasant to the ears, and they stick to the mind like superglue.

Taken as a whole, the album can soon start to sound like one long song – there is a sameness to all the tracks. But while R.E.M. may be more, er, lackadaisical in their current music direction, Reveal is still music to the ears.