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Posted by dyedon8 on 2008-01-27 22:52:30 +0000

R.E.M. Immersion #3 -- "Reckoning" (1984)

<img src ="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/78/REM_Reckoning_cover.jpg/200px-REM_Reckoning_cover.jpg">

Record is <a href ="http://www.sendspace.com/file/m1uywk"> here. </a>

Released April 9/16 1984 on IRS Records

#27, Billboard Album Chart 1984
#91, UK album chart 1984
Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-28 08:42:23 +0000
My favorite REM album, hands down.

<strong>Harborcoat</strong>
Perfect pop song. And Mike Mills' heavily accented backing vocals are priceless - my first exposure to Southern pronunciation, having grown up in a household which collectively despises country music.

<strong>7 Chinese Bros.</strong>
Always cheers me up. She will return.

<strong>So. Central Rain</strong>
Lyrically always brings me down. But the bass line. The freaking bass line!

<strong>Pretty Pursuasion</strong>
Sounds like a Velvet Underground cover.

<strong>Time After Time (Annelise)</strong>
I'll be honest - not my favorite song.

<strong>Second Guessing</strong>
WOO HOO HOO!

<strong>Letter Never Sent</strong>
Love love love this song.

<strong>Camera</strong>
Why I like Bill Berry so much.

<strong>(Don't Go Back To) Rockville</strong>
My all-time favorite REM song. Have you heard the version Mike Mills sings? He only started singing his own lyrics a few years back I think. Um, like ten. I'm old.

<strong>Little America</strong>
Fantastic. Full, no doubt, of in-jokes I don't understand - which I guess is part of the appeal. Jefferson, I think we're lost.
Posted by tommy on 2008-01-28 15:38:00 +0000
Mills sang "Texarkana" on Out of Time, I think. 17 years ago. I was in college. I'm old.
Posted by tommy on 2008-01-28 15:52:19 +0000
Like Pamsterdam, my buddy The Juice considers this the best REM album. I never felt that way. I might even use the term "sophomore slump" for this, as I always thought that this was the weakest of their first six full-lengths.

The lyrics on this one get "in the way" for me. "The smell of sweet short-haired boy woman offers pull up a seat"??? Michael, you gotta mumble that shit!

Not to pick on this one too much. It's still very good. Its best songs are awesome: Rockville, So. Central Rain, Pretty Persuasion are all beautiful songs. Harborcoat and Second Guessing are pretty damn good, too.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-01-28 16:19:16 +0000
Out of Time was released 17 years ago? Jesus Christ, I was in college too. Wasn't one of the songs the one they played while the lead characters in Dawson's Creek lost their virginity? My head = spinning.
Posted by ConorClockwise on 2008-01-28 16:17:17 +0000
"'Time after Time' was my least favorite song.
'Time after Time' was my least favorite song!"
Posted by deejayhubris on 2008-01-28 19:56:51 +0000
I could never take them seriously because they mumbled so much of their lyrics, at least, in the beginning...
Posted by TheFullCleveland on 2008-01-28 20:21:23 +0000
Agreed - of their older stuff I like the tracks w/ enunciation.
Posted by mahatma chani on 2008-01-31 16:05:57 +0000
This one's okay. Just saying: "Seven Chinese Brothers" was my favorite story as a little boy.
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