It is often written that bands who put out a critically well received debut album, then face the daunting prospect of the 'dreaded second album'. The idea seems to be that their creative juices are so wrung dry from the first record, that they won't be able to scale those same heights again.
However, while some artists deliver a follow up that is good instead of great, many bands have comfortably crushed this adage and produced the goods again. Think Steeltown by Big Country, The Bends by Radiohead, or maybe Meat Is Murder by The Smiths. You can also definitely add to that list.... Reckoning by R.E.M., which turns 40 today (in the UK at least - for some reason it didn't get its US release until the 17th).
So, here is a look, track by track, at this classic LP from Athens finest.
The album was recorded over a couple of sessions (the length of which has been disputed
by band and producers) in December 1983 and January 1984, at Reflection Studios in North Carolina. As for the debut Murmur, Mitch Easter and Don Dixon were once again at the helm. The album would go on to make a decent dent in the US chart, reaching the heady heights of number 27, although it only just scraped into the UK top 100.
Tony Fletcher, in his excellent biography Remarks, called the album "a roughly hewn celebration of spontaneity, yet one embodied by a clarity of production and maturity of songwriting that would once more outshine its contemporaries." The album displayed some darker themes than its predecessor, and water imagery was a constant theme throughout, including the cryptic message on the records spine - File Under Water - presumably a withering joke about the difficulty people had in categorising the band.
Side One:
Harborcoat:
The album starts with one of their most oblique, lyrically speaking, songs. It seems no one in the band, except maybe Michael Stipe, has any clue what the song is about. As Thomas Leatham said in Far Out magazine having read the lyrics - "we are no closer to knowing quite what the hell Stipe is talking about, but admittedly that's part of the early REM charm: one must simply make up their own mind and create their own meaning." Indeed.
Here - audio only
7 Chinese Bros:
The water images continue to flow. This song is most likely a play on the proverb of the five Chinese brothers, one of whom could hold the ocean in his mouth, while the others picked fish from the now dry seabed. It seems that Stipe was struggling a bit when it came time to record the vocals for this track and was not putting much energy into it, to the point where Dixon could barely hear him. Dixon then handed him a copy of the sleeve notes to an old gospel album by the Revelaires in the vocal booth, which Stipe started to read out with enthusiasm. This was laid over the music for 7 Chinese Bros. and became a new song, The Voice Of Harold, which features on the B-Sides and rarities album, Dead Letter Office.
Here - audio only
The Voice Of Harold - audio only
So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry):
This is a plaintive song that shows Stipe's voice at its most fragile. The obvious narrative of the song s about flooding in Athens, and the band out on the road, unable to call home because the lines are down. The sudden fade of his vocal at the end is from the hollow cry he makes from the emotion of the song, which causes him to lose balance and fall from the stairs he was recording his vocals on.
Here - official music video. Stipe's vocal for the video is live, while the band mimed
Pretty Persuasion:
This is one of their punch early numbers, all 'ringing guitars and thrusting drums'. The song, already a part of their live set since at least 1981, is packed full of energy and Peter Buck's insistent arpeggios. Si Jones in Get Into This, says the song "channels the spirit of Big Star" and you can hear why - along with that Byrds-ian Rickenbacker work by Buck. The lyrics had apparently come to Stipe in a recurring dream, that he was the photographer taking the shots for the last ever Rolling Stones cover.
Here - live on The Old Grey Whistle Test
Time After Time (Annelise):
This is another haunting tune, this time with strong echoes of their favourites, the Velvet Underground seeping through. The percussion and guitar lines through this song are just gorgeous. Matt LeMay in Pitchfork notes that it "hints at the more understated turn the band would take with Fables Of The Reconstruction."
Here - audio only
Side 2:
Second Guessing:
One reviewer compared this to something akin to the early Rolling Stones, with its freshness and power. It is a very tight song, almost like a live take, and has drummer Bill Berry very much at its beating heart.
Here - great live version in Passaic, NJ, 1984
Letter Never Sent:
Strangely, almost all of the album reviews I read either barely mention, or don't mention this song at all, which is odd, because I have always kind of liked this quirky song. While it is not a standout on the record, it is a good bit of garage pop with Stipe and Mike Mills, as ever, nailing their harmonies.
Here - another great live one from the Passaic show in 84
Camera:
Another song dripping with raw emotion - perhaps the most poignant and beautiful song they ever put together. It is not surprising when you find out that this is the last of a trilogy of songs on the album that were a tribute to friend of the band Carol Levy, who had died in a car crash in spring 1983. Mitch Easter wasn't entirely happy with Stipe's vocals on this moving balled and wanted him to refine it more, but Stipe insisted this song was all about the feeling and so did no more takes.
The urgent question "will she be remembered?" from Camera, goes with the "She will return" refrain in 7 Chinese Bros, and the haunting cry of "I'm sorry" Stipe howls in So. Central Rain.
Here - audio only
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville:
This Mike Mills penned tune was nailed in one take in an effort to humour band lawyer Bertis Downs IV. The song had been in the set since almost the beginning (1980), but as a thrashy rock number. The band seemed to have no desire to put it on record, but it was a favourite of Downs, and so as a joke, they slowed it down to a country standard. The result is one of the most enduringly popular songs, centred on Mills plea for girlfriend at the time, Ingrid Schorr, not to go back to her parents in Rockville, Maryland.
Here - I couldn't resist using this version.
Actor Michael Shannon and musician Jason Narducy toured a 40-year
anniversary celebration of Murmur. When they got to Athens (the iconic 40
Watt Club), all the REM members were there. It might not be Stipe singing, but you get Mills on co-vocals and Buck on guitar.
Little America:
The last track on the album is a bit of a sharp turn, injecting some humour to balance the heavier tones. As Buck would note, the song takes "a perverse view of us driving around the country seeing things that are really nice and really horrible." The song gives a slightly sardonic view of middle America - "Another Greenville, another Magic Mart - Jefferson I think we're lost."
Here - live at Glastonbury in 2003
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