REVEAL (Reveal - R.E.M.)

Member Name: jimoth

Product:	Reveal - R.E.M.
Date:	10/05/02 (247 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great album

Disadvantages: Non

R.E.M. are without a doubt one of the great bands that came out of the 20th century, so how does their new album fare, there first one of the 21st century and it comes 20 years since their first release. Its called Reveal if I had to reveal that to you or any thing.

~ History ~

The band recorded and released their first album in 1981. Since then they have 12 albums, the most recent being Up and others recent albums include Monster and Automatic For The People. Although it has been 11 years since their rise to world fame their 20 years in the business has been consistent but experimental and so they don?t really get the acclaim they deserve, they are a superb three piece band and there latest album is a testimony to that.

~ So what?s on the album ~

The full list of tracks is as follows (in running order):

1. The Lifting
2. I?ve Been High
3. All The Way To Reno (You?re Going To Be A Star)
4. She Just Wants To Be
5. Disappear
6. Saturn Return
7. Beat A Drum
8. Imitation Of Life
9. Summer Turns To High
10. Chorus And The Ring
11. I?ll Take The Rain
12. Beachball

I am not going to mention each track individually as this opinion is long enough as is it is but here is my favourite track and a bit about it.

~ Favourite track ~

Firstly the single off the album that you may have (or may not have as the case may be) is called Imitation Of Life and is one of the best tracks off the album because of the vocals and the vocals alone, I find I can relax to this track more than the others, I am not musical expert so don?t expect to here me talking about the instruments they are playing as I don?t have a clue. If I was to give you my favourite track the fact is that it is too hard as many of the tracks are extremely good. It is a close thing between Imitation of Life and possibly All the Way To Reno (You?re Gonna Be A Star) but I could never give a definite answer on th
at one. Why All the Way To Reno (You?re Gonna Be A Star), well I also like the lyrics on this one especially when they sing You?re Gonna Be A Star. I love every track on this album and it has to be one of the best albums in my collection that I can lie back to and chill out at the end of a busy day. The music on the album as a whole sounds fantastic and I disagree with people that say track 4 is a bit weak, what?s wrong with it? I can?t hear anything wrong with it.
~ Hooked like a coat on a rack ~

The fact is that I love this album, I thought I might like it when I heard it was out so I bought it and gave it a try. Now I am a fan of R.E.M., so much so that I plan to try and get some of the other albums they have previously bought our. I have this album on CD by the way just in case you were wondering.

~ Information on the band and the album production ~

Let me tell you a bit about the band and the album production (courtesy of the sleeve booklet). The band is Peter Bucks, Mike Mills and Michael Stripe. The album was recorded and mixed with the help of Pat McCarthy and Jamie Candiloro. Produced by Pat McCarthy and the band. The album was recorded in Vancouver, Athens, Dublin and Miami.

The official R.E.M. web site is www.remhq.com although I have yet to check this one out so I have no idea what the content is like, might make an opinion on it one if I were bothered. The fan club address is:

Post Box 8032
Athens
Georgia 30603
USA

I would try to find out about the fan club before you go and hand over any money first if I were you, the web site might contain information, check it out, it might just be worth a look, don?t know if any one has written an opinion on this.

~ The CD and package design ~

The front cover is made up of picture with what appears to be a field with a lake and ducks in it as far as I can see but I think the idea is to make it a bit blurred to help get to the alb
um title of reveal. A novel thing is that the tracks are listed on the front cover although they are hard to read. The inside of the insert lists the lyrics of the tracks on the album in their entirety and the reverse side (excluding the front cover and back) are made up of pink, yellow and blue pages with mainly production information on them. The reverse of the insert is the font cover seen from the back in black and white (and back to front). The back of the disk case has a picture of the sky and some weird looking landscape that does not make sense and a list of the track on the right onto a yellow back ground, throughout the case the R.E.M. logo is shown with the dot. The CD also has a logo and a yellow circle in the middle with a red circle in the yellow circle slightly offset from the centre of the disk.

My opinion of this design is that it resembles something you might find on one of those crazy posters from the sixties or seventies; it certainly has that feel to it. But I do like the style for this unusual look; I admire the style of the band for their design as well as their music.

~ Final verdict on Reveal by R.E.M. ~

A good all round performance by the team who managed to put this together and I would strongly recommend this to any one thinking about what there next album to buy will be. The music may not to be every ones taste but I love it, and as many critics say a sparkling return to form by the band (although I wouldn?t really know). I hope I will like the others albums they have released because this is a marvellous band. One of the best albums I have ever heard, definitely one of my favourites

This comes highly recommended on the things to buy this year; if you don?t buy this or even give it a listen you might regret not doing so because it is very, very good.

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