Reckoning

8.0/10

Another good early R.E.M. album.  Some people like this one better than Murmur.  For me it's a step down. It's got a lot of good songs on it but it doesn't seem to have a ton of diversity or the same sense of "mystery" as Murmur.  I like it a lot and yet to my ears it might be the weakest early R.E.M. album.  Most people would probably give that title to the next album, but for me it's probably this one.

I was ready to give it a 7.5 based on memory alone, but upon re-listening to it, it deserves higher than that. It starts off really strong with Harborcoat and maintains that for the first 3 tracks.  Track 4 also known as Pretty Persuasion is a good song, but it's a noticeable dropoff from the first 3.

Pavement wrote a song about this album called "The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" in which Steve Malkmus famously proclaims Time After Time to be his least favorite track.  It's not my favorite but there's something about the almost middle-eastern sounding guitar part that I dig.  For me the last track Little America is probably my least favorite.  It's not awful but it feels like they could have closed the album with something a little stronger.

I guess there's something a little "plain" sounding about the production on this one.  It's solid, but it's kind of no frills.  But if you like R.E.M. at all it's a must.