Reckoning

R.E.M. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000001I0G
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,531 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #6 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Rock
  • #17 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Jangle Pop
  • #26 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > General

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

The 1984 follow-up to R.E.M.'s brilliantly murky debut features Michael Stipe's ambiguous moan, drummer Bill Berry's strong backbeat, and guitarist Peter Buck's endless wave of catchy, jangling riffs. They wouldn't fully beef up their hard rock until roughly 1986's Life's Rich Pageant, but the swimming melodies of "Pretty Persuasion," "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" and "Rockville (Don't Go Back To)" recall why the band frequently earned comparisons to a power-pop Beatles and the country-rock Byrds. Also, the jittery rhythms and deceptively simple guitar lines make the underappreciated "Harborcoat" and "7 Chinese Bros." worth revisiting. --Steve Knopper

Product Description

Includes 5 rare B-side bonus tracks: 'Wind Out (With Friends)', 'Pretty Persuasion (Live in the Studio)', 'White Tornado (Live in the Studio)', 'Tighten Up' & 'Moon River'. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vacation in Athens is calling you, June 8, 2001

By 

E. Lambeth (Paso Robles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reckoning (Audio CD)

In all the years I've been listening to this CD (and I listened to it a lot today as well), I find that my favorite song of this album keeps changing. Rockville. Harborcoat. Time after Time (I'm naming my first daughter AnnElise). Today, though, it's Letter Never Sent.

Dammit, each song on this CD is totally different than the next, and just about every one of them deserves to be a hit.

Ranked against my favorite REM albums, it's hard to not put this one at the top. Fables, Murmur, Life's Rich Pageant...they are all great. I don't know if it's my favorite REM album, but I know that I wouldn't want to live the rest of my life without this masterpiece. I guess the main point is, if you enjoy Life's Rich or Murmur or any other REM album, you will definitely LOVE Reckoning.

Now if you'll excuse me, vacation in Athens is calling me. Buy Reckoning today. Don't waste another year.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars why, WHY did they give it up??, November 17, 2004

By 

Howlinw (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reckoning (Audio CD)

There's basically two kinds of REM fans. People who got into the post-Green material, and know them as a big-league stadium rock band, and those who appreciate their earlier indie material on the IRS label. Well, you guessed it, I'm on the IRS side of things. The only post-Document album of theirs which I actually own is "New Adventures in Hi-Fi," which is not nearly as good as the early work. I frankly don't understand why they gave up this sound at all. They had so much potential here. AARRGGHH!! Well, no use dwelling on it.

I can't begin to describe how great this album is. I first bought it when I was in high school, on cassette, a decade after it was recorded. I updated to a CD copy about five years later. It's only sounded better over that period of time. It has that raw, jangly, murky feel that REM was so good at back then, with abstract lyrics hinting at something big but never giving everything away. It's less staid-sounding than Murmur, but keeps that mysterious feeling that was lost when Mike Stipe became a regular old frontman and started demanding attention and wearing his heart on his sleeve. The whole murky-mumbly thing suited him and the band far better than anything. It is my favorite album of the 80s, even with competition from the Stone Roses, the Pixies, the Replacements, the Clash and Jesus and Mary Chain. It's also a huge influence on one of my favorite songwriters, Stephen Malkmus. So, if you're looking for everything that indie rock can be, look no further.

-HW

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Last LP Infatuation, August 10, 2003

By 

Dale Chapman (San Ramon, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reckonong (Audio CD)

R.E.M. broke onto the scene with "Chronic Town" when I was a sophomore in high school in 1982. Prior to this time, I was "into" the mainstream hard rock of the day (Van Halen, Aldo Nova, Huey Lewis, Rush, Men at Work, etc.). R.E.M gave me an individualistic retreat amidst the pressure of adolescent conformity. In this period prior to adulthood, I was able to invest R.E.M.'s music with my own innocence, naivete, and sense of mystery. The band's initial EP ("Chronic Town") and first two LPs ("Murmur" & "Reckoning") seemed to beg the listener down this path. The music suggested a growing youth movement that embraced kindness, creativity, and commeraderie.

Side One (pardon this out-moded expression) was one of the best LP sides ever. The sound of "Reckoning" was more driving and slightly more electric than it's folk-tinged predecessor, "Murmur". The vocals were rarely decipherable, but one could extract occassional nuggets ("Your handshake is worthy, it's all that you've got"..."The wiseman builds his house upon the rock, but I'm not bound to follow suit"..."Goddamn your confusion"..."pull your dress on, and stay real close"). These little chestnuts somehow seemed and felt important at the time. Never enough to hang one's hat on, but enough to conjure intrigue.

Side Two yielded "Letter Never Sent", which is still at the top of my favorite R.E.M. songlist. Other highlights included "Second Guessing" and "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville".

While R.E.M. continued to create occassional moments of brilliance ("Maps & Legends", "Flowers of Guatemala", "Me in Honey", and "Man on the Moon"), their music yielded diminishing returns from this point forward. Peter Buck abandoned the gorgeous sweep of the clean arpeggio jangle of his Rickenbacker for power chords and distortion. At the time I grieved and lamented this loss, but after 20 years I realize that the sound I loved HAD to change. It was the product of its time and the age of its creators. And somehow the fact that R.E.M. and I went down different paths after 1984 lends a bittersweet pathos to "Reckoning".

"Reckoning" is one for the ages. And the embarrassment of Michael Stipe circa 2003 does not diminish its beauty. Highly recommended.