God Damn Your Confusion

Reckoning - 1984

Reckoning is the album that R.E.M. finally became the R.E.M. that I would eventually fall in love with. Right out of the gate, "Harborcoat" signals an energy level that hadn't been heard since the Hib-Tone single. Also, the production quality is far more dynamic than any of the band's previous efforts. Gone is the lo-fi, tinny sound. Mitch Easter and Don Dixon were still the men behind the boards, but Reckoning is far more polished when compared to Murmur and Chronic Town. The bass is fuller and the drums are less distant sounding.

Two of R.E.M.'s most noteworthy, early singles appear on this album: "So. Central Rain" and "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville". Both tracks are standout moments on Reckoning, which is already packed with strong songs. "So. Central Rain" is a sad, country ballad, with a pleading chorus, and a cathartic ending full of wailing vocals and banging pianos. "Rockville" is pure folk/country gold. The piano is back, but it has more of a honky-tonk vibe this time around. The whole "down home" feel is punctuated by Michael Stipe's overly twangy vocals. It comes close to farce, but he's able to pull it off.

Reckoning also features the band's most rocking song to date: "Pretty Persuasion". The verse contains several tracks of vocals by Michael Stipe and Mike Mills overlapping in a very hypnotic fashion, but the real hero of the song is guitarist Peter Buck. He throws every trick into this number: arpeggiated intro, stuttering pre-chorus, rocking chord strumming for the chorus, and a gnarly, distorted bridge. Up to this point in their recording career, I don't think R.E.M. ever sounded as powerful as they do during that amazing bridge. Besides, how many opportunities does one get to scream "God Damn" in the chorus of a rock song?

The rest of the album is almost as strong and gorgeous. "Time After Time (AnnElise)" gives off a mystical feeling given the song's Middle Eastern influence. Stipe looks even further east for lyrical influence on "7 Chinese Bros." "Second Guessing" is another high-energy track that kicks off the second side of the record, much in the fashion that "Harborcoat" starts the first. "Letter Never Sent" is a pretty straight forward rock number and "Little America" is an amusing album ender, but one of the highlights of the second half of Reckoning is "Camera". This a wonderfully serene meditation and R.E.M. take their time with it. If anything, "Camera", with its deliberate pace and ever prestent organ, is a hint of things to come on future albums like Out of Time and Automatic for the People.

Reckoning marks the first in a series of albums by R.E.M. that are the strongest in the band's catalogue. Ideas formulated here would go one and become more realized on the next batch of records. This is ten tracks that make a cohesive whole and is full of songs that do not blandly bleed into each other like the end of Murmur.

7 out of 10