What a treat! I rarely play REM these days but whenever I do it just feels like home. I really should do it more often!
I think this is a great assessment of Reckoning. I have to confess that as a huge fan of Lifes Rich Pageant and Fables of the Reconstruction this is an album that I often overlook, but gosh it’s good! I personally think the singles are both excellent, especially (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville, although I didn’t know they had been singles until reading this. I also love Seven Chinese Brothers, and its counterpart on Dead Letter Office, Voice Of Harold, but there’s not a bad song to be found imo. Letter Never Sent has just started playing which I also really like. I think it’s the closest they get to a nod back to Murmur.
I don’t know where I would rank this album. In all honesty, I probably need to give the last five, released when I had small children (what I think of as my ‘wilderness years’), a bit more listening to make a fair assessment. I think the IRS albums all rank pretty highly though.
Not Reckoning related but here is the link to Keith Murray’s excellent acoustic cover of Fall On Me. My favourite band covering my favourite band - doesn’t get any better!
Great post, Kevin -- how is it possible that it's been 40 years? Phew.
As for ranking, I tend to listen to REM in periods: Chronic Town to Fables, Lifes Rich Pageant to Monster, New Adventures to Reveal, Around The Sun (my least listened to REM record even if those songs were way better live) to Collapse Into Now. Reckoning absolutely stands up there with the best of that first period. Man, what a band.
Related, a friend shared a link to a handwritten REM setlist for a Green tour concert I saw in Cincinnati 35 years ago this week. 35 years! 😯
One of their albums I keep coming back to., held me after the first listen. 7 Chinese Brothers brought back memories reading the book as a child in school and I realized 'These guys are my peeps, I know where they're coming from!' Murmur got me hooked, this one brought me in for life.
I love this record. Thanks for sharing your insight. I saw them for the first time on tour in Dallas, and I was so obsessed that I stayed behind with a handful of others around their tour bus, where I had the opportunity to ask Michael Stipe about the state of the union. “It’s fucked up,” he replied, referring to the Reagan America we inhabited then. His comment contextualized the “Jefferson I think we’re lost” line for me then; Jefferson Holt was their then manager.
"Pretty Persuasion" is my favorite R.E.M. song bar none. It's the song I use to convince people who can't stand R.E.M. that they like at least one of the band's songs. "G-ddamn your confusion" is one of the most incisive, bitter, glorious three-word lyrics ever written.
This one’s my favorite. It made me a fan forever. I was 16 and I wore out the cassette in my Walkman walking back and forth to my job at McDonald’s back then. Lifes Rich Pageant is 2nd. After that it’s tough to rank! Beautiful music this band made. I’m going to go listen to this now. Thank you.
While I was in college when this album came out I have to admit I didn't know it! I was too busy listening to Top 40 and the music that was playing in the clubs I was going to. I came to R.E.M. when a lot of people did in the early 90s with Out of Time but I have gone back to appreciate a lot of their earlier work. I'll have to dig into this one a bit more.
I can’t finger a favorite, but those two tracks you mentioned—”Rockville” and “Sorry”—are the two I play the most often these days, I think, along with “Losing My Religion” for some reason, probably having more to do with sentiment than anything, growing up with them in Columbia SC.
It absolutely stands up and stands the test of time, Kevin.
As a decided deeper cuts gal, I don't think "Time After Time (Annelise)" gets the love it deserves. I'm right there with you on "Pretty Persuasion." And " Second Guessing" also deserves more playlist time!
Their inclusion of *six* tracks off Reckoning on their "working rehearsals" Live at the Olympia album while working on Accelerate says a lot, and the version of Second Guessing on Live at the Olympia is my favorite.
I’m admittedly very late to the party, but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this album from start to finish. Thanks to your post I’m going to put that right!
What a treat! I rarely play REM these days but whenever I do it just feels like home. I really should do it more often!
I think this is a great assessment of Reckoning. I have to confess that as a huge fan of Lifes Rich Pageant and Fables of the Reconstruction this is an album that I often overlook, but gosh it’s good! I personally think the singles are both excellent, especially (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville, although I didn’t know they had been singles until reading this. I also love Seven Chinese Brothers, and its counterpart on Dead Letter Office, Voice Of Harold, but there’s not a bad song to be found imo. Letter Never Sent has just started playing which I also really like. I think it’s the closest they get to a nod back to Murmur.
I don’t know where I would rank this album. In all honesty, I probably need to give the last five, released when I had small children (what I think of as my ‘wilderness years’), a bit more listening to make a fair assessment. I think the IRS albums all rank pretty highly though.
Not Reckoning related but here is the link to Keith Murray’s excellent acoustic cover of Fall On Me. My favourite band covering my favourite band - doesn’t get any better!
https://open.substack.com/pub/wearescientists/p/great-apes-fall-on-me?r=1pwf0t&utm_medium=ios
Great post, Kevin -- how is it possible that it's been 40 years? Phew.
As for ranking, I tend to listen to REM in periods: Chronic Town to Fables, Lifes Rich Pageant to Monster, New Adventures to Reveal, Around The Sun (my least listened to REM record even if those songs were way better live) to Collapse Into Now. Reckoning absolutely stands up there with the best of that first period. Man, what a band.
Related, a friend shared a link to a handwritten REM setlist for a Green tour concert I saw in Cincinnati 35 years ago this week. 35 years! 😯
One of their albums I keep coming back to., held me after the first listen. 7 Chinese Brothers brought back memories reading the book as a child in school and I realized 'These guys are my peeps, I know where they're coming from!' Murmur got me hooked, this one brought me in for life.
I love this record. Thanks for sharing your insight. I saw them for the first time on tour in Dallas, and I was so obsessed that I stayed behind with a handful of others around their tour bus, where I had the opportunity to ask Michael Stipe about the state of the union. “It’s fucked up,” he replied, referring to the Reagan America we inhabited then. His comment contextualized the “Jefferson I think we’re lost” line for me then; Jefferson Holt was their then manager.
You're building quite the library!
Still one of my fave REM records & still gets regular play. In fact, it will be played today. Tks for the reminder.
"Pretty Persuasion" is my favorite R.E.M. song bar none. It's the song I use to convince people who can't stand R.E.M. that they like at least one of the band's songs. "G-ddamn your confusion" is one of the most incisive, bitter, glorious three-word lyrics ever written.
This one’s my favorite. It made me a fan forever. I was 16 and I wore out the cassette in my Walkman walking back and forth to my job at McDonald’s back then. Lifes Rich Pageant is 2nd. After that it’s tough to rank! Beautiful music this band made. I’m going to go listen to this now. Thank you.
My first R.E.M. record. I heard about them from my girlfriend and played it often.
While I was in college when this album came out I have to admit I didn't know it! I was too busy listening to Top 40 and the music that was playing in the clubs I was going to. I came to R.E.M. when a lot of people did in the early 90s with Out of Time but I have gone back to appreciate a lot of their earlier work. I'll have to dig into this one a bit more.
I can’t finger a favorite, but those two tracks you mentioned—”Rockville” and “Sorry”—are the two I play the most often these days, I think, along with “Losing My Religion” for some reason, probably having more to do with sentiment than anything, growing up with them in Columbia SC.
It absolutely stands up and stands the test of time, Kevin.
As a decided deeper cuts gal, I don't think "Time After Time (Annelise)" gets the love it deserves. I'm right there with you on "Pretty Persuasion." And " Second Guessing" also deserves more playlist time!
Their inclusion of *six* tracks off Reckoning on their "working rehearsals" Live at the Olympia album while working on Accelerate says a lot, and the version of Second Guessing on Live at the Olympia is my favorite.
Hi and thanks for this. I learned a few technical details about the time they spent in the studio during the recording process.
I’m admittedly very late to the party, but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this album from start to finish. Thanks to your post I’m going to put that right!