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Teaser: Stocki reviews the new REM album and finds its niceness a confusion...yet reckons there is redemption in there somewhere... 

This is a lovely record and you have to immediately ask yourself ­ should REM be making lovely records. It reminds me of that English teacher who told you never to use the word nice because… well it was too nice a word…and too bland! 

I read a review of The Finn Brothers album Everyone Is Here that likened Crowded House to REM and I laughed at such a comparison. Maybe Woodface was a contemporary of  Out of Time and Weather With You thus sat in radio rotation with "Shiny Happy People" but, come on, REM rocked and were cooler; weird comparison. Well, now a matter of weeks later I am suggesting that The Finn Brothers have more grit than Stipe et al. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

What is wrong is only compacted by the political horizon into which REM bring out their lullaby album. The world is in a precarious spot right now and so is the seriousness of events in their own land that has the band are on tour with Springsteen, Pearl Jam and others to try and ignite the younger range of voters to oust George W. The urgency and seriousness of such events seem to have lit no dynamite in the studio during the recording of Around the Sun. 

Not that the state of the world in a post 9/11 America is absent from the record. The title track is a holding on and hoping for another day type song that throws out another of Jesus “observations” and “beautiful refrains” as Michael Stipe called them on "New Test Leper" from their last cutting edge work New Adventures in Hi Fi ­ “I want the truth to set me free.” It is all about dreaming of a future and hanging on grimly until it comes. It sees the album ending with a band straining to “believe, believe, now, now, now…” 

Therein lies more confusion about Around the Sun. It may seem limp but it eases its way under your skin as if the more laid back and stripped back arrangements give Stipe’s voice more space to insidiously impact. I am making two songs the center piece of one of my radio shows. "Make It All Okay" which screams out “radio, radio” in its’ catchiness talks about “Jesus loves me fine” and how “we don’t have a prayer between us.” Then "Final Straw" which is the political pivot and adds any bite that there might be to the sound throws into the world’s turmoil a curve of love and forgiveness again reflecting some of those refrains of Jesus:

                              If hatred makes a play on me tomorrow
                              And forgiveness takes a back seat to revenge
                              There's a hurt down deep that has not been corrected
                              There's a voice in me that says you will not win.

                              Now love cannot be called into question.
                              Forgiveness is the only hope I hold.
                              And love- love will be my strongest weapon
                              I do believe that I am not alone.

So like the world that REM sing about and want to believe in there is a little bit of redemption on Around the Sun. However, it would seem that as their buddies and rivals U2 wind up to release a big rock album to take on the world that REM seem less interested in reclaiming the biggest band in the world tag or maybe unable to compete. Whatever, this is not going to be looked back on as a career classic but don’t give up on it either. It doesn’t have to be a classic to be useful or even enjoyable. Lovely albums can be just that ­ lovely! 

Steve Stockman  11/16/2004