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80Often recalls 1992's Automatic For The People in its sobriety of purpose. [Nov 2004, p.100]
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Undercut by passion and urgency. [Jan 2005, p.113]
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As the songs unfold over multiple listens, though, what becomes clear is that R.E.M. still has plenty to say, and plenty of interesting ways to say it.
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70R.E.M. still have the remarkable distinction of never once producing a bad album, but this is perhaps the biggest example yet of the group merely treading water, whereas once they majestically swam.
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Structure trumps texture throughout: "Make It All OK" is a formally tight breakup ballad, with spiritual overtones, that could fit neatly on a good singer-songwriter record, and others are arranged semi-acoustically, highlighting Stipe's cleanest melodies and most inviting vocal performances in years.
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As arena folk goes, R.E.M. remain cooler than, say, the Wallflowers. Just barely. [8 Oct 2004, p.114]
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67Unfortunately, things do go awry more than a few times.
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67This is a low-spark affair. [Nov 2004, p.112]
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A noncommittal aura undermines Michael Stipe's most personal, poetic and moving set of lyrics in years. [3 Oct 2004]
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The first REM album to really disappoint. [2 Oct 2004, p.60]
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The less a-political songs fall far short of REM's extremely high standards. [#8, p.111]
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60R.E.M.'s recent albums have increasingly resembled singer-songwriter records. Around The Sun is much the best of the last three... because the tunes are better. [Nov 2004, p.140]
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Another slow, meandering CD.
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Its sporadic pockets of accessibility aside, it's difficult to listen to Around the Sun without hearing it as a holding pattern, or worse, a piece of product released simply to keep the R.E.M. brand out among the public.
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Sound[s] less like the work of an actual band than a sterile concoction created by scientists in white lab coats.
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52Its chief problem is that every word, every note, and every instrument sounds dry, sapped of most of their personality.
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The good news is things pick up, eventually. The bad news is the album ends just as it starts getting interesting.
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50The band's writing stagnates, rendering the majority of the album in a rote midtempo formula that Stipe's increasingly trite lyrics can't always save.
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40The first out-and-out dull R.E.M. album. [Oct 2004, p.97]
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R.E.M. have never seemed as directionless.
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40Relentlessly, frustratingly slow. [Nov 2004, p.108]
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Where the two remaining musicians in the band appear to have gone astray, Michael Stipe sounds positively lost, never to be found again.
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40However different the early and mid-period records are, they all sounded daring, fresh, and inspired in their own ways. Compare that to the lifeless "High Speed Train" which plods along in perfectly measured time for the longest five minutes I've ever experienced with the band.
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In eliminating both the mystery of its early years and the restless spirit of more recent times, R.E.M. leaves just exactly what R.E.M.-haters probably felt the band made all along: midtempo, largely hookless adult rock.
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30Repeated plays just refuse to reveal hidden depths. There aren‘t any. “Around The Sun” is just a really poor album, probably the first one that this band has ever put out.
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30Lifeless, as if the air had been sucked from the band's lungs.
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20Weak poetry set to any music sucks, let alone this plodding folk-lite. [#13, p.90]
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 49 out of 69
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Mixed: 11 out of 69
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Negative: 9 out of 69
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