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88
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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Reveal
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 29 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 15 May 2001
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
Summary
'Reveal,' the Athens, GA band's 12th full-length album, marks the 20-year anniversary of the group. Operating as a trio for the second consecutive outing, R.E.M. offer up 12 new tracks, mainly of the mid-tempo acoustic guitar and keyboard variety. Guests include Joey Waronker, Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), and Scott McCaughey (The Young Fresh Fellows).
Also By This Artist: Accelerate Around The Sun R.E.M Live
Also On The Web: R.E.M. HQ (Official Site)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Q Magazine
It's a landmark album for REM and the fans who stayed faithful, a shot in the arm for music in 2001 and - unless they're too foolish to accept it - a long-awaited treat for all the listeners who bailed out after Monster.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
Whilst this comes closer to 'Out Of Time' than anything else they've done, it never once sounds dated.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
The rock energy that drove much of their early career has given way to a perfect sense for texture and sound. Reveal is a lush, dreamy pop mood-piece that hovers in the realm of rumination and introspection.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
'Reveal' sees REM exhale, relax and ease into a new confidence with a collection of songs to fill your heart. Every track here sifts with a live energy that was previously polished out of 'Up', and they sound all the better for it.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
For all its daring, Reveal still ranks among the group's most instantly winning albums, the kind whose poppiest pleasures, like "All The Way To Reno (You're Going To Be A Star)" and the single "Imitation Of Life," eventually fade into the album's overall beauty.
Read Full Review >Revolver
As sonically beautiful an album as R.E.M. has made. [May/June 2001, p.114]
Wall of Sound
On Reveal, the sounds vary, but the songs cohere well. For a band into its third decade, making a record with no apparent weak link is an accomplishment.
Read Full Review >Nude As The News
Many adjectives have been thrown around in reference to this latest album: lush, atmospheric, beautiful, summery, melodic. All apply. This is R.E.M.'s pop record.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
The album straddles R.E.M.'s past and their future, sounding fresh, assured -- and on par with their best previous efforts.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
But if you go back to Up after hearing Reveal, you get the idea that this is the album they were trying to make then, and that this time they got all the way there and found a parking spot. The Eno-style keyboard textures have more room to breathe amid the largely acoustic guitars, with the arcane sound effects intricately woven into the songs.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Reveal is billed as the band's return to form, and mostly it is.... But like 'Up,' much of 'Reveal' is haunted by an ennui that's curious for a band that made their name by talking about the passion. [18 May 2001, p.79]
Spin
Unlike U2, whose left turns have felt like oblique strategies in the band's pompous struggle to redeem rock, R.E.M.'s stylistic shifts tend to feel like survival skills. Vaguely psychedelic, filled with hazy shades of woo or whatever, much of Reveal moves with the graceful drag of 1985's Fables of the Reconstruction, yet with more ebb and flux. [June 2001, p.143]
New Musical Express
'Reveal' is the slippers, fire and photo album - but this doesn't mean REM have resigned themselves to the placid lethargy of age. It just means that they've found a place to sit back and take stock after a long, colourful journey.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
With the exception of a few tracks, Reveal is a remarkably cohesive album of intense beauty and heady wisdom that inspires with its passionate strength. [Jul 2001, p.79]
Sonicnet
On the plus side, the album sounds really nice.... The problem is, things get a little too lazy and hazy; Reveal's 12 tracks all move with almost the exact same dreamy, midtempo lope.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine
It's full of the same monochromatic balladry and hipster references of its recent albums.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
What makes Reveal so disappointing is that the additions to the classic R.E.M. sound are all merely superficial. The increased reliance on burbling, jittering synthesizers actually makes the album a less engaging listen, turning many of its songs into messy sonic muddles.
Read Full Review >Blender
'Up' sounded like the work of a band getting its bearings. On 'Reveal,' they're still finding their way. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.110]
Village Voice
Mike Mills's and Peter Buck's acoustic midtempo strummings and electronic ambience match 1992's Automatic for the People for lethargy, without the looming darkness or catchy sentimentality that made it compelling.
Read Full Review >CDNow
There's a welcome sunniness to much of the album, with "Beat a Drum" recalling The Beach Boys' "Feel Flows," and "Imitation of Life" displaying some of that classic Document-era jangle. The two songs are Reveal's only real highlights.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jon L gave it a10:
If it's not one of their five best albums, that's still not a strike against the album considering the vast amount of great work REM has done. Even if they've been inconsistent since signing on to a major, this proves their continuing artistry.
Iban L gave it a7:
"Reveal" is a very interesting record, likely the best album since Berry left the band. R.E.M. caught very well the summer feeling in this record. Some of the songs are brilliant, like the first single "Imitation Of Life", which is an R.E.M. classic now. The Automatic-days were gone and this record doesn't get close to the best albums of the band, but it shows that R.E.M. still had life after the departure of Bill.
R H gave it a6:
The band set out to capture the summers of their youth on record, and they did that. A 10 for atmosphere and sound........the problem, however, is that the songs just aren't here - it meanders a lot. If you're sitting outside, letting the sun bake your skin, it works well in that thoughtless fashion.........but when you pay attention to it, the work falls apart faster that balsa wood.
C.S. Reed gave it a10:
a collection of torpid songs that taste like summer afternoon
Jace N gave it a6:
For a band that once said it wasnt going to produce endless sequels to Monster and New Adventures In Hi-Fi...wasnt going to repeat what worked to get easy sales...they sure love producing sequels to UP...and repeating what didnt work with an army of fans claiming "all us critics are too stupid to understand the songs" defense to criticism. Most of the tracks wouldnt be so bad if they didnt incorporate strange instruments or cliche lyrics. Fumbling around for a hook is best done on your own time but even then when youre tinkering in the studio, its not the best reason to put a stinker on the only CD youll put out for a few years merely because some hidden quality of it reminds you of a song from your youth...and you want to share that with the world. We want R.E.M back!
Jim C. gave it a10:
Great album. Probably only a half of a notch below Automatic or Murmur. Took me a lot of listens as it is so deep and all ambience but it finally hit me that this is a classic.
Daniel E gave it a 10:
I was going through a break up at the time and this album struck a very heavy note with me as it related to what I was going through. Every song seemed to mirror my own situation. Michael Stipes voice and lyrics are to be commended. I would go as far as to say that this was their best album in many years.
