No band can stay on top forever. R.E.M. reached their commercial peak in the first half of the ‘90s, releasing three consecutive Quadruple Platinum albums with Out of Time, Automatic for the People, and Monster. Still, even after the 1997 departure of drummer Bill Berry and the radical stylistic change of their 1998 album Up, the band’s commercial decline was merely gradual.
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Almost 10 years to the day after the release of Monster, R.E.M. put out Around the Sun. You could almost hear the thud created by the response to the album. Around the Sun achieved the lowest peak position on the Billboard 200 (No. 13) since their 1986 album Life’s Rich Pageant went to No. 21. Unlike Life’s Rich Pageant—and the eight studio albums that followed—Around the Sun was not celebrated by fans or critics. It was the first R.E.M. album to not receive Gold or Platinum certification. It was only their second studio album to not include a hit single on the Billboard Hot 100 (the first being Fables of the Reconstruction, released 19 years earlier). Around the Sun received an underwhelming 56/100 on Metacritic’s aggregate index.
For a band that had a remarkable track record for never having a misstep, it was almost shocking to find them capable of making an album that missed the mark for so many listeners. Though the band themselves think Around the Sun left something to be desired, they also offer an explanation for why it wasn’t up to their usual standards.
Around the Sun Was Not In Time
By the time R.E.M. had released Reveal in 2001, they had made seven studio albums for Warner Bros. At that stage, the label wanted R.E.M. to put out a greatest hits record consisting of tracks from those albums. They also wanted the band to add two new songs to the greatest hits compilation. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills had already been working on their follow-up to Reveal, which would eventually become Around the Sun. They decided to put that project to the side in order to record the new tracks, “Bad Day” and “Animal.”
The greatest hits album, In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003, was certified Platinum and reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200, despite having only two previously unreleased tracks. “Bad Day” was a hit, topping the Adult Alternative Airplay chart. Then the band embarked on the European and North American legs of their In Time world tour during the summer and fall of 2003, further delaying the completion of Around the Sun. According to Stipe, Buck, and Mills, the break from recording was not to the betterment of the album.
“Just Wasn’t Really Listenable”
Four years after the 2004 release of Around the Sun, Peter Buck said in an interview for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the album “just wasn’t really listenable.” Stipe and Mills have retrospectively defended the quality of the songs, but both have agreed that the final product suffered as a result of the hiatus during its recording. In an interview for Spin magazine, Mills said, “Trouble was, by the time we got back to [recording] it, we weren’t really sure what it was…there was no focus, there was no cohesion, and the record reflects it.” Stipe has concurred, saying, “we lost our focus as a band.”
That would explain why Around the Sun never quite feels like it hits its groove. The opener and album highlight, “Leaving New York,” is one of R.E.M.’s most heart-rending songs, both lyrically and musically. As Around the Sun progresses, it moves from the synthy sheen of “Electron Blue” to the folky protest song “Final Straw” to the vaguely industrial “High Speed Train,” and so on. Even some of the better tracks sound enervated. Mills and Stipe have acknowledged that at least some of Around the Sun’s songs come off much better live.
The Aftermath
Another sign indicating R.E.M.’s feelings about Around the Sun was the change in direction that accompanied their next album, Accelerate. The 2008 release was everything Around the Sun was not: energetic, loud, fast-paced, and laser-focused. Stipe admitted in a 2018 interview for The Guardian that Accelerate “was a reaction to Around the Sun. I never wanted to react, but there it is, you wind up reacting.”
Fans and critics greeted Accelerate with open arms. It went to No. 2 on the Billboard 200, marking the highest peak for an R.E.M. album since New Adventures in Hi-Fi hit No. 2 in 1996. Accelerate’s 18-week stay on the album chart was the longest tenure for an R.E.M. album in the post-Berry era, and it stayed on the chart 11 weeks longer than Around the Sun did. The lead single, “Supernatural Superserious,” returned R.E.M. to the Hot 100, making it to No. 85.
R.E.M. would make one more album, Collapse Into Now, before calling it quits in 2011. In the years since R.E.M. disbanded. Up and Reveal have improved their critical standing (not that it was bad to begin with). Reveal’s “Imitation of Life,” which squeaked onto the Hot 100 at No. 83, has become one of the band’s most-played songs on Spotify with more than 63 million streams.
Yet critics and fans have not given Around the Sun a similar reevaluation. Those of us who are in the habit of listening to albums all the way through might benefit from leaning into the easy mixing-and-matching that streaming in the digital age allows. Around the Sun has several great songs. Standouts like “Leaving New York,” “Electron Blue,” and “The Ascent of Man” may benefit more from being heard in a well-segued playlist than by being surrounded by other compositions from Around the Sun.
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