R.E.M. did not waste the opportunity given to them by Murmur’s Best Album ranking in multiple publications. Sources tend to differ on the time of Reckoning’s production – much of that on account of Pete Buck’s penchant for giving the band a kind of mythos – but even the harshest estimates make out the recording process to be just under a month, released around the same week as their debut one year prior.
That speed can signify problems or pressure from the studio, signs of the dreaded “sophomore slump”. But here that couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth was that the band and production team of Dixon and Easter was just on a roll, and despite the short amount of time was able to give a produce an album when unified sounds and themes that was not just the band repeating a direction that had proven surprisingly popular.
The haste did have one noticeable effect on the sound of the album, though. Whereas some of the struggle in creating Murmur had helped cultivated a darker, post-punk aesthetic, here the jangly guitar lines and melodies are more reminiscent of the pop sounds of the band’s first EP, Chronic Town (and also the sound of the band in a live setting). Whilst that could have shown signs of regression when compared to Murmur, it instead demonstrates how the band had matured in the wake of that studio process, in turn affecting their signature sounds to make the album its own distinct entity in the catalogue.
Reckoning would have also made a clearer evolutionary step from Murmur when it came to lyrical content. There is still the enigmatic chicanery which Stipe is so famous for, and some of the dream states and themes of communication still remain. But here images of fields and pilgrimage are replaced with images of water and cleansing, a state as smooth and as bright as Reckoning’s melodies; Stipe himself says that the true title of the record is File Under Water. But while the music may be brighter on Reckoning, the lyrics certainly do not follow suit. Many songs seem to take place in the aftermath of a tragic event, or evoke the passing of time that happens regardless. In my head I picture the songs in Reckoning as I would the burning house in The Sacrifice, as a daybreak sky with tragedy and inevitability happening beneath it.
Unlike the rumbles that introduce Murmur, “Harborcoat” simply breezes through with the sound of Berry’s erupting drums, played with an immediacy apparent throughout the album’s whole thirty-eight minute run time. Meek Mills’ bass work is still as melodic as ever, but also unlike Murmur Pete Buck is able to vary his playing in a way that, whilst never moving towards the end of excessive guitar wankery (of which I have place and affection), allows his work to move beyond just arpeggios and chords, playing with a sense of freedom and abandon that showcase his mood for most of the record. But just like R.E.M. is Stipe’s nasal inflected lyrics, and this here is cryptic even for his early records. I have trouble making out any of Mills’ backing cries here, and Stipes images range from ghosts to Gospel of Luke to the October Revolution. All I know for sure is that evocative lines line “There’s a splinter in your eye and it reads “react”” have emotive impact regardless of actual understanding, all suggesting a group of people tired and looking for any possessions they may have left. In some sense, with the “Harborcoat” here and the moving of boats in “Radio Free Europe” begins suggest that both these records begin at some kind of coast. The coat here, though, is to prepare for the troubled waters ahead.
The guitar lines of “7 Chinese Brothers” are coloured more with muted rings and repetitive bass than the introduction song, creating one of Reckoning’s more sombre moments. A botched reference to the children’s book The Five Chinese Brothers, a story of Chinese folk about a boy who is drowned for greediness after his brother held the entire ocean in his mouth and then dropped it upon him – which will not be the only cultural exchange from China on the album, the verses seems less to concern that reference and more on the aftermath of a relationship between a man and woman, or possibly someone who is both. In my own mind I pictured this as a spiritual sequel to the children of “Catapult”, so reading that it was “autobiographical” of Stipe breaking up a couple only to go out with both the man and woman definitely colours – like the water in this song – my interpretation of the song. Instead, the song’s starker sound to the rest of the album is a kind of self-flagellation; he sees himself as the greedy child about to be drowned.
“So. Central Rain”, meanwhile, is a song so much about forgiveness its chorus are Stipe crying out “I’m sorry!” The lead single from Reckoning a beautiful piano backing adds to the band’s chemistry to create a sense of perfect unity, wherein none of the instruments outweigh each other in terms of their impact, including the cooperative work coming from both guitars and both voices, and the tight Berry drums keeping it all together. But maybe if there is something that sticks out, it is how despite being called “So. Central Rain” there is no mention of rain at all (it was introduced without a title on the David Letterman Show). Despite that the lyrics flow from one to the next with some sense of unified purpose, the mythical abundance of “Eastern to Mountain, third party call, the lines are down/The wise man built his words upon the rocks/ But I’m not bound to follow suit” being probably my favourite line on the entire record.
Then comes “Pretty Persuasion”, which has some of favourite vocal performances from both Stipe and Buck (though unlike many R.E.M. songs they are actually singing the same verse). The songs rhythm is generally upbeat, but occasionally goes on moody tangents along with the lyrics saying “it’s all wrong, it’s wrong.” This merging is entirely appropriate for the context of the song, which again blends together gender and perspective in the manner of much Southern Gothic literature. Whatever the desire of the pretty persuasion, this song is designed to make you confused about the nature of the actual target (even if anti-consumerist elements are clearly present in lines like “It’s all I want, hurry and buy”).
“Time after Time (Annelise)” brings back the Eastern influence in a big way, with the nature of its strange stringed instrumentation, to close of the first half. None of the personnel data I could find seems to say what is being played, but that doesn’t matter when I precisely praise the wonderful cascading chord lines of Buck, showing a “Venus in Fur” influence in some of its repetitive sound, and the strange percussion with ranges from toms to congas to sounds that would make Tom Waits jealous. The enchanting feel is also very much supplied by Stipe, whose repetition of “time after time” becomes so much about the wilting, passing melody that he becomes another instrument; even more than usual.
After that sonic detour for Side One’s conclusion, Side Two returns to a more obviously “college rock” sound that like “Harborcoat” is beautiful as an introduction in its immediacy. Like the last song though its lyrics are more concerned with melody and swiftness, with these lyrics of a social situation being some of the easiest to understand of the album (at least in intent; we don’t know who the speakers are). But its more “lightweight” (for R.E.M.) nature is entirely appropriate for a song whose guitars rock with such velocity, and as such this feels the fastest and most hard rocking song on the whole of Reckoning.
After that burst of energy, “Letter Never Sent” has a tone in the bass and riff that starts off much more melancholic. Appropriate enough, as this song appears to be a direct “letter” for Stipe’s home back at Athens. Yet, although the target might be direct, his emotions are not, calling the place he is staying at everything from Heaven to the catacombs. The music follows suit, as the chorus fluctuates from the post-punk blues to the Byrds like happy sound that has been so noted for R.E.M.
The moodiest song on Reckoning though is “Camera”, beginning with only a bass accompaniment with the lightest taps of drums, with the echoing guitars and Stipes feeling as though the narrator is alone in this room. Soon enough, the mood extends to being “alone in a crowd,” a contradictory plea for both the right company and to be left solitary a social anxiety to which I think many can relate. To accentuate the longing for some kind of togetherness, the choral vocals at the end are emphasised with what sounds like church organs, a theory confirmed by the ringing of bells. For a band who has made a song called “Pilgrimage,” this may be one of their most spiritual…until the end when it turns into a straight up funk song.
Musically, the “straightest” song on Reckoning is the country rock stylings of “(Don’t Go Back to Rockville)”. Stipes riddles might still pepper through the song, but emotionally the piano and acoustic guitar combination is probably the album at its most amiably direct. It is very sweet in the context of the album, but after “Camera” it seems to act like the unifying force after that ode to social anxiety. Even if the song is about not going back to place. R.E.M; still have their wonderful contradictions even here. “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” seems to me a prototype to the kind of sweet natured songs that fill up many of R.E.M’s later albums, the ones that tend to get the most controversy and hate (but more on that later).
The country/folk colours get mixed with that of the alternative rock that so defines R.E.M. for the final “Little America”. Berry’s drums carry the forward momentum of the “wagon” with the playing that is vibrant throughout, merging its force with Mills’ incredibly bouncy rhythm and some of Buck’s most dynamic playing. All that though is completed with Stipes desperate voice, showing a world and America that he is unsure of, especially with the line “Jefferson, I think we’re lost”. It becomes so lost that the record actually ends with a different rhythm entire, with Stipe’s murmurs (ha) being undefinable amidst the morose beat. So confident on their sophomore album, R.E.M. ends on a note that for others would be anti-climactic, but here feels just right.
After the dark atmosphere inherent in Murmur’s music counteracted with songs of unity, the songs Reckoning acts as almost its mirror opposite, its reflection. The music is bright, making one think of sunrises and morning skies, but the lyrics are one of personal demons and loneliness. Although I prefer the landscapes of Murmur the tiniest bit more, the difference is so little, and they complement each other so well, that it almost doesn’t matter.
But they would have to expand out of these lands if they were to progress as a band. So with that incentive. R.E.M. got together to record what would be their most American themed album yet…in London.
R.E.M. Album Rankings
- Murmur
- Reckoning