53. REM — Reveal

I bought this — or rather, my aunt bought it for me, and I may have paid her back — at a Costco, because I saw it on the way out after getting the full Costco experience (the mayonnaise…THE MAYONNAISE). Back in 2001, I thought that it had lovely melodies and almost no emotional impact. Eleven years later, after an extensive two-week program of listening to it to find unheard nuances, I think the exact same thing.

So the critics are right. If emotional truth and connection is what you expect from REM — which, after all, was once their stock-in-trade — then skip this one. You won’t care about it no matter how long it sits, like an extra coaster, in your CD tower.

This concludes my REM CD’s. Next week, The Rolling Stones.

Grade: OK