Reveal

Sometimes it’s not bad being a rock legend. Whereas your pop cousins are only as good as their last chart position, ‘proper’ bands seem to be able to get away, not exactly with murder, but the odd dodgy moment as long as the pedigree is there.

It may have been nigh on eight years since their sublime run of albums from Murmur through to Automatic For The People (OK, you may want to argue about Fables Of The Reconstruction) came to an end, but the thought of a new REM record still sets many, many people’s pulses racing.

Since that artistic and commercial watermark, they have of course been somewhat adrift – with neither the hamfisted Monster, the hugely underrated New Adventures In Hi-Fi nor the directionless Up particularly doing the business on either level.

Reveal however, finds them re-grouped, re-focused and sounding like a band again. ‘The Lifting’ sets the album’s tone, a combination of Peter Buck’s ringing guitar and a whole new world of sounds.

Whereas U2 (and the similarities between both camps’ state of perceived ‘crisis’ cannot go unnoticed) recaptured lost ground by revisiting their past, REM are heading resolutely forward. Not that Reveal doesn’t have more than it’s fair share of nods to the band’s influences – you can hear splashes of Jimmy Webb, the Byrds and the Beach Boys throughout – but the album has emerged as a perfect blend of past and present.

At its heart may beat a truly amazing band (REM have not so much lost a member as gained three new ones in Scott McGaughey, Ken Stringfellow and Joey Waronker) but what first strikes about the record is the sumptuous combination of acoustic, electric and electronic.

Repeated listens, however, prove to disclose an incredible collection of songs. Single ‘Imitation Of Life’ is completely unrepresentative of it’s musical colleagues but makes much more sense when placed alongside them, exploding with glee amongst a generally low key collection.

Elsewhere, Stipe & co are in melancholy – but not especially maudlin – mood and it suits them massively. There’s an inspirational quality to the likes of ‘Beat A Drum’ (“this is all I want, it’s all I need, this is all I am, it’s everything”) and the swirling ‘Disappear’, while if it’s introspection you’re after, look no further than ‘Saturn Return’ and ‘Chorus And The Ring’ (“that’s when the insults start to sting”). All the while, though, Reveal builds inexorably to it’s penultimate track, “I’ll Take The Rain”. A relatively straightforward but incredibly poignant tale of lost love, it has to rank as one of Stipe’s finest vocal performances ever, his voice swelling with the strings, Mike Mills’ piano and Buck’s soaring guitar. What’s that? No, just something in my eye, that’s all (although if please God they decide to tour this I’ll probably be in floods).

So, after a couple of false starts, REM have achieved their aim and made themselves an album for the 21st century. For a band on the verge of breaking up a few years ago it’s a remarkable achievement. And for the rest of us? Let’s just say that life just got that bit better.