The new REM album is not easy for sure. It must be not only to his genius, summery dahinschwelgenden predecessor "Reveal" to be judged, but also to the perhaps best folk-rock records of all time, "Out of Time" and "Automatic For The People", as well as the much too often overlooked rock Kracher "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" from the mid-nineties. One advance: "Around the Sun" unfortunately keeps None of these comparisons was. That should not be a reproach to the men Buck, Mills and Stipe, who precisely very active politically shown lately and have delivered quite solid, but not outstanding work with this disk. I think this mediocrity, the "Around the Sun" radiates (of course only for REM ratios), arises when listening to the disc is because the music strikes no consistent direction. Early 90s played perfectly through-composed folk rock, reaching the absolute hero status REM. From then on, they produced the greatest albums ever: Whether they came along rocky as with "Monster" or "New Adventures" or whether they electric sounds used and to the creation of soundscapes specialized as the "Up" and "Reveal", always they broke new ground and set off with her brilliant songwriting to each new style on its own and thus enchanted the audience. But here, on "Around the Sun", an attempt to create a mainstream sound between natural rock instruments and electronic interjections, which acts in my opinion a bit half-baked and far from consistent. The result is no special atmosphere that grabs the listener, and that was otherwise always been unique about REM. This does not mean that here all songs are bad, this is certainly not the case: The single "Leaving New York" is a typical REM song with class, pity that bassist Mike Mills did not accept the backing vocals with his angelic voice. Also convincing is "Electron Blue", which acts as a single piece really like one of the previous albums. Extremely intoxicating effect on me the very rhythmic and dark piece "The outsiders", in which a rapper named Q-Tip has been installed. "Make it all okay" begins with its fragile piano chords on promising, but following the very nice verses a very weak chorus. The threatening political folk song "Final Straw" is causing a stir with gloomy spine-tingling atmosphere, then follow with "I Wanted to Be Wrong" and "Wanderlust" but two very unimaginative, bland compositions, such as forced pretexts for the use of the texts act. This is a dilemma that was triggered by the newly awakened political commitment of the band. Although I consider their activities from the technical point of commendable, but the music of the combo suffers because SEM are always particularly great mood when they use the song as a musical instrument in which it arrives exclusively on melodic quality and sound aesthetics, and not to transmit verbal messages. In "The Boy in the Well" you wait again after a gloomy verse on a thrilling chorus, but again this seems quite empty and disappointing. Little brilliant come the quiet pieces "High speed train", "The worst joke ever" and "The Ascent of Man" over; these tunes, they simply do not have the usual substance, and the atmosphere of the pieces has on me the first time in REM somehow a depressing effect. Finally there will be the theme song, and this is certainly not the worst thing the band has produced. For a conciliatory conclusion of my review I have the Track No. kept me. 9: "Aftermath" - a straightforward and concise, very precise and straightforward unconverted folk rock song I without counting hesitation because of its comforting, dahinschwelgenden melody and the modest scale, yet beautiful arrangement of the top 10 songs of REM would finally give the comforting feeling of warmth and humanity, which for many to friends made so many former REM songs for life. With my criticism, I do not want to discourage the purchase of the CD certainly, REM REM remains, for me the greatest band of all time. Nevertheless, hope remains that the guys build on their next album again "Up" and "Reveal" and thus pursue a more consistent stylistic direction and will ensure again solely for the emotional contact, expressive highlights that link to "Around the Sun" on long stretches fail.
