Album Description: Mid-priced reissue of the foreign edition of their 1984 & second album with five bonus tracks added, 'WinD OuT (With Friends)', 'Pretty Persuasion' (Live In Studio), 'White Tornado' (Live In Studio), 'Tighten Up' and 'Moon River'. 15 tracks total, also featuring the chart hit 'So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)' and the college radio anthems 'Pretty Persuasion', '(Don't Go Back To) Rockville' and 'Time After Time (Annelise)'. 'Reckoning' reached #27 in the U.S. 1992 release.
Amazon.com essential recording: The 1984 follow-up to R.E.M.'s brilliantly murky debut features Michael Stipe's ambiguous moan, drummer Bill Berry's strong backbeat, and guitarist Peter Buck's endless wave of catchy, jangling riffs. They wouldn't fully beef up their hard rock until roughly 1986's Life's Rich Pageant, but the swimming melodies of "Pretty Persuasion," "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" and "Rockville (Don't Go Back To)" recall why the band frequently earned comparisons to a power-pop Beatles and the country-rock Byrds. Also, the jittery rhythms and deceptively simple guitar lines make the underappreciated "Harborcoat" and "7 Chinese Bros." worth revisiting. --Steve Knopper
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Great Chemistry, Great Album
This album was another great release in the same style as Murmur. R.E.M. at this point had established themselves in the music circuit with their jangly Rickenbacher guitars along with singer Michael ... Read More
Rating: - A step down from Murmur, but no sophomore slump
Reckoning's first side is absolutely brilliant and arguably more impressive than Murmur's in terms of energy and variety of melodies and moods. The upbeat jangle of "Harborcoat," the inimitable pop enigmas ... Read More
Rating: - Second album is still their second best
R.E.M.'s follow-up to Murmur is nearly as good, and although it lacks the distinctive edge that marked the debut, it's even catchier with pulsating riffs and the familiar Stipe mumble-to-plead vocal style. Also ... Read More
Rating: - A Band To Be Reckoned With
Murmur wasn't a smash hit commercially, but rocks critics praised it to the high heavens. Rolling Stone even named it the Best Album of 1983, a year that also featured a little album from Michael Jackson called ... Read More
Rating: - More of the same, but it's good "same"
First the bad news: this sounds a lot like Murmur. Not an album I'd blame them for wanting to imitate, of course. But my only real problem with R.E.M. is that some of their stuff sounds exactly the same. Since I ... Read More
- Great Chemistry, Great Album
- A step down from Murmur, but no sophomore slump