R.E.M. RECKONING

R.E.M.: Michael Stipe (vocals); Mike Mills (vocals, bass); Bill Berry (vocals, drums); Peter Buck (guitar).
Recorded at Reflection Sound, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Personnel: Bill Berry (vocals, drums, percussion); Michael Stipe , Mike Mills (vocals); Peter Buck (guitar).
Audio Mixer: Mitch Easter.
Recording information: Reflection Sound Studios, Charlotte, NC (12/08/1983-01/16/1984).
Photographers: Ed Colver; Mike Cameron.
The murmuring continued with this, R.E.M.'s second album, recorded in only two weeks, and yet critical acclaim and a growing fanbase had not made the music any less elusive. From the cover depiction of a winding river/snake, the jangly music within was similarly ambiguous, drenched in alternately murky, then dazzlingly clear, images. The water theme predominates throughout side one's five-song suite, with talk of harbours, oceans and water towers, crowned by the sublime lament of "So. Central Rain." Later, the melancholic eulogy of "Camera" sits comfortably beside the cod-country of "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" and the brisk but disillusioned tour around "Little America." An astonishingly assured and uncommercial half-sibling to MURMUR: file under water.

• Format: CD
• Genre: Rock