I didn\’t become a devotee of R.E.M. until after my sophomore year of high school in 1989.
They\’d released their fifth record, \”Document,\” a couple of years before that. It was the album that gave them their first mainstream hit, \”The One I Love,\” but also had those offbeat singalong songs, like \”Strange\” and \”It\’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).\” My best friend got a car that year, and it was the tape that fired up every time we hit the road.
\”Reckoning,\” however, was the album that got under my skin — the record I listened to alone in my room. It was the record that lured me into obsession — the one that made me go digging for more, reading interviews, borrowing copies of \”Athens, Georgia Inside/Out\” and recording every video that came on MTV so I could watch Michael Stipe sing, watch Peter Buck pick the strings like a country artist, watch Bill Berry thunder away, and marvel at the beautiful harmonies of Mike Mills, who looked like he\’d joined the band right out of FFA.
If \”Document\” was the fun, offbeat record, \”Reckoning\” was the more contemplative one. Don\’t get me wrong, \”(Don\’t Go Back To) Rockville\” is as jangly and fun as anything the band ever wrote, but songs like \”7 Chinese Bros.,\” \”Time After Time (Annelise),\” and \”Camera\” are haunting, with lead singer Michael Stipe sounding as if he\’s mourning a lost love or maybe begging them to come back. In \”So. Central Rain,\” the wailing refrain \”I\’m sorry!\” runs through the entire song, and absolutely enchanted me.
I honestly didn\’t know what to do with this fusion of country, new wave, rock with often incomprehensible lyrics, and the term \”alternative\” was only beginning to be slapped on bands and their music in order to differentiate them from the mainstream.
I didn\’t know what it was, but I knew it had infected me in a life-altering way. Never again would I be content with the songs on the radio. My songs needed to be a little weird, and I was perfectly okay with that.