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| Around the Sun [Gatefold Sleeve] | ![Around the Sun [Gatefold Sleeve]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Z03SKQK4L._SL160_.jpg)
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| Artist: Rem
Label: Warner
Category: Music
List Price: £15.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £15.98 (100%)
New (62) from £1.09
Avg. Customer Rating:  84 reviews
Sales Rank: 26217
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.3
MPN: 48894
UPC: 093624889427
EAN: 0093624889427
ASIN: B0002W4UVG
Release Date: October 4, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Leaving New York | | • | Electron Blue | | • | Outsiders - REM & Q-Tip | | • | Make It All Okay | | • | Final Straw | | • | I Wanted To Be Wrong | | • | Wanderlust | | • | Boy In The Well | | • | Aftermath | | • | High Speed Train | | • | Worst Joke Ever | | • | Ascent Of Man | | • | Around The Sun |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 79 more reviews...
 Their worst album (dead letter office is better) March 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I waited for this album to grow on me... and waited... and waited...
I am a huge REM fan and I agree whole heartedly with the Around the Sun apologists who have written their reviews here in that REM has always pushed forward, has never looked to remake an album, always looking to tread new ground.
Unfortunately, ATS is an album of half-written songs that have then been overproduced. Like the air-brushed cover, the post-production obscures even the better bits of the album, rendering it stodgy and bland. Stipes lyrics have never been more anodyne, the instrumentation never more unremarkable.
Make it all ok & the outsiders - are cringeworthy
Electron Blue & wanderlust -seem half baked
High speed train & worst joke ever - plodding
Around the sun - a half baked idea stretched out past its welcome.
Over half the album is dross.
Leaving new york - pretty, catchy song
Final straw, wanted to be wrong - nice folky numbers
Boy in the well - decent song, naff lyrics & title - chorus doesn't quite fit
Aftermath & ascent of man - alright, disposable, but listenable.
In absolute terms I just think this is a poor album. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, but to suggest that ATS is too "challenging" by its blandness for the traditional REM fan is laughable.
REM used to throw away better songs than these on B-sides & album off-cuts (Fretless,PSA,Theme from 2 steps onwards,hey,hey,nadine). I can't help but feel that more rigorous quality control is needed).
PS-just heard "Accelerate". Much, much, better album.
 You can't tread water holding a guitar December 15, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you've enjoyed the rest of REM's largely fine work, you'll find this record is distinctly vin ordinaire compared to the grand cru vintages like Monster, Murmur and Reveal. It's plodding, plodding, plodding along after the very strong opening track. That said, even Leaving New York offers nothing new. We've heard the vocal layering before, nice and all as it is.
These aren't bad songs, by the way, but they needed a lot more love and care before being peeled off the master tapes. As to lyric content, there`s nearly no telling what any of this is about, apart from shades of repressed something or other. REM have been at the fridge-magnets again to produce cut and paste word salad such as this gem from High Speed Train: "I'll flail like the antelope who jumped from the building." Or this from "I wanted to be wrong" where Mr Stipe begins: "You know where I come from, you know what I feel, you're Yul Brenner Westworld reporting from the field." Indeed. Never mind, it's probably supposed to be impressionistic more than realistic.
Those of you who may have heard this material performed live during 2005 will have heard the tracks explode with the impressive force so resoundingly absent from this CD. The Boy In The Well is one example: live, it's a killer track. You can hear a little of this on Around The Sun which does its best to so very, very nearly escape the album's heavy gravity. Like the Spruce Goose it stays fast to the ground. Or like a Francis Bacon painting, it remains very much trapped behind the glass. "Around the Sun" is for completists and for people who still find U2 interesting.
Poor old REM.... September 6, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
What is it we want from them? If this album was put out by a new band we'd never heard of it it would be lauded and applauded.
Instead it gets a lukewarm reception. This is a very good album with some stunning songs on it. "I Wanted To Be Wrong" is REM at their most moving and affecting. "Aftermath" is an evocative mid-pace song that deserved more success as a single than it acheived. "Leaving New York" is a beautiful, well-crafted song. The peak of the album is "The Ascent Of Man" which is a stunning soulful track which is the best thing REM have done for years.
Some of the songs on this album do drag a little - "The Best Joke Ever" for example is somewhat forgettable.
But this is an album of quality. It is sombre and reflective and no there are no up-tempo numbers. But we can all have a grumpy day can't we?
Great album, bad cover art November 4, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
After having read many bad and mediocre reviews of this record, I was expecting (stupidly) a bad or mediocre album.
I was relieved, after finally buying it, to find that it was most definately up to their usual high standard. The songs do, as with many fine albums, take a while to fully appreciate. I found myself playing the whole thing through, something I rarely do, over and over again.
There are plenty of standout tracks, 'Electron Blue' 'Final Straw', 'I Wanted to Be Wrong', 'Aftermath' etc.
many critics ( all with interchangeable reviews as usual) said that it was REM's first slip. Their first shoddy record.
They have a vast catalogue, and I think this is easily as good, if not better than,(and I know this may be sacriledge to some), 'Reconstuction of the Fables', 'Document' and probably a few more.
Some claim the band is suffering a gradual and inevitable decline. I rate recent releases, 'Up', 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' & 'Reveal' as among their best LPs.
My only dissapointment is with the artwork.
something that REM have remined consistant with is the quality of their cover and sleeve artwork.They have always chosen striking, unconventional, interesting cover art. Never opting for a photo of the band, or a permanent logo or font.Never, like U2, swerving into the middle of the road, mainstream category, that banal, uninteresting artwork steers you toward.
The artwork for this one, however, is a bit rubbish.
This alone (some of you will understand!) actually made me hesitate for months before buying it.
Other than that, this album offers what, I think, all of REM's catalogue does; Buck & Mill's melodic tunesmithery, strengthened & made resonant by Stipe's considered & poetic lyrics & Idiosyncratic voice.Long may they create.
Buy & play & enjoy.
 Stunning return to form October 1, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Despite the gushing critical acclaim and many positive comments in response to R.E.M's 2001 effort Reveal, I just couldn't make myself like it. As a result, I wasn't as enthusiastic about purchasing Around the Sun as I might otherwise have been. Up was good but it seemed that R.E.M. had lost something following the departure of drummer Bill Berry after the criminally under-rated New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
So it was something of a surprise to discover that this album is outstandingly good. There's not a weak track on it and there are some excellent ones. The Outsiders and Boy in the Well are just two of the highlights. In my view, the only R.E.M. albums to better this are the peerless Automatic for the People and the aforementioned New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
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