Since the careening, ragged
Reckoning followed the hazy, dreamlike
Murmur, each
R.E.M. album had an element of a surprise, offering something different than what came before. That's not the case with
Around the Sun, which refines and polishes the blueprint of
Reveal. This is as slow and ballad-heavy as
Automatic for the People, but where that album was filled with raw emotion and weird detours,
Around the Sun is tasteful and streamlined. It offers no weighty themes and is emotionally removed. With their layered, low-key production,
R.E.M. seem hell-bent on leaving behind anything that could be construed as their signature sound, so keyboards and drum machines are pushed to the front as
Buck's guitar strums instead of jangles and
Mills' background vocals are buried in the mix under
Stipe's double-tracked harmonies. All the quirks in the production have been sanded down and glossed over. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine