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Around the Sun
Studio album by R.E.M.
Released	October 4, 2004
Recorded	Early 2003 – early 2004
Genre	Alternative rock, rock
Length	55:21
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Pat McCarthy, R.E.M.
Professional reviews
Allmusic link BBC (unfavorable) link Blender Magazine link Robert Christgau link NME (6/10) link Pitchfork Media (5.2/10) 10/5/2004 PopMatters (unfavorable) 10/18/2004 Rolling Stone 10/28/2004 Spin 11/415/2004 Village Voice (favorable) 10/25/2004
R.E.M. chronology
Reveal (2001) Around the Sun (2004) Accelerate (2008)

Around the Sun is the 13th studio album by the American band R.E.M., released in 2004.

[edit] Description

"The Outsiders" features a guest appearance by rapper Q-Tip, recalling a similar appearance by KRS-One on "Radio Song" from the band's 1991 album Out of Time. When performed live, Michael Stipe carries out the rap, as he does on a later b-side release of the song.

"Final Straw" is a politically charged song, reminiscent in tone of "World Leader Pretend" on Green (though Stipe has often mentioned the latter's very personal lyrical themes of "using military terms to describe a battle within.")^{[citation needed]} The version on the album is a remix of the original version, which was made available as a free download on March 25, 2003 from the band's website. The song was written as a protest of the American government's actions in the Iraq War.

Around the Sun is also the first R.E.M. album to contain a title track.

[edit] Commercial performance

Around the Sun generally received lukewarm reviews, and despite hitting #1 in the UK, it became their first studio album to miss the U.S. Top 10 (reaching #13 with 7 weeks in the Billboard 200) since 1988's Green and is still awaiting a gold record. As of March 2007, Around the Sun has sold 2 million copies worldwide and 232,000 units in the U.S.^[1] This is less than R.E.M. had previously sold in the first week of an album's release while in their early to mid-1990s commercial peak.

Lead single "Leaving New York" became a UK Top 5 hit, with additional singles "Aftermath," "Electron Blue" and "Wanderlust" becoming minor hits there as well. Around the Sun did not have any singles success in the United States, however. It's the band's first studio album to fail to have a song chart on the Hot 100 since Fables of the Reconstruction in 1985.

After the release of their following album, Accelerate, guitarist Peter Buck said that for him Around the Sun "... just wasn't really listenable, because it sounds like what it is, a bunch of people that are so bored with the material that they can't stand it anymore." ^[2]

[edit] Reissue

In 2005, Warner Brothers Records issued an expanded two-disc edition of Around the Sun which includes a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner, and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes. The CD (as with all in this series) was not remastered.

A remix of the song "Final Straw" appeared earlier in 2004 on the compilation album Future Soundtrack for America.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

1. "Leaving New York" – 4:49
2. "Electron Blue" – 4:12
3. "The Outsiders" (feat. Q-Tip) – 4:14
4. "Make It All Okay" – 3:43
5. "Final Straw" – 4:06
6. "I Wanted to Be Wrong" – 4:34
7. "Wanderlust" – 3:04
8. "Boy in the Well" – 5:22
9. "Aftermath" – 3:52
10. "High Speed Train" – 5:03
11. "The Worst Joke Ever" – 3:37
12. "The Ascent of Man" – 4:07
13. "Around the Sun" – 4:29

[edit] Personnel

• Chris Bilheimer: Packaging
• Oswald "Wiz" Bowe: Assistant Engineer
• Jimmy Briggs: Assistant Engineer
• Peter Buck: Group Member
• DeWitt Burton: Technical Assistance
• Jamie Candiloro: Engineer, Mixing, Musician
• Alex Dixon: Assistant
• Bertis Downs: Advisor
• Thomas Roman Dozol: Photography, Cover Photo
• Bryan Gallant: Assistant
• Ted Jensen: Mastering
• Patrick McCarthy: Producer, Mixing
• Scott McCaughey: Musician
• Kirk McNally: Assistant Engineer
• Q-Tip: Musician
• R.E.M.: Producer, Mixing
• Bill Rieflin: Musician
• Hahn Rowe: Musician
• Michael Stipe: Packaging, Group Member
• Ken Stringfellow: Musician
• Javier Valverde: Assistant Engineer
• Bob Whittaker: Technical Assistance

[edit] Charts

[edit] Album

[edit] Singles

[edit] External links

• Around the Sun at MusicBrainz

[edit] References