| Around the Sun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by R.E.M. | ||||
| Released | October 4, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | Early 2003 – early 2004 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 55:21 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | Pat McCarthy, R.E.M. | |||
| R.E.M. chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Around the Sun | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| BBC | (unfavorable) [2] |
| Blender Magazine | [3] |
| Robert Christgau | [4] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B-) [5] |
| NME | (6/10) [6] |
| Pitchfork Media | (5.2/10) [7] |
| PopMatters | (unfavorable) [8] |
| Rolling Stone | [9] |
| Spin | [10] |
| Village Voice | (favorable) [11] |
Around the Sun is the 13th studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in 2004.
Contents |
"The Outsiders" features a guest appearance by rapper Q-Tip. 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. 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.
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.[12] 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." [13] The album's songs have also been largely excluded from the band's live setlists after the release of Accelerate.
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.
All songs written by Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Billboard 200 | 13 (7 weeks on the chart) |
| 2004 | UK album chart | 1 (7 weeks on the chart) |
| 2004 | Australian album chart | 7 |
| Country | Certification (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|
| Germany | Gold[14] |
| Release date | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-09-27 | "Leaving New York" | UK Singles Chart | 5 |
| 2004-11-29 | "Aftermath" | UK Singles Chart | 41 |
| 2005-02-28 | "Electron Blue | UK Singles Chart | 26 |
| 2005-07-11 | "Wanderlust" | UK Singles Chart | 27 |
| Preceded by Mind, Body & Soul by Joss Stone |
UK number one album October 16–22, 2004 |
Succeeded by 10 Years of Hits by Ronan Keating |