R.E.M. 'Reveal' new CD

The new REM album came down the pipe Monday, and the challenge of having the review ready in 48 hours was a daunting prospect. It's a little like spending a weekend in New York and then being asked to write a comprehensive travel guide in 400 words. There's too much to take in; you can't possibly unravel the nature of the whole in such a short period. What about the historical context, my personal anecdote about Automatic for the People? (Come on, everybody has one.) Accurate analysis has to be sacrificed for superficial impressions. Nevertheless, I've been soaking in Reveal for the last two days, trying to figure out what ol' Stipey and his two remaining college buddies are getting at this time.\nThis is a band with a new lease on life. Their last album, 1998's Up, was the first without drummer Bill Berry, and was recorded under conditions so stressful they all assumed it would be their final bow at the time. (Of course, that tension worked wonders -- Up is among their best albums.) But the tour that followed made the threesome realize they still wanted to make music together. Reveal was written and recorded under happier circumstances, and quite often it shows. This is a triumphant record.\n"Good morning, how are you?" asks Michael Stipe pleasantly on opening track "The Lifting," a song that establishes the themes of escaping from emotional imprisonment that dot the record. "You've always marked these boundaries, now you're free..." someone tells him later in the same song. \nThe boundaries apply to the music as well; this is probably the most atmospheric REM album to date. Much was made of the drum machines and other electronic spaciness of Up, and if you didn't like it there you might not like it here. But it's always used to good effect, and there's a couple straight-up REM jangle anthems to keep the old fans happy, notably lead single "Imitation of Life." \nREM has been going strong for twenty years now; this is the band's twelfth album, and it stands up to earlier masterworks like 1987's Document and 1996's underrated New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Musically, they refuse to stand still, continually expanding and evolving their sound. Some listeners will prefer their earlier material, and that's fine. If you want to hear "Losing My Religion," you can find it on Out of Time. If you want to hear the new REM album, check out Reveal.