R.E.M. News: (I actually wrote this Monday afternoon, but Blogger problems… yada yada yada. When I say “tomorrow”, I actually mean “Tuesday.”) So everybody knows that the new R.E.M. album is supposed to come out tomorrow, right? I decided to look online this morning to see if any of the record stores near me would be open at midnight to sell it. When I went to TowerRecords.co.uk, though, they claimed it was already for sale. So at lunch I headed up to the nearest record store but didn’t see it. When I asked the lady, she said that it was on sale but had already sold out that morning. Poodoo. So I dragged Snookums up the street to the nearest Virgin V.shop where I hit the jackpot. Hooray! I got my beloved R.E.M. plus Burt Bacharach’s Greatest Hits for good measure. We made a quick pit stop at Pret a Manger for lunch, and then it was back to the office to give my new treasure a listen.
 
So far, I like “Reveal” a lot. I’d already managed to collect about half the songs off Napster, but they sound even better within the context of the rest of the album. I like the first single “Imitation of Life” (that’s the one they performed all over British TV last week), but I think that my personal favorite right now is “I’ll Take the Rain.” It’s nice to hear Mike singing again. I’m not quite used to the new Brian-Wilson-type sound, but it’s growing on me. “Beat a Drum” is nice too. Heck, it’s all good, but those are the ones that I immediately reacted to. Have you gotten it yet? What do you think? (Damn, I wish I had a comment box for this!)
 
And before I forget, check out R.E.M. A to Z at Rolling Stone’s site. I couldn’t get the video clips to work, but it was very cool to read reviews from the entire back catalog.