Around the Sun is the 13th studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in October 2004 on Warner Bros. Records.
Description
The album was released in two editions: CD only, and a limited-edition box set with the CD and fold-out posters by 14 different artists illustrating the songs. "The Outsiders" features a guest appearance by rapper Q-Tip. When the song was performed live, Michael Stipe carried out the rap, as he did 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 in protest of the U.S. government's actions in the Iraq War. The song evolved from an instrumental demo titled "Harlan County with Whistling", recorded during the sessions for the band's 1994's album Monster and released with its 25th anniversary edition in 2019. Around the Sun was the first of only two R.E.M. albums to include a title track. The album was also a first for R.E.M. in that it was their first to feature Bill Rieflin, the band's de-facto replacement for former drummer Bill Berry, who had retired in 1997. Although Rieflin was never officially inducted into the band as a member, he would serve as a regular auxiliary musician for R.E.M. until their dissolution in 2011.
Reception
Despite hitting #1 in the UK, it became their first studio album to miss the U.S. Top 10 since 1988's Green and is still awaiting a gold record. As of March 2007, Around the Sun had sold 2 million copies worldwide and 232,000 units in the U.S. This is less than R.E.M. had sold in the first week of an album's release while at 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 was 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." The album's songs were largely excluded from the band's live setlists after the release of Accelerate.
Reissue
In 2005, Warner Bros. 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. A remix of the song "Final Straw" appeared earlier in 2004 on the compilation albumFuture Soundtrack for America.
Track listing
All songs written by Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.
