Revealed

At last - the title of R.E.M.'s new album has been revealed: Around the Sun.

I have to admit, the name doesn't blow me away. The band has come up with cooler things - e.g. New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), Automatic for the People (1992) or Fables of the Reconstruction aka Reconstruction of the Fables (1985). But then again, it could be worse - Up (1998) and Reveal (2001) come to mind.

The latter two, highly experimental albums have also been on the minds of many R.E.M. fans over at murmurs.com. The band has promised a return to traditional R.E.M. form, but there are still a lot of sceptics around. I for one have enjoyed R.E.M.'s output since Bill Berry's depatrture just as much as before, but an album with some more live drums would definitely not hurt.

As for the 'sunshine-beach' mentality of Reveal - nomen est omen? I guess we'll have to wait until October 4th...

JJtags:

• rem
• aroundthesun