Category: Reveal

Summer Turns to High

Chris BickleyLeave a comment

Release date: 14/5/2001 | Length: 3:31 | Release: Reveal | SuE: #236

After wine and nectarines the fireflies in time
Move like syrup through the evening with a sweet resign

When people think of Beach Boys- infused R.E.M., they usually go to At My Most Beautiful, but it’s actually album Reveal that contains the most Wilson-esque creations. Reveal is R.E.M.’s summer album, but not wholly a happy-go-lucky beach-surfing record. It’s more of a heat-induced drowsiness of a record, where words and meaning flicker by in a haze.

Summer Turns to High is obsessed with sweet and sugary imagery. There’s references to nectarines, wine, syrup and cotton-candy caramel apples, cancelling out the rather icky “Someone put a pox on me, I’ll spit in their eyes” we get from Stipe at the start of the song. This is the kind of summer that’s great in moderation, but a whole chunk of it is simply sticky and insufferable.

The pullquote at the top is a rare case of R.E.M. poetry coming across better on paper than on track, and with much of Reveal you just wish the song had a lot more gumption. Between the second chorus and final verse, there’s a brief twinkle where it threatens to descend into a spiralling trip, like Hope, but sadly it doesn’t and just returns to its ponderous melody.

I did say I’d cover all unique b-sides, but I’ll make a pass at 32 Chord Song, on the back of I’ll Take the Rain. Imagine the poor sod who bought the European CD single of that in the hopes of hearing a new song, only to get an infinitesimally different version of Summer Turns to High.

I’ll Take the Rain

Chris BickleyLeave a comment

Release date: 19/11/2001 | Length: 5:55 | Release: Reveal | SuE: #127 | UK: #44

I used to think
As birds take wing

I think of I’ll Take the Rain as the last time that R.E.M. consciously tried to write a beautiful song. It’s written in the same vein as Everybody Hurts and Strange Currencies, built around a big chorus that’s designed to move mountains. It’s a good job that this refrain is incredibly affective, as the rest of the song is indicative of a tired band.

Were this song on Automatic for the People, it’d be rightly lauded as a classic. The narrator finds themselves in the doldrums, looking around at nature to inspire their next decision. “I used to think, As birds take wing, They sing through life so why can’t we” bemoans Michael Stipe, “If this is what you’re offering, I’ll take the rain”. Being deserted is a damn sight more preferable than what they currently have. By the end of the almost six-minute long song, the sprinkling of piano and little guitar licks render this a stone-cold classic.

But it’s not though is it? The song failed to chart in the US, and became the first song since 1993’s Find the River to not crack the top 40 in the UK. I’ll Take the Rain has left no legacy in the R.E.M. canon. It was not included on any subsequent compilation albums, and the lack of reverence for Reveal means that it’s almost been lost.

The issues with I’ll Take the Rain are symptomatic of what plagued its album, as everything feels underworked. Stipe seems genuinely tired as he sings this song, croaking his way through certain words without any real meaning. Peter Buck’s guitar solo is a forgettable detour, adding an unnecessary minute to proceedings, and the music of the verses is wholly flat. It feels harsh to say that the band were dialling it in at this point, as I do think that the songs themselves are very, very good. But it’s this weariness that holds back the song, a problem that culminated on 2004’s nadir Around the Sun. The song is a classic. The execution is not.