A cassette tape of Around the Sun sits in a collector's box somewhere, the last time R.E.M. ever put new music on that format. The thirteenth studio album from the Athens, Georgia band arrived on Warner Bros. Records in the autumn of 2004, and it marked a strange moment: a group that had spent two decades defining American alternative rock suddenly sounded unsure of itself. Around the Sun was the first R.E.M. record to feature Bill Rieflin, a drummer brought in to fill a hole that had been open since Bill Berry retired from the band in 1997. Rieflin never became an official member, but he stayed as a touring and studio musician until R.E.M. called it quits in 2011. R.E.M. released Around the Sun on October 5, 2004.
A first title track and four editions
The album also introduced something new for the band: a title track. No previous R.E.M. record had ever shared its name with one of its songs, and Around the Sun closed with that slow, meditative piece. The record came in four editions—double vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and a limited box set with fold-out posters from fourteen artists illustrating each song. That box set felt like a band trying to make the package special, perhaps because the music inside was harder to love. Critics were not kind. Around the Sun holds a weighted score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 27 reviews, making it one of the most poorly received albums in the band's catalogue.
One of the stranger experiments on the record was 'The Outsiders,' which featured rapper Q-Tip on the studio version. On stage, singer Michael Stipe performed the rap part himself, a choice that surprised fans who knew him only as a rock frontman. Stipe later recorded his own rap for a B-side connected to the song. The album also carried a political charge in 'Final Straw,' written as a protest against the actions of the U.S. government in the Iraq War. That song had first appeared as a free download on the band's website in the spring of 2003, a full year before Around the Sun came out.
UK number one, US indifference
Commercially, the album told a complicated story. Around the Sun reached number one in the UK, powered by the lead single 'Leaving New York,' which became a top-five hit there. But in the United States, the record stalled at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and spent only seven weeks on the chart. It was the first R.E.M. studio album since Green in 1988 to miss the top ten in America. No single from the album made any impact on the Hot 100, a first for the band since Fables of the Reconstruction back in 1985. The contrast between British enthusiasm and American indifference was stark.
Peter Buck, the band's guitarist, later admitted that Around the Sun simply did not work as a listening experience. He described it as the sound of a group so bored with their own material that they could barely stand to play it. Michael Stipe agreed that the songs themselves were good but that the band lost focus during the recording process. Bassist Mike Mills echoed that thought, saying the record was unfocused and that the band had lost their groove—not the fault of producer Pat McCarthy, but of the group itself. Those admissions came after the next album, Accelerate, showed R.E.M. rediscovering their energy.
He described it as the sound of a group so bored with their own material that they could barely stand to play it.
The album's reputation has only hardened over time. Career retrospectives routinely name Around the Sun as the lowest point in R.E.M.'s long run. In 2023, Rolling Stone placed it at number 44 on a list of fifty terrible albums by brilliant artists. The magazine called every R.E.M. studio album after Bill Berry's departure 'stellar' except this one. That is a brutal verdict for a band that had once seemed incapable of making a dull record. Yet the album still sold two million copies worldwide by early 2007, and the UK number one proved that a loyal audience remained.
What makes Around the Sun fascinating now is how it captures a band in transition. Bill Rieflin's presence steadied the rhythm section, but he was never asked to join as a full member. The political anger of 'Final Straw' showed that R.E.M. still cared about the world outside the studio. The title track, the first in their career, suggested a band looking inward, trying to find a center. But the focus was gone, and everyone involved seemed to know it. Around the Sun remains a strange artifact: a record with good songs, a number one in Britain, and a sound that even its creators could not defend.