The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.

Starred review from July 15, 2024
Journalist Carlin (Sonic Boom) brilliantly captures how a “spunky alternative band whose singer spoke in riddles” became a powerhouse that brought alt rock into the mainstream. After meeting in the college town of Athens, Ga., Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe made their debut as R.E.M. at a house party in 1980. Shaping their sound in an Athens alt rock scene built by such bands as the B-52s—and embracing an “outsider” label amid what they viewed as the era’s social and political conformity—the band amassed enough of a following to play arena shows, despite relatively modest sales for their 1982 debut EP Chronic Town. Thanks to hit song “Losing My Religion,” their breakout album, 1991’s Out of Time, sold more than three million copies in the U.S. in its first year, propelling the band to mainstream success with “catchy,” energetic songs paired with “melancholic” lyrics and paving the way for groups like Nirvana. Vividly bringing to life the political and cultural ferment of the 1990s—the waning optimism of the Clinton era, Kurt Cobain’s suicide—Carlin examines how R.E.M. balanced their “countercultural” ethos with the commercial appeal it brought them, touching on what it means for rock when the “rebels” become the “dominant culture.” Kinetic prose elevates this perceptive portrait of one of America’s most vital bands.