Don’t stare or else you will go blind from the shine. Maybe this is snow blindness? It’s their most produced (OK, refined) effort yet, and once the first track is out of the way, don’t you dare stand in its way. Granduciel has completed his Dylan transformation, even if the rain on Desolation Row is occasional. But where does he go from here? If he’s following a standard path, this is the point where the stadium anthems begin reversion to what made the band popular in the first place: the mysterious, the ephemeral. “Victim” is a good approximation, and maybe the best track of all. (It sound’s like “Wheel of Foutune”. I’ll buy a “U”, Pat.)
Live in Philly two years ago, Granduciel persevered through a bad case of (probably) COVID, and I expect the same full effort on the next go-around. Please revisit R.E.M.
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2021, Atlantic