There’s a cleanness to the sound of the new REM album. Buck’s playing is crisp and urgent. There’s energy and direction. You can hear it most obviously in “Supernatural Superserious”, which is this album’s “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”. The album also has the benefit of being short. About 35 minutes, I think. Sometimes, most times in pop, brevity is best. I sometimes think about listening to their live set to see if they overcome the muddiness of the past three studio albums, but I can’t quite bring myself to. It’s enough that, fourteeen albums in, they’re still alive. That they sound like they care, and that we might, is remarkable.