Release and Reception
Reckoning was released on April 9, 1984 in the United Kingdom, and on April 17 in the United States. The album quickly reached the top of the college radio airplay charts, whose audience had highly anticipated the album. However, the band hadn't received much exposure on commercial radio and MTV by that point. Instead of the music industry standard of waiting for mainstream radio stations to pick up the band's music, I.R.S. hoped to "convince reluctant programmers to add the group by pointing to the press response, word-of-mouth reaction to local live performances and sales figures", according to a July 1984 Los Angeles Times article. The album's first single, "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)", was released in May and reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. A second single, "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville", came out in August; unlike its predecessor, it did not chart. Within a month of its release, Reckoning peaked at number 27 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and it remained on the chart for nearly a year. While the album's domestic chart placing was unusually high for a college rock band at the time, scant airplay and poor distribution overseas resulted in it charting no higher than number 91 in the United Kingdom. In 1991, the record was certified gold (500,000 copies shipped) by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Rolling Stone gave Reckoning a four out of five star rating. Reviewer Christopher Connelly wrote that in comparison to Murmur the "overall sound is crisper, the lyrics far more comprehensible. And while the album may not mark any major strides forward for the band, R.E.M.'s considerable strengths – Buck's ceaselessly inventive strumming, Mike Mills' exceptional bass playing and Stipe's evocatively gloomy baritone – remain unchanged". However, Connelly felt that Stipe's "erratic meanderings" were an impediment to the band that "will prevent R.E.M. from transcending cult status". Nonetheless, he concluded, "R.E.M.'s music is able to involve the listener on both an emotional and intellectual level." Joe Sasfy of The Washington Post felt that the songs on the album "trump even Murmur's outstanding songwriting" and stated "there isn't an American band worth following more than R.E.M." NME reviewer Mat Snow wrote that Reckoning "confirms R.E.M. as one of the most beautifully exciting groups on the planet" and called the album "another classic". The album placed seventh in that magazine's Best Album of the Year critics' poll, and ranked sixth in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. Slant Magazine listed the album at number 81 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".
The 1992 British Compact Disc reissue of the album included five bonus tracks. A 25th anniversary deluxe edition of the album, which was remastered and packaged with a bonus disc featuring a concert recorded at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom on July 7, 1984, was released in 2009.
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