“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” is the art of the attention grabbing album opener, perfected. The rest of the album can get a bit sleepy, like elevator alt rock. They mostly stick to their bread and butter, low-key rockers and slightly oddball lyrics that can be somewhat morbid at times, despite the upbeat tunes and the addition of crunchy guitars that give constant hints of this being a hard rock album without fully delivering on the promise aside from isolated songs. But that’s not the point. REM’s brand of songwriting is so their own that it can’t be overshadowed by even the most overdriven guitar tones, and the relatively rockish sounds serve mostly as supplements to the band’s signature sound. The band was trying to make an album that innately mocked the glam and pop rock scenes, but ended up creating something almost too authentically REM to be considered parody, like they couldn’t fully commit to the bit of writing cheesy rock. And in the end, the album is better for that fact - REM is what we all came for, after all, not another reboot of 80’s glam rock. I think lifelong REM fans were a little disappointed when this one came out, but to my relatively fresh ears it’s a good one.

From the roundup Jamwise #47 - Best Albums of 1994, pt. 2.