When people talk about the wondrous music of 1984—which saw the release of underground watersheds like Husker Du’s Zen Arcade, The Replacements’ Let It Be, and The Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime, along with commercial monsters like Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A. and Prince’s Purple Rain—one album that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough is R.E.M.’s second, Reckoning. That has a lot to do with the band’s 1983 debut Murmur, which is probably more important though not necessarily better. But even if Reckoning doesn’t get namechecked as much as it deserves, it’s undeniably the most R.E.M.-sounding album R.E.M. has made; more than Murmur, Reckoning’s jangly guitars, snappy rhythms, and oddly catchy choruses play like a mission statement. Today, a full quarter-century later, the record sounds like more than just quintessential R.E.M.—the hipster Americana of “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” and “Pretty Persuasion” continues to be hardwired into the DNA of countless Middle American rock bands.