Accelerate

Accelerate, the first studio album in four years from R.E.M., finds modern rock’s most acclaimed band returning to the stripped-down, guitar-driven power that first enraptured fans. Helmed by the band and, for the first time, Jacknife Lee (co-producer of U2’s ’05 Grammy® Album Of The Year How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, The Hives and Snow Patrol), Accelerate puts the 2007 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame group once again firmly behind the wheel of alternative rock, a genre R.E.M. helped invent.

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After the last album, 2004's "Around the Sun", I have to admit I had given up on REM as that album marked the lowest and most disappointing point yet in their rich and illustrious career yet. When word came out last year that REM was yet again prepping a new album to be released in 2008, I kinda rolled my eyes. Then a funny thing happened: I heard the first single "Supernatural Superserious" and boy that song just rocked! Now comes the new album.

On "Accelerate" (11 tracks; 35 min.) REM attacks with a vigor not heard since "Monster" and "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" (the last album with original drummer Bill Berry). From the opening sounds of "Living Well's the Best Revenge", REM sounds completely reinvigorated and rejuvenated, and what a joy it is to hear. The album goes from one highlight to the next. The songs are short and to the point, they make their point and move on. Track 4 "Hollow Man" is when you think you'll catch your breath, and you do for about 15 seconds, before that songs also crashes in to your speakers. "Houston" follows and is the only weak track on the album, in my opinion. The second half kicks off with the rousing title track, and we're off to the races again: "Until the Day Is Done" and "Mr Richards" are superb. "Horse to Water" is one of my favorites with an irresistible sing-along chorus of "I'm not that easy/I am not your horse to water/I hold my breath I come around") sing-along, and "I'm Gonna DJ" is a killer track to close this set (with such choice lines of "Death is pretty final/I'm collecting vinyl/I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world"). It truly is remarkable that some how REM has rediscovered its musical focus and muse. Peter Buck's guitar work is among the best he's ever done, Stipe sounds like he's actually enjoying the songs, and Mills' harmonizing back vocals are really great (check out "Living Well", for example, but surely some credit of this resurgence must go to producer Jacknife Lee.

I can't emphasize enough how pleasantly surprised I am by this album, even shocked. I truly didn't think that REM had another great album in them, but I am more than happy to say that I was flat wrong and in my book "Accelerate" brings REM back to relevance, after so many disappointing years. I had the opportunity to see REM headline the Langerado Music Festival in early March in South Florida, and they play a bunch of songs from "Accelerate", and it all sounded fantastic. Welcome back REM, we've missed ya! "Accelerate" is one of the early favorites for top album of the year. Highly recommended!

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This is it. This really is the one: the killer comeback R.E.M.'s long-suffering original fans have been hoping for since the band detoured into electronic introspection in 1998. Peter Buck's guitars are front and centre, driving the tracks rather than decorating their edges. Mike Mills can finally be heard again on bass and backups. Stipe's vocals are as rich and complex and scathing as ever, but for the first time in a decade he sounds like he believes every word. And finally, at long last, it feels like a human being is manning the drums again. It's exuberant, angry, joyous, wild - everything the last three albums, for all their deep and subtle rewards, were not. Superficially, this feels like the true successor to "New Adventures in Hi-Fi", or what that album itself might have been had the band bunkered down in the studio for a month rather than putting down tracks on the road. But in reality it's better. Ten years of studio-based experimentation and tweaking a new line-up have paid off. Tight, rich and consummately professional, the immediate loose-and-live feel of "Accelerate" is deceptive. This really is an exquisitely crafted album that repays close listening, just as the last three did for those of us who bothered. The crucial difference is that it ultimately feels less studied, less worried-over, less cautious - because it doesn't need to be. The band sound present, engaged, completely confident in their direction and abilities. Best of all, they sound like they're enjoying themselves again. And that joy is irresistible. No matter what your view of the last three albums (I liked them all), you've got nothing to complain about here. This kind of music really is what R.E.M. do best, and they deliver it in spades.

(P.S. Make sure you grab the non-album track "Redhead Walking" from iTunes: a great novelty song and surely destined for a Tarantino film soundtrack.)

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(4.5 *'s) `Accelerate' is R.E.M.'s best effort in ages. Surely meant to put them back in the limelight, the C.D. puts the pedal to the metal and seldom stops to look back. Reminiscent of some of the evocative folk of 'Automatic for the People,' the new songs, draw more from the power of 'Monster (CD + DVD+ A) (Dig)' and the most progressive songs from 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi'. Especially in comparison to 'Monster,' these selections are more fluid and fast-forward than their aforementioned predecessors. The best comparison is to say these songs are their most engaging power pop since `Life's Rich Pageant'.

As usual some of their lyrics are as elusive as their band name suggests, but you don't have to have to go through the printed words with a fine-toothed come, either. For the finger-wagers, they jump-start the album with the worthy "Living Well Is the Best Revenge". Turning the tables on the judgers, Michael Stipe sonorously sings:

"Don't turn your talking points on me./ History will set me free./ The future is ours/ And you don't even rate a footnote."

On "Man-Sized Wreath"* Peter Buck continues his admirable guitar snarl for a song about the tug-of-war between repression and attainment of "carpe diem". (At least that's what I think it means.) Unless the song resonates about believing what is true beyond popular deception--in which case there are plenty of images recalling "Begin the Begin," a theme that resonates often for their post 9/11 R.E.M. observations on the entire C.D.

The best song is the one that debuted early, "Supernatural Superserious," where they find their best groove (and probably their best single) in at least a decade. It is an infectious tune that invites teens (and everyone else) to have the courage to be oneself despite the temptation to be on stage and perform for others. (And speaking of stages, their drummer seems to fit the bill, giving the songs the thrust they've been lacking since the departure of Bill Berry.)

In the slower gears, they still have perfectionist layers with the Tex-Mex folkie-flavored "Houston," a call to hope, and the truly beautiful "Until the Day Is Done," which scotches the pensive beauty of "I Wanted to Be Wrong" from their middle-of-the-road predecessor, 'Around the Sun'.

Not content to simply commiserate about today's crisis, they look to hope in "Sing for the Submarine," probably their most idiosyncratic cut. Using the R.E.M. trademark of dreaming, they resolve to "pick it all up and start again" after fighting against despair ("...This is where you give into the machine/ Lift up your voice, feel gravity's pull,/ And drown out the sirens' ring.) Echoing this theme of enlightened nonconformity is "Mr. Richards," a portrait of populist leader (and a flashback to "World Leader Pretend" from 'Green') who is all bluster and no substance ("Mr. Richard you're forgiven/ For a narrow lack of vision/ But the fires are still raging on.")

R.E.M. has never shied away from social and political commentary, but in a few short songs, they find recourse in love and music. In one of their best propulsive songs since "Departure," "Horse to Water" expresses regrets when desire is tainted by harm. ("You lead a horse to water, and you watch him drown.") No less revealing is "Hollow Man," a confessional about those "loose lips" situations that flatten the spirits in lovers' lives.

Ending the album ably, "I'm Gonna DJ" is another progressive gem that jubilantly speaks of music laying down heaven on earth. Taking some of the vintage ideas and musical motifs in their past, R.E.M. goes "back to the future" and fast-forwards with some of their most accessible music in years. Indeed if 'Accelerate' doesn't take this band back to the top, it is hard to imagine anything else will.

(*At the Sasquatch Festival in George, WA, Michael Stipe introduced the song, telling the audience that the lyric was about his indignation toward President Bush during a recent tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King where he lay a wreath at the grave site of the late civil rights leader. "Begin the Begin" states "tiger run around the tree/Run, turn, and then follow," a line in reference to blind followers of authority (allegedly the late Jerry Falwell), a closer interpretation of "Man-sized Wreath" than "carpe diem".)