Accelerate
Warner Bros / Wea - Warner Bros / Wea
R.E.M.
Release date: 2008-04-01
Audio CD
Pop, Rock, REM Accelerate, rem, Accelerate
1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2. Man-Sized Wreath
3. Supernatural Superserious
4. Hollow Man
5. Houston
6. Accelerate
7. Until The Day Is Done
8. Mr. Richards
9. Sing For The Submarine
10. Horse To Water
11. I'm Gonna DJ
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Accelerate
Date undefinedAccelerate can be one of those albums which fans, upset with R.E.M.'s last few releases, may judge too highly, throwing out words like comeback just to describe a vague adult-rock, easy going consistency in a way which almost insults some of their finer intricacies.
Accelerate
Date undefinedHailed even pre-release as a return to R.E.M.'s roots, and the press laid so much credence in this thought - it would kind of be hard to live up to.
The result - they do and they don't.
Is 'Accelerate' the new 'Fables of the Reconstruction'? No. But I didn't expect it to be. But on the upside, it's also not one of their last two or three releases either. While those were not horrid, they were just there and not horribly well thought out.
I enjoyed 'Accelerate' - more than any disk since 'Automatic for the People' - but that is not to compare those two disks. The new release has much much much more guitar - much more of a core band feel. It is a welcome retro feel, but it is not 1980 - make no mistake.
I really enjoy the first four songs - especially "Hallow Man" and "Supernatural Superserious". Michael Stipe's vocal abilities haven't changed too much over the years, but what I never hear anyone go on about is how much Mike Mills' harmonies really help make the band. I've always been a fan of Peter Buck's guitar playing.
'Accelerate' isn't as fun as 'Document', 'Reckoning' or 'Murmur' - but it's not meant to be. Of course, I just might be stuck in my own nostalgia. But 'Accelerate' takes the energy of the old R.E.M. and sticks them in the present.
Accelerate
Date undefinedThere's no doubt that R.E.M. were feeling the pressure to get back to being a rock band after their past three releases. So for the first time since 1996's New Adventures in Hi-Fi, the band has delivered a pure rock record. Peter Buck's guitar screams and shreds like it hasn't done in years and there is actually a drummer instead of a drum machine and looped beats. All of that is fine and good. But you get the sense while listening to Accelerate, that Stipe and company were primarily concerned with rocking out and they let the songwriting take a back seat. The album is by no means bad. Several tracks are fast and furious as the title indicates. But there are no classics here, no songs that are going to return the band to the superstars they were in the 90's. And this album is not even close to their 80's output as some have suggested. R.E.M. need to disregard what popular opinion dictates and continue to blaze their own trail. That is what made them truly great in the first place. While Accelerate is a solid rock record, it still ranks near the bottom of the bands canon. If they can bring the songwriting up on an even keel with the music, they might still have a rebirth yet.
