R.E.M. - Accelerate
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Music CD Cover
Artist: R.E.M.Brand: R.E.M.
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Published: 2008-03-28
CD Release Date: 2008-04-01
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Product features:
- R. E. M. ACCELERATE
- Living Well Is The Best Revenge
- Man-Sized Wreath
- Supernatural Superserious
- Hollow Man
- Houston
- Accelerate
- Until The Day Is Done
- Mr. Richards
- Sing For The Submarine
- Horse To Water
- I'm Gonna DJ
Free Music Notes for Accelerate
Free Music Review: Pedal to the Metal! R.E.M. Returns to Form
Hit: 5 Stars
(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".)
Accelerate Poster
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.Accelerate is available as a CD-only in a Softpak; a CD+DVD that features a 64-page book and the Vincent Moon film 6 Days (which includes behind-the-scenes footage and performance pieces of various songs on the album) plus two bonus tracks "Red Head Walking" and "Airliner."
R.E.M. Photos
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 |  |
 Accelerate |  Up (CD + DVD+A) (Dig) |  Up |  Reveal (Limited Edition) |  Reveal (CD & DVD Audio) [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] |
 Reveal |  Out of Time (CD + DVD-A) (Dig) [ENHANCED] |  New Adventures in Hi Fi (CD + DVD+A) (Dig) [ENHANCED] |  New Adventures in Hi-Fi |  Monster (CD + DVD+ A) (Dig) |
 Monster |  In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 |  In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Special Edition) |  In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 |  Green (CD + DVD-A) (Dig) |
 Green |  Automatic for the People (CD & DVD Audio) |  Automatic for the People |  Around the Sun [SPECIAL EDITION] |  Around the Sun [ENHANCED] |
 Around the Sun |  R.E.M. Live 2CD/1DVD [LIVE] |
In the decade since the departure of drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. could seem at times schizophrenic. Their albums of the era, which veered from the experimentalism of Up and reaffirmation of Reveal to 2004's more diffuse, reflective Around the Sun, often stood in stark contrast to the vibrancy of their live act. But here the alt-rock godfathers have resolved that dichotomy with their most focused and satisfying album in over a decade; a collection that doesn't so much revisit the bracing ethos of the band's '80s coming-of-age, as boil it down to its essence and supercharge it with the energy of their contemporary stage shows. That sensibility is evident from the opening track, "Living Well's the Best Revenge," where Peter Buck's aggressive, distortion-drenched riffs and Michael Stipe's gruff snarl set the tone for "Mansized Wreath," "Horse to Water," and "Supernatural Serious"; rockers that bristle with the abandonment and aggressive energy of a band half their tenure. Yet it's no mere blast-from-the-past. The inclusion of the band's recent touring musicians (Scott McCaughey on second guitar and drummer Bill Rieflin) into the session mix, as well as working out much of the material live onstage in Dublin, has yielded something more sonically akin to R.E.M. 2.2. Stipe's penchant for the lyrically opaque has been largely supplanted by an edgy, articulate passion that variously explores "Houston'"s displaced Katrina refugees, the bluegrass-tinged "Until the Day is Done," and the more typical, quiet self-examination of "Hollow Man," before exploding in the album's unlikely, upbeat elegy "I'm Gonna DJ," where singer and band find renewed hope in not only music, but themselves. --Jerry McCulley
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