R.E.M. - Accelerate
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Free Music Notes for Accelerate
Free Music Review: Stunning comeback
Hit: 5 Stars
In the two albums before Bill Berry retired from R.E.M., the band had begun working on its harder rock side, seen best in the mid-1980s albums Lifes Rich Pageant and Document. 1994's Monster was...well, give the band credit for stepping out of its comfort zone. New Adventures in Hi-Fi from 1996 met with more considerable success, with a rawer sound based in large part on songs written, performed, and recorded while on tour. But once Berry called it a day, the band retreated to its original signature strengths...tuneful midtempo ballads and upbeat songs with inscrutable lyrics. Trouble is, the band did sound incomplete, struggling to perform well in the studio, and those strengths were blunted, resulting in what may be the weakest era in R.E.M.'s history.
No more. Accelerate is a wildly dynamic, loud, in-your-face album that barely lets up during its short, punk-like duration. It's one of the best and most fun albums R.E.M. has ever released. Looser, rawer, and harder than Monster or New Adventures, with political statements that rival those on Document, these are songs that just scream to be heard in arenas...even more so than those on Green. It's all too easy to imagine screams of delight echoing off the bleachers with the opening chords of "Living Well Is The Best Revenge" and "Supernatural Superserious."
And man, does the band sound like it's back in its groove and enjoying itself again. Michael Stipe sings "Wow!" during each of the first three songs (well, it's actually "now" during "Living Well," but in his enthusiasm, it could just as well be "wow"), and ends the album with a triumphant "Yeah!" The title song is a fast and furious romp, filled with angst and adrenaline and Peter Buck's ragged power chords, with no hint of the Byrdsian jangle that used to be the band's calling card. (The song is such a letter-perfect copy of Led Zeppelin's "Achilles' Last Stand," though, that the band might do good to prepare against a copyright lawsuit.)
Accelerate is a fighting album, with verbal attacks all over the place ("Nature abhors a vacuum, but what's between your ears?" "You're forgiven for a narrow lack of vision" "You weakened shill!"), but in its quieter, pensive moments, the band reveals what can result from such aggression. The title of "Hollow Man" speaks for itself. Stipe pleads, "Believe in me, believe in nothing/Corner me and make me something...I'm emptied out, I'm incomplete." During the somber "Until the Day is Done," with funeral drums and dry, rustic guitar that recalls The Band, a resigned Stipe sings, "The battle's been lost, the war is not won," and leaves very little room for hope, despite the tuneful accompaniment. In contrast, the harsher "Houston" eloquently pits hope against hope from the eyes of a Katrina victim: "So a man's put to task and challenges/I was taught to hold my head high/Collect what is mine/Make the best of what today has."
And about that closing song: "I'm Gonna DJ" is one of the most unlikely R.E.M. songs ever made. Utterly tuneless, with no real music line, some of the most vapid lyrics the band has ever written, and an obnoxious singalong tagline: "I'm gonna DJ at the end of the WOOOOOORLD!" But somehow, the song is utterly contagious, a punk free-for-all where so many wrongs make an ineffable right. It's also a brilliant flip-off to those who didn't think R.E.M. had it in them anymore...a perfect closer to an album that should stand as the most triumphant album R.E.M. has ever made.
Free Music Review: Best since Lifes Rich Pageant
Hit: 4 Stars
I had all but given up hope for anything worhtwhile from R.E.M.
Accelerate is excellent. No real clunkers. Short and sweet.
Favorite selections include man-sized wreath, accelerate, mr. richards.
Well worth the price of admission.
Free Music Review: Very, very good
Hit: 5 Stars
As someone who went to college in Georgia in the 80's when REM was first breaking out, this album makes me very, very happy. It successfully blends the great song writing of their early albums with the best of what they have learned over the past 25 years. Free Music Review: Yummi
Hit: 5 Stars
After reading the very first reviews and having listened the album a few times, I have to say that R.E.M. is back in its old form. Excellent!Free Music Review: weak
Hit: 2 Stars
I wish I could like this album more, but after four years I really hoped for something better, and at the very least something original and fresh. This is latest in a line of weak albums since UP, which was vastly under-rated. But I'll keep waiting for their next solid album.