R.E.M. - Accelerate

Genre rock Publisher Warner Bros. Records External Links R.E.M. Website

The most recent album from R.E.M. Accelerate is a bit anachronistic in that it sounds as if it could have been released circa 1993 rather than last month. For the band, it is a return to form for the first time since the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997, which left the band crippled or, to quote front man Michael Stipe, “a three legged dog.” The return to the Bill Berry era can be attributed to the utilization of R.E.M.’s concert line up, as opposed to session players, for the recording of this album. Stipe and company have produced a collection of songs that moves away from the calculated and deliberate nature of their previous couple studio albums and embodies an almost “live” aesthetic. Many of the tracks, most notably “Houston” and “Living Well is the Best Revenge,” come across rough, with the vocals almost competing over the drums and guitar riffs. This should come as welcome news to any longstanding fans of R.E.M. On the other hand, I doubt anyone else will really care at this point.

Michael Stipe’s voice is still grating and his lyrics continue to be fraught with politics that represent some of the worst type of cookie-cutter leftisms. The most conspicuous offenders in this case are “Until the Day is Done” and “Mr. Richards.” “Until the Day is Done” is a lament of the current administration and the sentiments seemed to be lifted directly from the op-ed page of the NY Times. Whereas, “Mr. Richards” is rant against a hypocritical politician (not really sure if this is a real individual or just a stand-in, but the references such as “the compound that you razed where/ ’zealots’ sang, hey, hey” appear to be noting the incident in Waco, TX in 1993 adding to the dated feel of the album). Another low point comes on track three, “Supernatural Superserious,” an attempt at exploring and identifying with teen angst, but the song comes off as largely trite and hollow coming from three gentlemen orbiting their 50th birthdays.

But, even I cannot say that Accelerate is completely without its bright spots. “Living Well is the Best Revenge” opens the album with a bang. Hard driving guitars and raucous drums lend the air of true rock and, amazingly, Stipe comes across as a respectable vocalist who has a sense of immediacy not found on the remainder of the collection. Another highlight seems to almost bookend the album at track nine. “Sing for the Submarine” takes on a calm, contemplative tone with dampened drums and an almost hypnotic guitar riff. For a song about the apocalypse (what is the obsession there?) it contains an impressively optimistic outlook. Stipe sings, “It’s then that I realized,/ The world as we know it, a high speed train,/ We’ll pick it all up and start again,” seeming to have reached that point of clarity where you realize the things you fear are nowhere near as terrible or final as you led yourself to believe.

So, as I said at the beginning, if you are a die-hard follower of R.E.M. or even a casual fan of their earlier works, I can honestly recommend Accelerate. To the fans, I would alter my rating to 3 or 3 ½ stars. For the rest of us, there is little here to lure in new admirers, but at this juncture in their career, that really shouldn’t be the point. The non-fans can happily consign this to the early 90s scrapheap from which it seems to have spawned.