R.E.M. shifts into turbo

By Nate Adams
Collegian Editor
April 9, 2008

All the leather-coat-wearing, Village Voice-reading rock critics of the world are going absolutely bananas over R.E.M.’s new record, Accelerate. Word around the blogosphere is that it’s a return to form for the alternative rock pioneers. Some folks have even said it’s the band’s best album since its massively awesome ’92 release Automatic for the People.

Unfortunately, I can’t put Accelerate into perspective as far as the band’s catalogue goes; I’ve always been a bigger fan of the bands spawned in the wake of R.E.M.’s post-post-garage rock revolution. Sure, Murmur is a great record, but I always preferred The Replacements’ Let it Be or Pixies’ Surfer Rosa.

What I can tell you, however, is that Accelerate is a real solid alt-rock record, one that proves old tigers like R.E.M. still have teeth, even after all these years.

Anyone of this generation with a cursory knowledge of alternative music is familiar with R.E.M.’s more recent work. Slower, ballad-y songs like “Man on the Moon,” “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts” have been the benchmarks by which we’ve measured the band, pegging them as a group aging gracefully.

These slow tunes were fine, but the more rocking tracks, like “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” sounded hollow and thin, like a group trying to hold on to a slipping edge.

Any questions about going soft are erased from the opening notes of Accelerate, which kicks off with some big guitars and genuine spite on “Living Well is the Best Revenge.” Lead singer, activist and bald guy Michael Stipe sounds worn but ready, singing with a hang-dog howl that will come as a shock to those familiar with his recent crooning.

Another highlight is the slow-burning “Hollow Man.” A soft piano coda drifts into the track as Stipe tells us that “I’ve been lost inside my head/echoes fall off me.” The self pity and slow waltzing don’t last long, as the songs morphs into alt-pop rock that sounds as welcoming and fresh now as it did back in the mid-’90s.

And so goes that album. Stipe, who has a tendency to become preachy and overly-active in his songwriting, has really reeled it in on this record, keeping his cards close to the breast, and letting the listener decide what to do with the music, rather than bashing them over the head with political opinions.

The production on this album is top-notch. The band chose to ignore convention, which is to go cleaner and bigger, and instead kept the record clean, but not without some buzz and hiss.

Of course, that sort of stuff is for the audiophiles and vinyl freaks to worry about. Maybe Accelerate is the best album of R.E.M.’s later years; maybe it’s a return to form. You’d have to ask someone more familiar with the band to get a straight answer for that one.

All I can tell you is that Accelerate is the sound of a band jumping into a time machine, flying back to 1993, and inviting you to come along for some of the best true alternative rock of this decade.

adamsn1@lasalle.edu