R.E.M. - Accelerate Album Review (2008)

1994 was a defining year for R.E.M. Following the enormous musical success of the glorious ‘big label’ debut Green, the band enjoyed huge commercial success with Out Of Time and Automatic For The People - which are, thankfully, also very good albums. Extensive touring and living in the public eye for two years took it’s toll, both physically and musically, as Monster was a unmitigated disaster. R.E.M. came to the UK, never a happy hunting ground, cancelled tours and lost Bill Berry - not just a drummer but the heart and soul of the band. Given that the idea was to inject some vibrant energy into the band and deliver sexy rock n roll, the album fell flat on it’s arse. Things would never be the same again, in spite of comments by enigmatic front man Michael Stipe declaring that a three legged dog is still a dog. Putting things in perspective for a moment, R.E.M. were never going to explode or fade away. They simply are too good. And when you set a high standard, as was set in the mid-nineties, it takes time and something special to get back to your best.

Since Monster, R.E.M. have been inconsistent at best. And they always were even in the I.R.S years, from the wonderful Life’s Rich Pageant to the lows of Fables Of The Reconstruction (Of The Fables) - the last time they had troubles in the UK - so this wasn’t entirely unexpected. Perversely New Adventures In Hi-Fi is one of the best R.E.M. albums and Up contains some of the best songs from the last ten years. In between Reveal and Around The Sun, both defining horrible low points in the current musical lull, the band decided (with the help of record executives) to release a third ‘best of’ compilation. The two CD version of this attempt to appease old fans and also reign in the new, is a massive disappointment. Again, after Around The Sun, the band release yet another ‘best of’, this time the early hits, and an uninspired live album. This did nothing to help the three legged dog.

So now it is 2008, fourteen years after Monster nearly destroyed R.E.M. The band is back in the UK with a high profile gig at the Royal Albert Hall to promote new album Accelerate, a fast paced, short, sexy slice of indie rock. It all sounds horribly familiar. Thankfully it isn’t.
From the opening guitar of Living Well Is The Best Revenge you know this will not be just another lacklustre mid-tempo R.E.M. album. When Stipe comes in, he spits in the vocals at frenetic unstructured pace, only adding some melody with the flat chorus ‘All you sad and lost apostles, hum my name and flare their nostrils, choking on the bones you throw to them’. The song is full of religious reference and a reaction to being old and dated - Stipe goes on to declare ‘…history will set me free, the future’s ours…’, a stab at critics and cynics alike. The song speeds through it’s three minutes, fuelled by Stipe/Mills and Buck and Rieflin’s Dave Grohl drums.

Man-Sized Wreath starts with the same energy wrapped up in a different swagger. ’Turn on the TV, what do I see? A pageantry of empty gestures all lined up for me, wow!’. Mills adds some great bass under messy guitars. It is in danger of sounding like an aging rock band still trying to be sexy but the band pulls it off wonderfully. Stipe adds his own talkie backing vocals to the second chorus, under Mills, showing that there is a plethora of ideas being used in a very small space. If anything the ending falls a bit flat.

Supernatural Superserious should be the lead track - with more polished clear production and a great structure. It sounds like an ‘old’ R.E.M. song with new life. Buck provides a great guitar riff and again the drum arrangement is outstanding. As the song unfolds, Stipe is telling the story of how it’s easy to get lost in the crowd and suffer for it. Leading into the last thirty seconds we get some of the most intriguing lyrics: ’Now there's nothing dark and there's nothing weird. Don't be afraid I will hold you near. From the séance where you first portrayed an open heart on a darkened stage. Celebration of your teenage station’. The end of the song is amazing, a nod towards to end of Bad by U2.

Hollow Man is a respite from the pace and sees Stipe in calm reflective mood. The chorus adds the tempo: ’Believe in me, believe in nothing. Corner me and make me something. I've become the hollow man. Have I become the hollow man I see?’. He is inviting criticism and pleading for ideas. It is by no means a classic but certainly defines the mood and theme of the conception of the album. At just over two minutes, Houston is a short menacing political statement. Stipe starts in venomous mood: ‘If the storm doesn't kill me the government will. I've got to get that out of my head…’, eluding to the recent state of unrest in the US, political or otherwise, currently inspiring him. He goes on: ‘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’. Conversely the chorus is uplifting against the dark overtones and grinding distortion of guitars, but Stipe is weary and deflated by the end.

The album’s title track sounds like a reworking of The Great Beyond, with Stipe’s metaphoric musing: ’Where is the ripcord, the trapdoor, the key? Where is the cartoon escape-hatch for me?’. But the approach is much more frantic rant, less philosophical waffle. Into the last thirty seconds, the big ending again collapses.

If there is one truly outstanding song on Accelerate it is Until The Day Is Done. Like a cross between Final Straw and Swan Swan H, it is the brightest and most obvious anti-government, anti-capitalism (always a bitter pill to swallow given the money ’rock stars’ have) and anti-war song since Turn You Inside Out. Starting with a Country Feedback countdown then ‘The battle’s been lost, the war is not won’, the approach is controlled and measured. The mood lifts in the chorus which is timeless and distinctively R.E.M. Musically, the whole arrangement of guitars, piano and vocals has hidden depth. Stipe continues the sentiment with anti-Bush and anti-religion in the same line: ‘Forgive us our trespasses, father and son’. On an album full of high-tempo songs, this is a revelation and a sign that R.E.M. can still produce.

As Accelerate closes, there are a couple of divisive tracks. Mr. Richards sounds like a reworked Monkeys song with the space-aged vocal mix and the constant drone of guitars. The subject matter is clear but who it is about is not. Sing For The Submarine says very little and rather ironically takes far too long to do it. Curiously, in the first two verses Stipe namedrops two songs: Electron Blue and Feeling Gravity’s Pull (he goes on to mention two more: High Speed Train and partially ‘World As We Know It‘). The guitars on the chorus are great but generally the music is laboured and oppressive. Maybe that’s the point. Towards the end he starts to ramble: ‘Tyrel and his mechanical owl, a moth disguised as a leaf…’.

Horse To Water gets things back on track, a punchy two minute pop song with a wonderful chorus. Stipe is spitting lyrics again and what seems vacuous it very clever. He even finds time to slip in the album’s only expletive. Conversely the album closer I’m Gonna DJ just feels…wrong. Like Wanderlust on Around The Sun it is sexing up the unsexy. Annoying at the song has some great musical moments, particularly when Stipe declares ‘It’s on my mind, it’s in my mind. It’s what I found, it’s what I find’. Simple but effective. That said, the whole song never really works but ends the album with a great line: ‘Music will provide the light you cannot resist’.

Accelerate is not Monster. The first difference is Peter Buck who has never sounded better - at least not since Out Of Time. All memories of the woeful mess of a guitar solo on What’s The Frequency Kenneth? have been expelled. Mike Mills, ever dependable bass player, delivers some great backing vocals, like he used to do. And the iconic Michael Stipe is energised and inspired. It would be easy to say the reason for this new found exuberance is drummer Bill Rieflin. He was present on Around The Sun and that never revived the mood. It takes more than a new drummer to suddenly change a band but he does bring back some much needed ‘life’ into the core organic sound. Whatever has happened in the last four years, and we may never know exactly what that is, R.E.M. is sounding alive and real. Sometimes it takes a critical kicking to get a band focused but there is more to it than that. There is a distinct lack of polish, a good thing made up for by smart editing, and the inability to finish is frustrating at times. Very little of the album drags, also due to the only obvious criticism of being too short. The approach of Monster is perfectly executed on Accelerate, with proper songs and brilliant musicianship. It is a great mix of pop and political statement, not so much a reinvention as a reworking of old ideals sounding relevant and modern. Every band endures peaks and troughs, this finally sounds like the start of a peak. More please.

-- CS