in many ways I agree with what he is saying

Berry was really the backbone of the band. Once he left, things were never really the same. He was responsible for helping craft some of the band's biggest hits ("Everybody Hurts," "Man on the Moon," "Driver 8," et. al.). Since his time, has the band really had any hits or songs that even come close to "Man on the Moon"?

DeRo has so little cred when talking about R.E.M., it isn't even funny. He has changed his mind about practically every album R.E.M. has made in the last 15 years that he's a joke. A few examples: he said Around the Sun was "pretty great" when it came out four years ago, now it's "dreadfully dull"; when Monster came out, he gave it four stars, then he later said it was terrible. One week after saying Reveal was "good" (though not great) on his show, he said "R.E.M. doesn't make good music." One week later!

Dude's always got an angle. He found a way to criticize an R.E.M. show last month because even though they sounded good, they weren't palling around enough with each other between songs. Now, he's saying Berry was an astounding singer? He was good with backing vocals, no doubt, but he hardly had one of the great rock voices. Not saying that the guy isn't missed--he sure is. But I missed Mills' background vocals on the last few albums more than Berry's.

At least Jim calls Accelerate R.E.M.'s "most focused album in the past 16 years" as well as giving it a three star rating, even though he doesn't talk much about it in the review. But then he says he wishes R.E.M. would make another Murmur again? Dude's living in the past if he thinks that should happen.

I guess that's what happens when you make great albums and keep making music. Even when you make something good, some people will say, Yeah, I like it. I'd rather just put on Reckoning (or whatever). You kind of have to fight with your own legacy.

meh. This album needed hooks. Badly.

Tour should be good though... any word on tickets yet?

no word as far as i know on tickets

all i know is i want them presale buggers to go on sale soon so i can feel as though my fan club membership was worth something

Go on sale a week from Saturday I heard on the radio today. No clue on cost though.

I didn't know the tour had both Modest Mouse & The National... they're on the cover of this month's Spin, but it's a pretty boring article.

I just went on the ticketmaster site and yes, tickets go on sale for the United Center show on 4/5. It said the ticket prices range from $37-$85. Not too bad considering Modest Mouse and the National are on the bill.

(By the way, I'm listening to Accelerate now and I'm really happy with it!)

yeah, $85 for that ticket really isn't bad

what will be bad, however, are the ridiculous fees that will push a ticket over $100

still, i think if i can suss my friend in to being interested tonight, then yeah, i'm splurging

if not, i still very well may splurge

saw r.e.m. on monster tour as my second show ever. best concert experience i ever had, but haven't felt the need to see 'em since

i am (IAM) iam Superman (IAM SUPEMAN)

$9.99 at Best Buy this week. Save a penny at Target, they have the deluxe CD/DVD edition for $17.98.

This album kicks sooooooo much asss! Best REM album since Document. Fuck you, you 90's lovers!

This is the real REM. They have awakened the sleeping giant, and the giant's name is ROCK!

I think Hollow Man is probably the big surprise sleeper on the album. Great fucking song. Nice plateau dip in an album that starts off like somethign the Hip would do. Funny, I still say those 2 bands have lot in common.

YEAH!

I would add that we, along with Somegirl, and a bunch of other Sombies, saw REM at the Ch theatre last year, and were blown away, but I remember thinking-- what a shame, that they can't get that rock back on record, and somehow I think that tour, maybe playing those old LRP songs, or whatever-- they got it back. I really never thought it would happen. I thought that they were just going to keep puking out corporate singles that would be played for a few weeks and then forgotten. But I was wrong. This album deserves to be talked about it again and again. Still say that the 3rd track-- the one XRT first led with-- is definitely the weakest.

After repeated listenings and with another spin eminent as I get drunker today. I agree with this one. Sorry but this beats Hi-Fi. Though I dearly love Electrolite

can a couple of u guys hit me ur personal lists of 5 essential REM songs? I wanna see if I'm missing something.

Only things I've known and liked from that camp til now are "losing my religion" from when I was like 8 and "I Will Dare" although I have no idea which parts are Peter Buck's. Mandolin? Guitar? Both?

ummm...I Will Dare...Replacements.....anyhoo....

Fall On Me
Sitting Still
Night Swimming
Electrolite
Gardening At Night

a quick 5 off the top of my head

"At My Most Beautiful" never really got the credit it deserved, I don't think.

But yeah this is mostly spot-on.

Good argument but can you really say it was Berry and his absence or just timing of him leaving and the creative juices disappearing as is the case with nearly every band as they age.

And that being said, keeping their height of creativity in mind, Accelerate is damn good.
As Deo kind of eluded to last week, it was more than just an awesome output by the band but that so many latched on and were part of their crowning as kings. Like, hey, we were there for the ride and now we're on the top of the mountain with them.
I remember when Document came out. Bought the reocrd and spinned it constantly that day. It had a phone number to call and gush. There were real people at the other end of the phone there...down in Athens, to gush to. Ya' gotta understand this was before any sort of internet but they knew how to involve their fans.

R.E.M. Tries Picking Up the Pace

By ALAN LIGHT
Published: March 30, 2008

ATHENS, Ga.

ON the ground floor of a nondescript building, a few blocks from the University of Georgia campus here, sits a little room stuffed with instruments and decorated with Christmas lights, lava lamps, old concert posters and tacked-up 45s. R.E.M. started rehearsing in this space in 1985, and it looks as if nothing has changed.

This is a place to work not hang out, and work is what Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills were doing on this March afternoon, blasting through 13 songs over the course of a few hours. It was their first day of rehearsal for the shows that would introduce their hard-charging new album, “Accelerate” (Warner Brothers), and they weren’t exactly easing back onstage: later in the week they were headliners at the Langerado festival in Florida, followed by a date at South by Southwest in Austin, Tex.

“We never do much rehearsal,” Mr. Buck, 51, the band’s guitarist, said over a ginger ale later at a dark, empty bar around the corner. “Sometimes having that little edge of not feeling comfortable with the songs gives it a little bit of energy. Terror will do that.”

Despite spending 28 years together, at this moment a touch of fear is understandable for the trio. (The fourth member, the drummer, Bill Berry, left the band in 1997, following a brain aneurysm.) From its debut in 1981 until the mid-1990s R.E.M. was a definitive American rock band, but its sales and influence have steadily declined in the last decade. “Accelerate” is a very deliberate response to an internal crisis that Mr. Stipe, the group’s singer, described as major, and that they all agreed almost broke up the band.

Its last album, the hazy, somber “Around the Sun” (2004), took nine months to make and satisfied neither the musicians nor their fans. It didn’t crack Billboard’s Top 10 and sold less than 250,000 copies. The band members realized they needed to find a new way to work together or quit, coming to the end of a road that took them from this out-of-the-way college town to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“If you’re a music fan who has 15 artists you follow, and one of them kind of takes a nose dive — well, that’s disappointing, but you’ll move on,” Mr. Stipe said. “But to us this is everything that we do.”

Mr. Buck said he had few commercial expectations and was much more concerned about making fans believe in the band again. “Whatever we did on the last record didn’t work,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with it, and I don’t think anyone else was. Michael tends to think that the longer you work on something, the better it can be. But it doesn’t work that way for us. It just kept getting weirder and weirder and worse.”

“Around the Sun” came after other R.E.M. albums — “Up” (1998) and “Reveal” (2001) — that also received lukewarm receptions and were more atmospheric and keyboard based than the music that established the group. The band had fallen from its place as one of the biggest acts in the world to being unable to reach gold-record status. This downturn followed a record-breaking $80 million contract the band signed with Warner Brothers in 1996, a move that recently made Blender magazine’s list of the “20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time.”

Mr. Stipe said the turmoil started as soon as Mr. Berry left the band. “Any 5-year-old can figure out that with four people, you can have two very clear sides, but with three people, one person is always left out,” he said, picking at his lunch in the front room of the rehearsal space. Soft-spoken and inquisitive, Mr. Stipe, 48, was nursing a shin injury from a recent go-kart accident, and a sore jaw where he had a wisdom tooth removed. “The simple mathematics are that someone was always being ganged up on by the other two.”

Driving around Athens at nightfall Mr. Mills, 49, the group’s bass player and keyboardist, agreed. “Communication had broken down, and it had gotten repaired, and then it broke down again,” he said. “And then we said: ‘O.K., this can’t go on. Either we’re done, or we’ve got to refocus ourselves in some way.’ ”

After the tour that followed “Around the Sun” the band members gathered to determine their future. “I said, ‘Guys, I’m too old to spend nine months doing something I don’t want to do, making work I’m not proud of,’ ” Mr. Buck said. “We should try something different, or else you can do it without me.”

Mr. Stipe said: “It was a very important moment for us. We decided to do something that was really raw, immediate, unrehearsed — basically, gut and instinctual. And we chose the most obvious thing, which is to write really fast songs and record them in a really fast way.”

The aptly titled “Accelerate” is an album that should please R.E.M.’s old fans. Recorded in a matter of weeks rather than months, with 11 songs totaling less than 35 minutes, it’s a steady blast of short, sharp rockers, a breathless tumble of hooks and harmonies. The album is reminiscent of R.E.M. favorites like “Lifes Rich Pageant” and “Document,” from the mid-1980s era when the band managed the Olympian feat of being both cool and popular, but it avoids the feel of nostalgia.

“Another mistake would have been to try to do exactly what we used to do back in 1985 or ’86,” Mr. Buck said. “Back then we actually didn’t record as live as this one is.”

Mr. Stipe’s signature obscure lyrics are more focused and penetrating on “Accelerate.” In conversation Mr. Stipe, who has devoted as much attention to activism as to performing in recent years, retained his mysterious aura, veering from pragmatic political analysis to elaborate science-fiction metaphors and offhanded remarks about his depressions and insecurities. (He can also be pretty funny. When recent comments he made to Spin magazine about his life as an out gay man were widely discussed in the news media, he responded with a video statement on People.com, announcing that his band mates were finally coming out as heterosexuals.)

As always, his personality spills into the lyrics, which alternate between lamenting the state of American leadership (“The business-first flat earthers licking their wounds/The verdict is dire, the country’s in ruins”) and exploring the evocative visions, taken directly from his dreams, that have long informed his writing.

R.E.M. is even promoting “Accelerate” with the energy of a young band, using strategies like posting a series of 90 one-minute video clips on the group’s Web site, remhq.com. The official premiere of “Accelerate” will take place on Facebook.

“R.E.M. have been pretty savvy about the new music distribution model,” said Scott Lapatine, founder and editor in chief of the music blog Stereogum.com. (Last year Stereogum assembled a tribute album commemorating the 15th anniversary of R.E.M.’s “Automatic for the People.”)

Mr. Buck bristles a bit that “Accelerate” is being widely greeted as a comeback album. “I don’t feel like this is a return to form so much as this is the level we work at generally,” he said. “Of the 14 records we’ve made, I think 12 of them are pretty close to this.”

A return to R.E.M.’s classic sound may not be enough to attract new listeners. Aaron Axelsen, music director of Live 105 in San Francisco, said his station played “Supernatural Superserious,” the first single from “Accelerate,” about 50 times before dropping it from rotation. He described the reaction it received as “polarizing” for his modern rock audience. “We were hoping it would bridge the gap to our younger, alternative listeners, but to a lot of them R.E.M. is their dad’s band.”

Much has changed in R.E.M.’s world since the members came together as college kids in the early ’80s, but a visit to Athens illustrates how much has stayed the same. The Wuxtry record shop, where Mr. Buck, then the store manager, first met Mr. Stipe is still open; after rehearsal Mr. Buck swings by and flips through the new releases. Mr. Mills lives in the house he bought in 1986. (Mr. Stipe keeps a house in Athens but lives mostly in New York; Mr. Buck moved to Seattle in the mid-’90s.) A steeple is the last vestige of the church where the band played its first show.

In 1981 R.E.M.’s debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” was released on the tiny local Hib-Tone label, but its impact was far-reaching. R.E.M., with its mix of punk energy and folk lyricism, fronted by the enigmatic, sometimes indecipherable vocals of Mr. Stipe, became the flagship band of the emerging “college radio” market in the first half of the ’80s. As the group honed more of a pure rock sound, its members grew from cult heroes to arena headliners.

The 1991 release “Out of Time,” which featured the acoustic-based smash single “Losing My Religion,” sold four million copies, and established R.E.M.’s members as global superstars. Critics loved the next few albums too, but as the band experimented with different sounds, and rock lost ground to hip-hop and boy bands, R.E.M.’s fan base started to show cracks, even before Mr. Berry’s departure.

In separate conversations each band member brought up U2 as a comparison. In the ’80s and ’90s the two groups seemed joined at the hip, conquering the pop world while remaining true to their principles, blazing a trail for the alternative movement that came in their wake. The bands remain friendly, but somewhere along the way R.E.M. ceded the spotlight while U2 remained a stadium act.

“We’ve been the biggest band in the world, and it was great, but it’s not a career goal for us,” Mr. Mills said. “U2 are more able to handle that sort of thing. They are made up to do that, and we’re not, and thank goodness.”

In the years since R.E.M.’s breakthrough, Mr. Stipe has often served as a mentor to younger rockers. “I don’t like being the advice guy, but it is part of who I am,” he said. “Be it Kurt Cobain or Conor Oberst or Chris Martin or Thom Yorke, there is a little club of people who do this weird thing as a job. I’ve just done it longer, so I can tell them to expect to go into a depression after a tour, or that acupuncture isn’t a bad thing.”

A band dinner revealed some of the new Athens, where there is now a choice between several upscale restaurants, as well as the evolution of the band’s interaction. The leisurely meal confirmed that R.E.M. is made up of three men with very different interests. Mr. Buck compared record producers, Mr. Mills discussed his beloved Atlanta Braves, and Mr. Stipe talked politics and “Ugly Betty.” While they passed plates of food and laughed about disastrous travel experiences, though, it felt like the unity that propels “Accelerate” isn’t something they left in the recording studio.

“It’s like having blood relatives,” Mr. Buck said. “Twenty-eight years is a long time.”

Mr. Stipe said: “We’ve been through some dark times together. But there’s a humor, there’s a camaraderie, there’s an absurdity to the daily ins and outs of what life can throw at you and how well you deal with it. And we happen to be in a very good place right now.”

Ok, yeah. It's nice to see guys my age...rock on motherfuckers.

You seriously arent gonna grow that fro back, are you?

Thanks, ill check these out.

I know I'm a big mats geek...i just wasn't sure which is buck's part on I Will Dare

I always figured it's the mandolin cause he plays one on the only REM song I've ever liked... but on the wiki it says paul is playing the mandolin, and buck does the guitar solo.

I don't like any of the other singles I've heard. Everybody Hurts. Man On The Moon. Its The End Of The World. I hated those songs. The latter two seemed so hokey, and the former seemed awfully maudlin and kumbaya-ish. Maybe I'm missing something.

If I could not answer to anybody (read...be a total entrepreneur) I'd do it. well, let me ask my girl what she thinks...ha.

^ Best review I've read of this so far.

Granted, if you can't come up with revolutionary music next best thing would be a crowd pleaser.
I'll take that.

Crowd-pleaser? OK. It's a good album and that's all I care about. (It's definitely a lot more candid about the band's [or, at least, Stipe's] dislike of the Bush administration than Around the Sun, so I disagree with anyone who thinks they just put out a safe album.)

I will agree, though, that they haven't been the hit-making band they were in the '80s and '90s. They've had good singles ("Imitation of Life," "At My Most Beautiful"), but they haven't released a single in the past 10 years that can comes close to their best singles. I have read they'll later release "Hollow Man" as a single. Pretty good choice, I think.

Depends on what the crowd is.

A very accurate review on Pitchfork this morning in my opinion, agree with the score as well.

As of this moment, it's now my fifth favorite album of the year.

that's some shit year.

but aren't they all? to you, that is.

I found two factual errors in the first three paragraphs and stopped reading.

The review was riddled with factual errors (Reveal and ATS both had tours to support them, the greatest hits tour was in 2003 not 2006, "Houston"'s lyrics are "enigmatic" yet it addresses a current topic more directly than any other song on the record).

Sounded like the writer had his mind made up before listening and was merely noting the songs where his expectations got tweaked a bit.

I noticed those two but thought I was wrong, accurate probably isn't the word I'm looking for then! More agrees with why I don't think this is anything other than an average album and not worth getting excited about.

Yup, you got one of 'em. The other that jumped out at me:

Throughout its 11 songs and 35 minutes, no single track tops the four-minute mark, and many run less than three.

1. "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" – 3:11
2. "Man-Sized Wreath" – 2:31
3. "Supernatural Superserious"[17]
4. "Hollow Man" – 2:39
5. "Houston" – 2:05
6. "Accelerate" – 3:33
7. "Until the Day Is Done" – 4:08
8. "Mr. Richards" – 3:46
9. "Sing for the Submarine" – 4:50
10. "Horse to Water" – 2:18
11. "I'm Gonna DJ" – 2:07

They might want to correct those before the mailbag bulges, probably going to be a few more complaints than about the errors in DYLRM?

The band is on Today show for a performance tomorrow (Tuesday)...release day.

nah, this year is pretty great so far actually.

i was more commenting on your taste. if that's your fifth favorite record, i don't even want to know what one through four are...

Accelerate is my #5 this year as well, maybe even moving up a bit. Of course my #1 this year would probably be my #6 or 7 last year, so 2008 isn't stacking up so well.

It's in my top 5 too.

QUOTE

Top 5 Albums Of 2008 (so far...) * 01. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash * 02. Louis XIV - Slick Dogs & Ponies * 03. Dengue Fever - Venus On Earth * 04. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree * 05. R.E.M. - Accelerate

I think this year is really good as well. Most of the albums I like a lot I haven't had a chance to listen to in depth enough to rank yet. It's only the end of March, too.

i like Accelerate, but i'd give it about a 7 and certainly not anywhere near my top 10 on the year

Same here, though admittedly I've only heard about 20 albums this year.

I don't see why people don't really like the title track. I mean, it's not stellar, but it's not the worst track on the album. That's reserved for "Until the Day is Done." That song pretty much blows.

And after listening to this since its leak, the rest of this album is still really good. I keep finding little things I'm liking about it. No qualms from me on it. Now I just need to decide if I want to buy the vinyl tomorrow or the special edition disc set thingy.

tough choices in life

The title track is a definite grower. The part towards the end with Mills shouting "Accelerate!" is great, and Buck's rhythm work there is top shelf.

Also really loving the vocal arrangements on "Man Sized Wreath", listen closely at the last run through the chorus and Mills singing "kickitout" just before and after Stipe says it. Nice subtle touch. Maybe next album they'll let Mills take a lead vocal again.

being anti-bush is pretty darn safe these days

It would be safer to not include anything about politics. I was on a website where a couple right-wingers were making remarks about how R.E.M.'s opinions about the war and Bush mean nothing and they should leave the opinions to the "big boys," which I guess means politicians (cue the laugh track on that). About a third of the public still thinks Bush is doing a good job, so writing songs against the administration as well as speaking against it will turn some people off. So, it is not entirely safe.

If REM had an opinion about the war it's not 'safe' for them not to mention it. It's shameful if, given their history, they didn't put it forward.