Short and sweet. REM is back with a vengeance, with this new CD a masterpiece right up there with Automatic for the People. I've seen some of these songs performed live, and they are stunning and creative.

Although I quite liked Around the Sun (I cannot say that to Reveal, as I don't like it), I guess Peter Buck & Co. weren't happy with the result and they stormed the studios with Accelerate!
At first I thought the REM were back with the usual stuff. Not so. They are angry, fast and heavy! Many songs are political or social as they are not happy with the current situation in the US and you can feel the urgency in many of the songs. What's better, the whole album is consistent, no fillers here.

For the first time since New adventures in HiFi and Berry's departure, REM can be really proud of themselves! When I think about them I feel invigorated and proud too.
The best songs for me are Accelerate, Supernatural superserious, Horse to water, Until the day is done, with the first being in the top 5 list of the best REM songs ever!

I'm altogether dispirited

I've listened to this about 5-6 times all the way through, and not one song has made an impression

Read the lyrics - they're ok - I don't really care too much about lyrics. My favorite album by REM (Murmur) and I don't know the lyrics on most of my favorite songs on that (Radio Free Europe, Perfect Circle)

I am absolutely miserable. I mean, I'm still gonna listen to the group. I'll stick pick up the next album. But none of these songs are very good. There aren't really any strong melodies

Pete, you can do better! You played on Robyn's very good album Ole Tarantula for gods sake.

I can't imagine someone picking up this album and loving it. The first few times I listened to this album I was depressed for a week

Blah! Not a bad album (I guess) but unmemorable. It sounds off; I like when REM rock out (Monster's good) but there seems to be a distinct lack of good solid songs here

I'm sticking to Love's Forever Changes from now on.

I was really excited to hear that R.E.M. had returned to a more Rock 'n' Roll style of music. However, other than the loud guitars, a staple of R.E.M. music became very strained on "Accelerate." That would be Michael Stipe's voice. He was never a crooner or a screamer for that matter, but he really seemed to struggle to sing along with the accompanying chiming guitars on this album. The only song that would negate that statement would be the beautiful "Until The Day Is Done." On that track, a break from the guitar racket, Michael sings very well about the current state of affairs in this country, the USA. Overall, I appreciate the album, and that track makes "Accelerate" worth every penny I paid for it. I think the worst sung track on this cd is "Hollow Man," oddly during the calmer parts of the song.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of REM but I recently picked up this CD and would rate it as very good. Like their old stuff.

Starts off strong with this rocking "Living Well Is the Best Revenge". Continues strong with "Man-sized Wreath" and "Supernatural Superserious". Slows down into a melancholy track - (I've become a) "Hollow Man".

Next track, "Houston", is solid:

"Houston is filled with promise
Laredo is a beautiful place
and Galveston sings like that song that I loved
Its meaning has not been erased"

I really liked this CD. A good effort by a great band. Good to hear that they have produced a solid CD.

The songs average about three minutes in length and the entire CD is short at approx only 35 minutes.

I don't there is a bad track on this CD.

Recommended if you are at all a fan of their past work.

crap sound notwithstanding, this album is not only a return to form, but it rocks! and theres not one song to skip in the bunch. a top album from beginning to end. the band can't let an album go by without some political whining. surprised will they be that hurricanes will hit during the mccain administration too. but it's not overbearing. the album flies by so quick, you don't realize how good it is until you realize you've spun it a few times in a row.

my top three: living well is the best revenge, until the day is done, hollow man.

too bad the lyrics aren't included. welcome back r.e.m.
we missed you.

So when we last left the boys they had just given us AROUND THE SUN, a somber, lackluster, lackadaisical trudge through synthesizer/overproduction hedes. Welcome the polar opposite, or shall we say, classic mode of R.E.M.. Don't have your volume up too high, as the mastering of this album is LOUD! Rightly so, as it's 90% electric! While the lyrics that Michael and the gang recite aren't the greatest in their catalogue, they also aren't their worst and are pretty good. "Supernatural Superserious" is a great song and a rightful tune for pop radio overplay. "Houston" flaunts a bit of high-powered organ that only comes up to breathe every few beats, but it adds to the humidity of the song. "Mr. Richards" is destined to become a forgotten classic. The downside on ACCELERATE is "Until The Day Is Done." It's a protest song, and it's unfortunate because you can tell 10 seconds in that it's a protest song. Aside from "...day is done", this is a mighty fine highway listen (or a workout soundtrack). Welcome back to the late 80s, R.E.M..

It's sad to see REM trying to return to their roots to produce a good album and then turning out a work that's significantly worse than their early works. This is nowhere near as good as Murmur, which came out almost 20 years ago. "Around the Sun" was disappointing but this is worse. Perhaps Mr Stipe and pals should concede that they've already achieved all they could in the world of music and retire. If they issue many more albums like this they're going to start seriously tarnishing their heritage.

Accelerate is just what its name implies: the sound of a band approaching middle age, a band whom many critics and fans had written off as past its prime, reaching back to their early records and restoring their music with a sense of fire and vigor that had been missing for well over a decade.

Singer Michael Stipe has said in an interview with Spin that the band "spent less time making this record than we have in twenty years," and it shows. Accelerate charges out of the gate with "Living Well is the Best Revenge," an up-tempo, guitar-and-bass-driven rock number that recalls the band in their `80s heyday.

The music turns away from the studio experiments that many considered R.E.M.'s downfall in the new millennium to what made them famous: guitar, bass, drums, and Stipe's distinctive wail. His lyrics are just as sharp as ever, and with the Iraq War still going strong after five years, he has no shortage of targets, bemoaning the "vacuum between his ears" of our outgoing president on "Man-Sized Wreath" and political deceit on "Mr. Richards."

After so many years, R.E.M. has finally rediscovered what made them great in the first place: simple, angry, and impassioned rock `n roll.

This little fireplug of a CD hits the ground running with "Living Well is the Best Revenge" and doesn't come up often for air. It's good to hear Michael Stipe fired up on rockers like the aforementioned tune and "Man-Sized Wreath," where he rails against political pundits, the vapidness of TV and "pomp" and "odious conceit." It's great stuff, and amid Stipe's aggressive vocals and Peter Buck's equally in-your-face guitar work, there seems to be a sense of liberation and joy within the band which I can't recall since the mighty Monster back in 1994.

The mellow and short "Houston," a beautiful song about the Hurricane Katrina refugees, fully displays Stipe's penchant for climbing inside the body of another human being, similar to the morose but sublime "Daysleeper" on the underrated Up. In the song, he boldly attempts to extract some brightness amid a horrible situation. "Until the Day is Done" is similarly quiet compared to the rest of "Accelerate," and its despondent lyrics tell of a dying America, one that the lyricist is far from proud of. Whether you agree with the sentiment or not, the stately sound and sincerity of the song hearkens back to the greatness of Automatic for the People, no small feat. Truly, I didn't grasp the songs's specialness until I really gave it a solid listen.

Mostly, though, "Accelerate" is one punchy rocker after another. I can't help but wonder if the popish "Mr. Richards" is a friendly ode to President Bush, but more important, "Horse to Water" contains a march-to-your own-drummer message, fed-up lyrics and an irresistible chorus that ranks as my favorite on the CD. And not since "It's the End of the World as We Know it" has there been such a stadium-like, fun vibe from R.E.M. as heard on the pumped-up, free-flowing, let-it-all-hang-out "I'm Gonna DJ."

Stipe's voice may be a tad roughened up from natural aging and cigarettes, but it matches up well with the fiery guitars and is ably backed up by Mike Mills' formidable pipes that never seem to go out of style. Come to think of it, after releasing some questionable fluff preceding this album, R.E.M., as a unit, seem to have mastered the art of never going out of style.

Accelerate (2008, Warner Bros.) R.E.M.'s fourteenth studio album. ***1/2

The fourteenth album of these veterans isn't exactly a revival, but it is nice to listen to. R.E.M. have their cheesy moments on Accelerate, the fastest album they've made to date, not to mention a very short, but very wise, running time. The album starts off with a bang and doesn't lose momentum until we enter into the second half. Once the title track rolls around, the ears of everyone except the fan becomes tired. But they still got it, as the opening track and the excellent "Supernatural Superserious" demonstrate. A very welcome update from an old friend.

-Stephen
www.politicianrock.blogspot.com

pitiful sound quality, OK Music overall, and wow, an entire 33 minutes long. Maybe next time after a few years off they can come up with 40 minutes of music.

I always loved REM but have lost interst in the last so many years. I guess the music was not what I expected but this album brings them back to their roots. It is a fun album that you can listen to over and over and will remind you of the good old days of REM

Look I've read a lot of reviews and have listened to the record many times. It's not great and it's not bad. REM is band where you expect something different - hit or miss - its what you expect. Some songs are catchy, some are not. All in all a good effort. That's why the IPOD was invented to edit the stuff you dont want. buy it and enjoy

Basicamente uno de los mejores albumes de la banda, por un momento pareciera que regresas a lo mejor de la música en los 90's: Riffs grunge y tiempos agresivos con una aspera pero melodiosa ejecución vocal.
REM se reencuentra en este album y nos trae muy buen música, no sigas leyendo esto que pierdes el tiempo, simplemente pon el cd en tu carro y dejate llevar hasta alcanzar el REM.

It's an amazing return. And it was really refreshing to listen great rock again. I recommend it if you still love professionals and hate those insultant new cartoon-teen-so-called-bands from radio.

There is certainly a lot of clamor being made over this clamorous wreck of a record. R.E.M may very well be the best American band thus far but not by the merits of Accelerate. This album has no texture and no depth. If, as touted, it is a return to roots it went too far, i.e. back to the formative Athen's basement years too far. But that does not even seem to be the case because though the earliest albums might have been unintelligible they were not unintelligent. And this one is as dumb as a bag of hammers. So all the claims of "back to form" are nonsense. Accelerate is simply the new millennium's "Monster" and simply an obstreperous and cantankerous dud.

What a resounding jaunt back to relevance for my absolute favorite band on the planet... I own all of their albums, and DID like even their recent albums (albeit Around the Sun was definitely stretching my "love" thin) but this album goes right up with the greats of the 80's... Most importantly the VITALITY is back. After years of straying from that core energy playing "eloqeuntly" arranged studio works this album ROCKS out like yesteryear tracks of FOTR or LRP... I saw them at UC Berkeley's Greek theater last month and that was the best show i've ever seen. Way better than when I saw them at Anaheim >10yrs ago... as they write on the album-- "you cannot resist, you cannot resist"

As a fan since they played dives in Athens, GA, I'll argue there are three distinct rems. The first incarnation put out three hauntingly good albums (chronic town, murmur and reckoning) that reshaped alternative music. The next incarnation discovered the power of the studio and put out well crafted pop albums with a social conscience. Then, the third incarnation put out intelligent experiments in sound that, oddly, lacked any soul and lacked a lot of listeners as well. This latest album moves back into the realm of relevance by moving back in time to rem's second incarnation - mid to up tempo rock tunes with Peter Buck's confident guitar leading the way.

It's good stuff. Not great stuff, but good stuff that's worth a listen. It might help them convert a new legion of fans. As for me, I'll still crave those rough around the edges albums where the lyrics were buried beneath a jangly guitar played as fast as possible. Sure, this is good, but can anything here touch the exuberance of wolves, lower or the beauty of camera. Not in my book.

I had just about given up hope that REM had one more good CD in them. Then I heard this. If you enjoyed early REM run out and get this tomorrow. I realize this didn't get much radio airplay, but then again what good music does these days???

I absolutely love the entire REM catalogue. For me, even Around The Sun had it's moments. I'm sad to say that REM finally sold out. How could such a creative band have enlisted the same person behind U2's How To Dismantle An Atom Bomb to work on this effort? Don't believe the critical acclaim...It's all hype!

This is a pretty good album. It has tracks that I enjoy while they're playing but none good enough to make me want to load them up in the first place. As a point of reference, I tend to like their mellower stuff, even Up & Reveal. (Reveal in particular is sadly underrated). Favorite song is probably Good Advices, off FOTR.

Their great back catalog means the new stuff is forced to fight the gravitational pull of their past work. After all, why listen to Supernatural Superserious when These Days is but a click away?

Thank God REM is back! I have been listening to them forever, and longed for them to return to the sound that makes them great. They had a hard time when Bill Berry left, and I think they were struggling to keep their identity. I also have to mention, with out a doubt, they ate the best live band ever, hands down! I have seen them three times, and just saw them in Philadelphia last week. I even took my kids (ages 13, 10, and 7). They had a great time. I can not say enough about my love for this band.

Reminiscent of earlier their albums, including Murmur, Green, with a dash of New Adventures thrown in. A very raw, unrehearsed sound, the loyal R.E.M. fan will appreciate the fact that they can still drop an album.

This cd is good! It is harder than the usual REM stuff. I like the edgier stuff like this as compared to the bubblegum pop stuff that the commons tend to enjoy. It reminds me of the older stuff they did back in the early 80's.

I used to LOVE this band. I anticipated their every new release with anticipation. I've seen them live 3 times including an early tour in New Orleans in which Michael Stipe mumbled behind his assymetrical hair for 2-3 hours. It was great. Since the drummer left they have been mediocre with occasional impressive outings like Reveal. They should retire and go onto full time solo careers. This disc is mediocre and embarrassing. I'm watching them right now on Austin City Limits embarrass themselves. They're destroying their legacy. Make this the end.

Their social perspective hasn't changed but their sound on this CD is much more intense and rapid-fire than anything they've done recently.
Their best work since, "Automatic For The People"!

Accelerate is too short, poorly produced, highly derivative and not as good as some of REM's other albums (personal favourite: New Adventures). On the other hand, there are no rubbish instrumentals, the sound "rocks", every tune is catchy (personal favourite: I'm Gonna DJ) and it is easily their best album since, well, New Adventures. Awesome live show too.

A success from the start. I especially enjoyed "Mr.Richards"... wonderful vocals. Anyone used to REMs typical Top Ten stuff will be pleasantly suprised.....

It's only missing Bill Berry... The band turned back the clock about 15 years, Stipe got angry and Buck plugged in and turned it up. I'd really lost track of my old favorite band the last 3 or 4 albums since BB left. They seemed pretty self-absorbed and experimentally moody in their efforts. Glad I took the leap on this one. Overall, the tone and tempo reminds me of Monster or Life's Rich Pageant.

I've been an REM fan for a long time. "Green" came out during my freshman year of high school and I latched onto that album in that special way only a young kid just getting into music can. I played that tape (remember those?) in my Walkman damn near every day and I memorized every line and every riff. Things got even better as I started digging into their 80s back catalog, and I really enjoyed the next couple of albums they put out. Then they started to... well ... they became mediocre. Everything after "Automatic for the People" sounded like either a failed experiment or a re-tread of something they had already done better. "Accelerate" finally gets them back on track. No, it's not as good as "Life's Rich Pageant," but it's the best thing they've done in years and the first REM album since 1992 that I've really been able to get into. If you're one of the many people who (understandably) wrote them off years ago, it may be time to give them one more shot.

R.E.M.: Accelerate - Welcome Back R.E.M.! Much like how; Aerosmith, Pearl Jam and Flamming Lips all had to reinvent themselves to become relevant again, R.E.M. must have reflected deeply upon their extensive library and decided to become rather vengeful, once again.
This album seems to have already caught headlines from every magazine that circulates the globe and from each a relatively positive, if not overwhelmingly positive, review. If you haven't read one of these review, then maybe you've noticed pictures of the band or lead singer, Michael Stipe, on a cover. This sort of publicity is almost impossible to buy for the majority of bands, but for R.E.M. it's just life as usual when they actually try on an album.
So what do I mean when spouting out words like, "reinventing, relevant and try?" That's easy to answer, listen to the album once and you'll know what I mean. And this won't take much time, because this is R.E.M.'s shortest album that they've ever recorded, coming in at under 35 minutes. So short of a time-span that it can only fit 11 tracks, which makes the album only one track longer than the shortest tracked album of 10. There's no clean computerized synthesizer or inexplicably, impossible-without-studio, cuts. Accelerate, is simply an album that was written out of pure neurotic explosion, and equally by each individual member. The base guitar bounces around playfully, sounds wonderful and not drowned-out like bands from the 2000's, the guitar is fast and full of rhythm similar to a more youthful R.E.M. of ole and the drums again bang away, even though without longtime drummer, Bill Berry, Ministry's Bill Rieflin fills the roll perfectly - we're not talking nuclear science with R.E.M.'s drumming, but that still doesn't make Bill Rieflin an honorary member, yet. So the basics, which speak volumes, are all present for the making of a modern-classic, but what do the vocals sound like, are the lyrics personable and does the album hold up?
When I first listened to, Accelerate, I instantly enjoyed the music, but thought there was something amiss. The further I dove into the album, the more I realized that the music was great, but that the vocals were a little off. Sure, it sounded like Mike, but still, he didn't sound as convicted as usual, almost as if the music was faster-paced than he could handle. And so I listened, and listened and listened some more to this album (as I do now with most albums) and what I came up with was that this is just the theme of the album mixed-in with a little with Stipe's age. But overall, this is signature R.E.M. sound, it just takes week's worth of radioplay to be addicting. And you know what the thing is, this album consists of a lot of repeatable & memorable material, most of which fans might have forgot R.E.M. was capable of composing.
So now that I've finally gotten a grasp of what might take the average listener an estimated 3 weeks of listening to, I'm willing to stand firm on saying this album is damn good. The lyrics, nothing new to R.E.M.; personal, political, a little coded but also could be interpreted as ultra-direct. While I've heard comments that mention, "Man on the Moon-ish," I lean towards an album with songs that range between a mix of, "Drive," "The One I Love," and variations of yes, material from, Monster, specifically, "Star 69." I actually enjoy most of the album, and respect the fact that I didn't love it on first spin, because it most definitely takes time to grow on you, but when you get there, it's oh so rewarding. One thing



Album Highlights: All of it - minus "I'm Gonna DJ"

Rating 9.5 out of 10

The rumors are not exaggerated, REM is dead. There is absolutely nothing on "Accelerate" to get excited about. Despite the promise of acceleration we get plodding numbers whose acceleration is only towards the absurd and banal - check out "Sing For The Submarine" as a prime example.

Worse than all is "Until The Day is Done" which despite all good intentions sounds as if it was written by Richie Sambora with members of The Moody Blues (like a weird, ugly, unwanted child of "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Nights in White Satin").

To make matters worse, the production, by someone whose moniker is "Jacknife Lee", excites about as much as U2's "How To Disable An Atomic Bomb", The Hives' "Black and White Album" and that unimportant Snowpatrol album he worked on, which is to say not at all.

No band shaped my life more than R.E.M. One of the greatest American rock bands of all time. And there are no harsher critics than those who love. So . . .

My favorite R.E.M. albums are Murmur, Automatic, and New Adventures, which to this day remains mystifyingly underrated. I love Up. Reveal to me was a collection of solid songs that was absolutely ruined by over production. I think I side with Peter Buck in my opinion of that album. And Around the Sun took a full solar year to get through, it felt.

With Accelerate the are once again rocking, but as one reviewer put it, brevity isn't to be confused with intensity. Living Well is the Best Revenge and Horse to Water are the best tracks in my opinion, and I also love Mr. Richards. Houston sounded great the first three listens but got old quickly. Sing for the Submarine - sort of a low point on the album. But I'm still praying that R.E.M. will crank out a few more songs equal of my favorites, which always seem to be songs that the radio stations miss:

Half a World Away
Sweetness Follows
Let Me In
Leave
New Test Leper
Lotus
Hairshirt
Swan Swan H

...which is a return to great sounding songs! REM came to this project obviously prepared and proved themselves worthy of praise for this return to form CD. I don't understand the few negative reviews that I've read. I guess you can't please everyone. "Monster is better than this CD"... that comment doesn't hold water. This CD is definitely better than Monster in so many ways. From my ears it's better than any of their CDs since "Automatic for the People". It's a fine listen and totally pleasurable from the start of the opening chord to the last note of the last song. I've played this over and over since it came out and am proud to have it on top of my play list. Big time kudos to REM for such a great recording. Thanks guys!!!!