R.E.M. – Accelerate

Warner Bros. / Wea 2008

Rating: 8/10

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, impassioned rock ‘n roll.

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