Accelerate

7.0/10

  The world seemed to issue a collective yawn after the release of Around the Sun.  That is, if they weren't loudly grumbling that R.E.M. should have broken up after New Adventures in Hi-Fi, if not even sooner.  Even the band didn't seem to like Around the Sun too much.  It seems like it even sucked the energy out of them.  The four year wait between that album and this one represents the longest gap between any two R.E.M. albums.

Accelerate feels like a conscious effort on the part of the band to not sound like Around the Sun.  Thus the electric guitar rears its head prominently and most of the songs are much more uptempo.  Even the title of the album seems like a blatant advertisement that this is not another album of plodding mid-tempo songs.  They've also addressed the album length problem that's dogged them for a little while now.  This is the shortest album they've released in years and many of the songs don't even break the three minute mark.  As such Accelerate is a brisk listen, which is good, but it may suffer a bit from feeling slight.

For me the renewed sense of energy is definitely a welcome sign.  It really would have kind of sucked if Around the Sun had been their final album just because it wasn't a good note to go out on.  While I don't personally feel Accelerate lives up to their earlier classic material it's certainly a bounce back in the right direction.

You can tell the difference in the energy level right off the bat with Living Well is the Best Revenge.  Peter Buck's electric guitar rips off a riff and some upbeat drums come in.  Stipe joins in after a few bars with much more energetic singing than appeared anywhere on the previous album.  They're wasting no time in letting you know you're not in for a repeat of Around the Sun.  This song is a nice little jolt of adrenaline and wouldn't sound out of place on Lifes Rich Pageant.  That's a good thing.  I think I even hear some much missed Mike Mills backing vocals near the end of it.  They're low in the mix, but it's very welcome to hear them.

The next song Man-Sized Wreath maintains the sound and energy level of the first track.  If the first track was this album's equivalent of Begin the Begin, then this song is its These Days.  I'm relieved to say we're off to a pretty good start so far.

The next song is Supernatural Superserious, which I seem to recall actually getting some airplay.  It's fast-paced like the first two tracks and it's pretty damn catchy.  It might be the best song on the album so far.  Not to mention those are almost certainly Mike Mills backing vocals in the chorus.  They're such an essential part of the R.E.M. sound I really don't understand why they seemed to disappear for awhile there.

Next track Hollow Man brings in some piano and seems to slow down the pace a little, which is actually okay at this point, but even this song brings in some electric guitar and gets more upbeat at the chorus.  It actually makes for a pretty neat trick as it injects a little variety into the album, something the last album was sorely missing.

Houston brings in some jangly minor key acoustic guitar and what sounds like some organ.  It's different sound-wise than anything we've seen so far, which furthers the diversity and variety of the album.  Once again this is a positive thing.

Elsewhere Until the Day is Done almost sounds like it could have been on Automatic for the People and I have to say I find Mr. Richards to be a very catchy tune.  I think it might be my favorite song on the whole album.

Final track I'm Gonna DJ is kind of dumb, but at least they stuck it at the end of the album.  Granted it doesn't end the album on the highest note, but it doesn't interrupt the flow of the rest of the album and you can always skip it.

  Accelerate is a sizable improvement, but it doesn't resonate with me the way the early albums did.  Part of that is timing.  I was an impressionable teenager when I fell head over heels for Out of Time and Automatic for the People.  I had entered my 30's by the time Accelerate came out.  I still like music, but it's not as all-consumingly amazing as it was back then.  I haven't lived with Accelerate like I have with the earlier albums.  It didn't accompany my formative years.  I haven't listened to it hundreds, if not thousands of times.  It's not seared into my brain in the same way.  All of this places it at a bit of an unfair disadvantage as far as my personal estimation goes.  But I'm glad that I like it as much as I do and I'm especially glad that R.E.M. was able to go out on a higher note between this album and the next one, which proved to be their last.