R.E.M. - Accelerate

If you haven’t heard, it’s been a while since the state of Georgia had a decent rainstorm and it’s been a while since we’ve had a decent album from R.E.M. While the weather in the Peach state is still in question, the early consensus is that the new R.E.M. album is a return to those fair-weather days of old and one that’s sure to please longtime fans.
Before we all start deeming Accelerate “the best R.E.M. album since,” let’s take a deep breath and allow all of that cynicism, resentment, and well-deserved ambivalence towards the band take hold and provide us with a much needed reality check.
The fact is, R.E.M. needed to make this album, so one has to consider the motivation behind it. It’s healthy to wonder if this album is a calculated attempt at salvaging a recording contract with Warners instead of winning back those fans who’ve given two shits about R.E.M. for some time.
You see, I’m one of “those guys” that used to fork over some serious cash for European imports of the band’s singles, limited edition copies each release along with the regular versions and other fan-only merchandise.
After New Adventures In Hi-Fi, I really wanted to get rid of all of that overpriced collection. The direction (or lack thereof) that the band chose when drummer Bill Berry retired, seemed to place the band in a place above their fans. There is something unforgiveable about assuming how your audience will support, or at the very least tolerate, every single whim while turning your back on the fundamentals that helped bring you success.
For the past ten years, R.E.M. made me feel like a sap for liking them so much for so long and, if you haven’t guessed, I’m a little bitter about it.
I wasn’t the only one: the band’s stock has sunk so low at this point that they may need to prove to their label that they can actually sell records. At the same time, this isn’t an era where Warners, or cd sales for that matter, mean much of anything. They’re going to prove it on the road and Accelerate sounds like a good record to play out on the road as well as a blatant attempt at getting those aforementioned saps like me to shell out some money and go see them.
But my resentment runs deep enough that I don’t plan to spend dime one for an overpriced ticket to see a band that has essentially released an album on par with their mediocre mid-period material.
You want names? Ok then: it’s as good as Green or Monster while being nowhere near Life’s Rich Pageant or any of the other I.R.S. albums and not even close to the band’s last official masterpiece, Automatic For The People.
And after a decade of scratching their heads and providing their fans with any half-baked idea that they feel passes for an album, well sir, I’d say it’s time that they actually deliver another fucking masterpiece.
“Houston” is an update of “Swan Swan H.” “Horse To Water” mines similar pageantry (pun intended), and “I’m Gonna DJ,” perhaps the album’s strangest and strongest track, closes Accelerate with the same abandon of the band’s earliest curios.
There’s probably another half-dozen decent radio-friendly units: the opener “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” is this year’s “Pop Song ’89.” “Supernatural Superserious” would get tons of airplay if this were still the year Monster was released. To be fair, everything on Accelerate is fine. However, outside of the pleasing notion of familiarity, they all seem to lack the emotional requirements and rustic feel to have me returning here in a year or two.
Its Peter Buck’s album, with a welcomed focus on the three facets of his guitarwork: the arpeggio jangle of the early releases, the guitar crunch of Monster, and the kudzu-strew back porch acoustics of everything in between.
Stipe’s delivery is noticeably feral and Mike Mills’ sweet backing vocals make a welcomed return, reaffirming that his contributions may indeed be R.E.M.’s secret weapon all of these years.
With all of these acknowledgements to their past, Accelerate is an album that isn’t able to recreate it. Indeed, R.E.M. does a great job of acting like a band again without really sounding like one. Sure, there’s the issue of the drummer, pointlessly overplayed by the dude that used to play for Ministry, of all bands. But I’m not one to point to Bill Berry’s retirement as the sole cause for the band’s bad sense of direction or general aloofness. There were hints for many years that the band was steering off course even when he was still with them, but his departure really put that reality into the spotlight.
So we’re back again to the idea of the motivation behind this album, while understanding that R.E.M. is professional enough to pull off a “return to form” record without actually doing so. Forgive me if I’m a little hesitant to believe that R.E.M. has truly seen the light yet. The next album will confirm it, and only then by returning to the metaphorical back porch, carefully considering why they’re making music to begin with. Hint hint: It’s not because the record company wants a return on their investment, or because they need to regain their diminishing fan base, or even because it’s expected of them. There was a time when they created music because their record collection(s) inspired them to do so, and now they need to do the same thing, particularly when there’s an entire generation that’s not aware of how inspiring R.E.M. could really be.
Until then, the draught in Georgia continues.

This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise