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Music Review

03 December 2008 05:29 BST

REM: Accelerate

Warner Bros Records, out now.

In a nutshell...

Rocky, punchy, political

What's it all about?

Accelerate is the 14th studio album and the first in four years for one of the most overwhelmingly popular and all-inclusive bands of the 80s, 90s and noughties. Eleven tracks rush by in a brisk 34 minutes and 39 seconds, leaving Accelerate at around half the length of its most recent predecessors. REM singer Michael Stipe and his fellow band members have billed the album as a back-to-basics experience that puts recent melancholia to bed and rekindles the alternative rock routes of the band's early cult success.

Who's it by

REM are one of the most iconic bands of the last three decades, but have a surprisingly diverse sense of identity despite the breadth of their success. For some they are the punky, satirical, alternative rock trailblazers of the early 1980s, for others they are the talented early 90s balladeers of Out of Time and Automatic for the People, which between them sold 22 million copies. And in the last decade or so they have become defined by bad health, unwillingness to tour, near break-up, the gaunt look and sensitive behaviour of controversial front-man Michael Stipe and a more melancholy sound that has been labelled the refuge of a despairing band. Stipe has claimed that Accelerate – true to its title – is in some senses a recovery of lost energy, and a punk-rock inspired attempt to make brisk points (three-minute tracks) and then move on.

As an example

"Turn on the TV, what do I see?/A pageantry of empty gestures all lined up for me, wow." – Man-Sized Wreath

"At the summer camp where you volunteered, no-one saw your face, no-one saw your fear/If that apparition had just appeared, took you up and away from this base and sheer humiliation/ of your teenage station." – Supernatural Superserious

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

Respect for the band's impressive body of work could make the powers that be benevolent toward the veterans, and the punchy comeback feel of Accelerate sounds like a band banging persuasively on the academy door.

What the others say

"It is one of the best records REM. have ever made. Stipe has not sounded this viscerally engaged in his singing and poetically lethal in his writing since the twilight of the Reagan administration." – Rolling Stone

"Welcome to REM's 'new direction', folks. It's the old one, thank goodness! What REM have done (in a mere nine days) is return to their indie roots and made a fast 'n' dirty album that thrills by its very speed." – BBC

So is it any good?

Buying into the 'back to their best' hype of Accelerate means subscribing to the general view of Around the Sun (2004) and Reveal (2001) as a regrettable melancholic hangover. But a faster and louder album is not necessarily a better one. George Bush's prolonged presidency may have riled the band into as much of a raucous rocky rage as the 1980s did, but the 'new direction' may deprive the band of their originality.

Going back to their routes in some ways means going back to the rocky, crowded sound of countless bands and especially their live performance sides. What the group will surely be ultimately remembered for – and what dominated In Time: The Best of REM. 1988-2003 – is the poignant, threadbare pining of Stipe's vulnerable vocal melodies over mandolin, piano and acoustic guitar in moving songs such as Losing My Religion and Everbody Hurts.

Despite the band now disowning the sound of Around the Sun and Reveal, the last album's lead single Leaving New York hits this poignant melancholic note better than anything on Accelerate does. But that is not to say that the new record is poor.

The punky sound of the opening tracks Living Well is The Best Revenge and Man-Sized Wreath feels almost Placebo-like, but the choruses reveal REM's timeless ability to create catchy and agitated climaxes with lyrics abstract enough to make it feel personal but not alienating. Then come Supernatural Serious and Hollow Man, the stand-out tracks that sound unmistakeably purposeful and REM. Lyrics effortlessly embody vulnerability ("You don't have to explain/Humiliation, of the teenage station"), alongside climbing and constantly innovating melodies, joyous chorus harmonies and unselfish electric guitar accompaniment. The best tracks enjoy energy without having to force it through via a barrage of sound.

The same can't be said for the rest of the album, which seems to fly by in stodgy organ-filled and electric-guitar dominated songs. For all their brooding minor-key sounds and angry bluster they seem to lack memorable melodies and rely on overly-familiar chord sequences.

Accelerate confirms that REM's natural musical talent makes them incapable of writing a bad album, but leave's you wondering what new heights they could scale if they managed to fuse the thoughtful and haunting melancholia of Around The Sun with the punchy purpose of Accelerate's early tracks.

7/10

Nick Jacobs