R.E.M. – new album Accelerate review – Return to the dreamtime

R.E.M. has certainly taken definitive steps to attempt to reclaim their position at the center of the mainstream lately. “The little band that could” from Athens that at one point eschewed lipsyncing in videos and blazed trails for everyone from Nirvana to Radiohead has seemingly accepted their own standard classic rock ambitions in the last few years, finally succumbing to inevitability by releasing first a greatest hits compilation, then a live album, and now a new album on which they attempt to recapture the spirit of their earlier, not-utterly-tedious work — you know, getting back to our roots, maaaan. Weird thing is, for once it seems to have worked. Perhaps only the return of original drummer (and best musician in the band) Bill Berry could complete the cycle with the (again inevitable) “once-in-a-lifetime, all-original-members, last-chance-ever-we-promise” reunion tour, but until then Accelerate is a welcome sign of life from a band most had written off as sadly having long-ago fallen off into the “oh yeah, they used to be okay” bin. It’s a bit rushed and overly loud, as if these aging guys trying to recapture their youth recall themselves as punkier and more abrasive than they ever really were, so it’s more a return to the form of Monster than Lifes Rich Pageant — but still far better than anyone had any right to hope. The aura of kudzu mystery the band used to affect so effortlessly has long since dissipated in the glare of the spotlight, but it’s nice to see the R.E.M. that was once a seemingly endless font of catchy, melodic ’60s throwback tunes hasn’t entirely ceased to exist.

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