Accelerate Is Crap - Official
'Return to form' they said, 'recaptures their old magic' they said...'blah blah former glories...' So I dutifully parted with my tenner, hurried quickly back to my hovel and prepared to 'Accelerate', the title filled me with gloom - the cover even more so - but i wasn't going to let that stop me...
Sighs followed - deep sighs and then deeper still until finally the admittance of defeat - WHERE HAVE THE FUCKING TUNES GONE!
Maybe it's the bright lights and the prospect of another massively lucrative jog around the dull grey stadia of the western world? Something must be driving this machine on - I suspect ego (and who can blame them) is at the heart of it, closely followed by the fact that Warners really would like some of that $80 million back, please?
REM could be frolicking happily in the soft dewey paddock of semi-retirement and and no-one would begrudge them that - perhaps a nice little retirement castle in a tax haven of their choice, enjoying the odd spot of producing or collaborating with less stellar chums and generally living the quiet, dignified existence they've rightly earned. They have indeed 'done their time'. Peter Buck seems to have almost got the hang of it, doing the indie shuffle with the likes of Robyn Hitchcock and other even more eclectic and under-appreciated types whereas Stipe and Mills... well I think Mike likes to play golf doesn't he?
For years REM were my favourite group - a majesterial command of the americana-soaked pop tune, the jangle and harmony of the Byrds, the art-rock stylings of The Velvet Underground and Patti Smith, the influences were never that well disguised but somehow, like all truly great bands, they transcended them all and created their own beautiful little universe - and that voice, what a voice - hitting an amazingly purple patch around Green and Automatic (Out Of Time is strangely inconsistent) and the momentum created by the 6 wonderful albums that preceeded it provided the inevitable tipping point that allowed Losing My Religion to take them into the Big Leagues. Job done. Then what? A couple of OK records (bitterly disappointing at the time but following Automatic was never going to be easy) Monster - coasting at best, 2 or 3 good songs (Kenneth, Crush With Eyeliner) but no great ones, New Adventures in Hi-Fi - similarly water-treading, again a couple of decent songs (You & Me, Bittersweet Me, Undertow)...and...?
Well, if you're Bill Berry, a near-death experience followed by swift re-appraisal of the important things in life - like being alive - a graceful retreat to the countryside and a doormat-troublingly heavy PRS check every 3 months and a quiet life, smart chap.
If you're the other 3? Up - very dull apart form the wonderful Daysleeper (their last great tune), Reveal - bad to worse, Around The Sun - irredeemably awful drivel. Each accompanied by increasingly desperate and ludicrous press statements that the band were 'back to their best' and, 'not to worry, they know the last one wasn't up to much but THIS one is a good 'un, honest.' Surprising numbers of journalists seemed to be initially duped on Reveal - a couple of spins revealed (sorry) the truth. One time around was enough on Around The Sun and, god knows, what a long and tedious orbit it was too.
And then Accelerate. Somehow Accelerate is even worse. It's the sound of people trying to recapture something that is no longer there. At least with their previous 3 Berry-free efforts they had the good grace to sound like they didn't know what to do and particularly in Peter Buck's case, couldn't be arsed anymore. This record is a desperate thrashing beast that can't swim but takes a good 34 minutes to drown.
So, I just fell for it for the last time - sorry lads, shows over. The fire has well and truly gone out now. Accelerate is crap.Take a bow and please please please stop cos it's making me sad - and worse still, it's spoiling the old good stuff which is really unforgiveable.
Carwash Castenada
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please make them stop
or at least sit down a listen to what a great band they used to be, I can't stand it any longer.
Unfortunatley...
it is rather crap. For my money the best band of the 80's and early 90's are scuffling around for tunes, hawking sub standard product!
Stipe used to hide behind his long hair...
because he was shy and enigmatic, now he hides behind layers of face paint because deep down he knows R.E.M. are extremely average these days. Shame.
Yes
I buy each and every REM album out of some forlorn sense of completism, but I gave up on them years ago, and can't actually bring myself to listen to this one, as I know it can only bring disappointment.
As for Stipey's make-up, he looks like one of those dreadful Covent Garden street performers... throw ten pence in the bag at his feet and he'll jerk into life, give you 15 seconds of Finest Worksong, then stutter to a halt, awaiting the next small child with a coin.
I genuinely wish they'd call it quits.
I managed to blag my way into...
the Bingo Hand Job gig at The Borderline back in 1991, when R.E.M. were on the verge of going stratospheric. In the mid-afternoon a van pulled up outside the venue and out got Stipe. He came over to the fans who were waiting, sat down on the pavement and spent 5 minutes chatting away. That gesture, and that gig, is how I will always remember R.E.M.
I have to beg to differ.
I put Around The Sun on ebay after about 3 plays. It was very poor, but Accelerate isn't. There is a real energy about it AND memorable hooks. I would say all the rave reviews are pretty much on the button.
As for Up, it was far too long but it did at least contain Daysleeper, At My Most Beautiful, and Walk Unafraid.
And most of Reveal was excellent, all those gorgeous harmonies, and it included Imitation of Life, IMO one of the best things they've ever done.
What he said
I'm with Johan on this.
Give Em' A Break
I agree, Reveal was a good album and "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" was brilliant. I think REM are getting a bit of a hard time here. "Accelerate" isn't a masterpiece I agree, it has been over-hyped by the press, but at least they sound like a band again and the energy levels have returned. It's better than Oasis's last album anway. (Waits for torrent of abuse)
I like it
It's a very good album to my ears. I've played it maybe 20 times, but I liked it instantly.
Speaking as a neutral
If I live to be 134 I'll never consciously choose to play an REM album, but I've heard them all a lot over the years because I have friends, who I spend quite a bit of time with, who listen to practically nothing else. Although I wouldn't choose to play them I certainly don't mind them and, the point here is, I haven't particularly noticed a drop in standard over the years. They all sound pretty much the same to me. I wonder if groups' "purple patches" followed by disappointing decline are more in the eye of the beholder; that nothing a group does can match the impact they had when you first fell in love with them. Paul Weller kicked off his Teenage Cancer Trust acoustic spot the other day with a song called Savages which I really liked and presumed was either a newie or a cover. Turned out it was on his last album which I'd dismissed as tedious rubbish after one listen.
Interesting statement
Put your MP3 player on random and you'll discover great stuff you'd previously dismissed as crap. This happens all the time and is one of the advantages of living in the MP3 age. For example; a piece of album filler called "Koko" by Goldfrapp on the Supernature album came up on random. I loved it and was surprised to find that it was a song I had absolutely no memory of even though I've listened to that album about 20 times! It's now the highlight of the album for me (it's the song were she coos "Soon be nothing, of this world").
Anyone discovered any amazing album filler, or had a terrible album suddenly revealed to be a work of genius?
To me
REM also seem remarkably consistent (consistently good I would say - I am not a massive fan, but I like a lot of what they have done). I don't see Automatic for People as somehow far above the rest of their oeuvre. I wouldn't say the same for other bands and their so-called declines after purpleness though - see elsewhere and the mysterious loss of The Stones mojo, definitely not just in the eye of the beholder in that case. I do agree though that often there is an excessive exaggeration of the best and the worst up and down respectively.
Anybody else
share my view that they were always solid citizens of Dullsville USA?
Nope!
Murmur, dull? I thought it was a breath of fresh air. Perhaps it helped that it came out when radio was full of the Thompson Twins and Duran Duran, but it still sounds like a great album to me.
Likewise Reckoning, Automatic, New Adventures, to name just my personal favourites.
Seconded
The first five or six albums are all corkers. They ran out of steam, to my ears, around Automatic, and have been in a holding pattern ever since.
REM are my Beatles
They are my number one band. Yes their form dipped on the last two but even they have some crackers on them. Up and New Adventures.. are massively underrated.
And I like Accelerate actually - clearly not their best album but there are 2 very high points, namely 'Horse to Water' and 'Until the day is done' and there are no skip-immediately songs. I don't rely on them like I used to but they are still the best band of my lifetime.
i can't get 'Mansized wreath' out of my head either
it's as catchy as they've done in ages. It's almost an electric 'Find the River' in that you've got the Mike Mills BV almost as strong as the melody and it's great.
Some of the album might be a little 'garage rock by numbers' but hell, i'm not feeling ripped off. I don't expect another Green from REM, another Behaviour from Pet Shop Boys or another Exile from the Stones.
The imperial phase for so many acts has passed; how the hell can you expect *any* (in the case of REM) band approaching their fifties to produce something like the college radio storming early stuff?
Ah...
just me then.
No
I agreed, but I was scared off by the sudden rush of defenders.
I've tried to like REM, but there are plenty of other bands I could spend a much more fruitful time in the company of. They've got some good tunes, but their albums pass me right by. Except for 'Around The Sun', which filled me with an incandescent rage, so woefully dull was its content.
Expectations...
Am I alone in thinking that people's expectations around new albums are too high? Most people who buy the REM album want a bunch of decent songs that sound like REM which might bring a little joy to their day. The new one does that. Move on. If you want innovation or a new fresh sound you should go for a young band with nothing to lose and everything to again. Should we be dissapointed if the next Ian Rankin book is a crime story set in Scotland with a grumpy detective in the lead or should we demand his take on 'Ulysses'? Gimme the dour cop any day of the week.
If I never hear from Rebus again
I'll be reeling into the Oxford Bar in person to demand the reason why.
Working backwards
Around The Sun I took back to the shop. Reveal I gave away, feeling thoroughly cheated apart from the wonderful Beat A Drum. But I have to declare this: Up is a wonderful record in every sense, and New Adventures in Hi-Fi is one of the best albums of that decade.
Monster's poor. I'll give you that.
Agree
Lucas, spot on re: Up and Hi-Fi.
Reveal is worse than Around the Sun, though both are terribly produced , the songs sounded much more "alive" when played live.
I'm really enjoying Accelerator so far, early days yet though........
Favourites / Back-To-Basics
They're one of my all time favourite bands...but I agree Reveal and Around The Sun aren't up to their best. They both have some great songs on them ("I'll Take The Rain" and "I Wanted To Be Wrong" are my highlights) and you could probably make one great album from the 2. Up is better but it doesn't quite flow right (there are better songs on it than Daysleeper by the way). I like the new one but it's too soon for me to compare to records I've been living with for years.
Going further back though, my favourite R.E.M. albums are Reckoning, Life's Rich Pageant and New Adventures In Hi Fi. Green is probably up there too. I like Automatic For The People a lot, but I don't see it as some kind of benchmark like so many people do. Like most albums in which the singles become over familiar, it's now hard to give Automatic a proper listen without skipping Everybody Hurts, but I've always preferred they're rawer guitar-bass-drums sound anyway. When U2 did All That You Can't Leave Behind it sounded to me like they'd given up on something, ran out of ideas. With R.E.M. this time it sounds to me like they've got more energy again. This is a good thing.
Pleasantly surprised to read.....
...praise.
Sometimes it seems as if we are all entrenched in a prejudice that old is good and new is bad. The critics with their ususal "pile 'em high, so the fall is the more journalistically valid" approach we have come to expect helps not a little. There is a mythology about early REM, Stones, U2, Van, Dylan that it all consists of unadulterated brilliance, with then an inevitable decline and dwindle, always perceived as a result of ego and excess. My memory, and an old man speaks, is that the early LPs do indeed contain a lot of sparky stuff. And a lot of clunkers. We are looking thru' rose tinted spectacles at a cherry picking of the back catalogues, conveniently forgetting the duffers that sink away from memory, unplayed by public demand. I love the first 5 REM releases, but I like them best on the IRS best of, as this misses the dodgy ones. (Hint: there are several early years best of's, of which you have to make sure that it is the one with Green Grow the Rushes).Green was the first LP I bought of theirs, and for every World Leader Pretend there are some awful claptrappers. Their later very popular period is fine, but no LP is unadulteratedly good. And Monster onward has always several good 'uns, maybe for varying reasons. I especially echo the earlier comments about the glorious harmony vocals on Reveal.
I confess I didn't bother with the last but one release, having felt I had too much REM, and it didn't glow live, but I like what I have so far heard from Accelerate and, if anything, am more encouraged to buy it after all the damning of it I read here,albeit leavened by the aforesaid praise
REM - different strokes for different folks
What I have noticed on this discussion is that there are so many opinions of favourite tracks within either 'great' or 'disappointing' REM albums. Just shows that they still have it I reckon.
I don't particularly rate World Leader Pretend, I Wanted To Be Wrong, Walk Unafraid, Imitation of Life, You & Me, Bittersweet Me, Undertow, Crush With Eyeliner....yet these have all been highlighted above as standouts.
And no-one's mentioned New Test Leper, Be Mine, A Sad Professor, Falls to Climb, Why Not Smile, Final Straw - IMO magnificent songs from their later work.
Spot on
I'd add "Chorus & the Ring", "Parakeet", "Hope", "How the West was won and where it got us" and "Wake-up bomb" to the list of latter day belters as well. Agree wholeheartedly to your sentiments, amongst the mud there's a good few diamonds.
You and Mine?
I think 'You and Me' and 'Be Mine' are the same song aren't they (the correct title is 'Be Mine')? 'I'll Take The Rain' and 'Ascent of Man' are great recent tracks too.
If this is a best REM songlist.....
Top 5:
1. Let me in : Monolithic wall of anguished sound. Makes me cry(!)
2. At my most beautiful : Consummate songcraft, glorious vocals
3. Green grow the rushes : Simple and effective placement placement.
4. World leader pretend : Auditory evocations of the mindset of Kurtz in Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse now, the horror, the horror
5. Country feedback : but preferably the Live from London version with B.J. Cole on pedal steel. More anguish.
This should be a new blog header
Quiet R.e.m. top 5
1. Perfect Circle
2. Nightswimming
3. You Are The Everything
4. At My Most Beautiful
5. Electrolite
Noisy R.e.m. top 5
1. Begin The Begin
2. It's The End of the world as we know it
3. Exhuming McCarthy
4. What's the frequency Kenneth?
5. These Days
But
I have to champion two songs that no one ever mentions.
Noisy: Leave from New Adventures in Hi Fi
Quiet: Find The River from Automatic For The People
ooh ooh ooh, sir, sir, sir..
i mentioned 'find the river'...
No one
Apart from the great and the good of this parish...
My theory ... in that it belongs to me <ahem!>
As soon as I hear a band declare they have "decided to get back to the basics of doing what we're best at" for their latest album, I ready myself for huge dose of disappointment. It basically means that their last couple of albums - where they tried to stretch out their sonic palette and try something a bit different - haven't sold as well as the previous few, and their stock has fallen.
So they gird their loins and get back to their "classic" sound. This is greeted with great enthusiasm by media and public. But face it:
- Accelerate is no Murmer
- All You Can't Leave Behind is no Joshua Tree
- Reality is no Ziggy Stardust
Give me an Up, Zooropa or 1.Outside over a 'return to classic REM/U2/Bowie'. Give me a partially successful "brave experiment" (give or take Metal Machine Music) over an attempt to sound like former glories any day.
But I wanted to like it...
I never said I wanted REM to make an album that was innovative or ground-breaking, I just wanted what Murmer gave me the first time I played it - goosebumps.
It's always been about the tunes for me and they simply aren't there any more - quiet, loud, introspective or bold and brash - it makes no difference, they are/were a song band - take that away and you're left with quite a dull, pedestrian rock band. And I'm a huge fan!
Fair call on New Test Leper, I forgot that one. It has the most gorgeous melody and is a truly lovely thing. It would stick out like a sore thumb on any of the last 3 albums, that's for sure.
Accelerate is brilliant!
This is by far the best REM album in many years, a true return to form. So many fans of rock music wish for things that are no longer possible, you get Murmur just once and Accelerate is something new and just as good if you take your musical snobbery and shove it back in the draw where it belongs. There are many good songs on this album and while not perfect it provides us all with our good fill of REM for a little while longer, now for the tour!
No it isn't
Musical snobbery?? Yes, you're right. What we should do is praise bands for being able to sustain a long career by releasing increasingly poor, distinctly below par music - we wouldn't want to demand that EVERY cd we buy is brilliant. After all, a not-very-good album is a breath of fresh air between great ones, eh?
I didn't say I wanted another Murmer - I wanted the songs to sound as exciting and beautiful and captivating - and they don't - Murmer just indicates what they used to be capable of and no longer are.
In what way is Accelerate 'just as good'?
Have fun at whatever concrete barn you go and see them in - don't forget your binoculars and 25 quid for your ethically sourced cotton t-shirt. I'm sure it will be very moving.
Opinions are NOT OFFICIAL
Having lived with Accelerate for a bit longer, I'm happy to report I think it's excellent. That is my opinion.
Carwash - anyone who adds "it's official" to their opinion as if this in now fact is not likely seen as anything other than a musical snob.
I think the comparisons with Murmer are interesting, but not really based in the album itself. Murmer means a lot to people and rightly so, I think it's a great album. However, the effect you say it had on you when you first played it is going to colour your view. If you were new to R.E.M. and had not heard Murmer or Accelerate before, I don't think you would absolutely cherish one whilst completely disregarding the other.
Yes I'm a snob - official
I'm thoroughly happy to be perceived as a musical snob - yes, I'm very demanding about what I shell out my beans for - and no, it's not a great record.
I too have had a chance to re-visit it in recent weeks since my entirely 'unofficial' review and after more investigation I stand by every word I wrote - it's not very good.
You're right - of course it's impossible to disassociate a band's new album with their past work but I'd never heard them play a note (or even heard of them) before I heard Murmer and I was captivated by it's simple melodies, strange lyrics and musical naivety.
Accelerate is by turns cumbersome, clunky and prone to lyrical lapses of such embarrassing dimensions that it's almost an insult to compare the two. Murmer had charm and grace where Accelerate has... 'tonight I'm gonna DJ to the end of the woooooooorld'.
Enough already - unofficial.