R.E.M. is one of those bands that is often mentioned in passing while discussing 1980s new wave music or dropped by the insecure as a hint that they have good taste. But in the new millennium, how many people can actually name an R.E.M. song, let alone an album? The answer, unfortunately, is fewer than one might think.
R.E.M.'s 14th studio release, "Accelerate," makes up for the lackluster late-'90s albums the band produced after the departure of drummer and founding member Bill Berry, who, strangely enough, took up farming as an alternative to drumming.
The albums made in the wake of Berry's departure - namely "Up" (1998), "Reveal" (2001) and "Around the Sun" (2004) - saw the band's members becoming overindulgent in the dreary, depressed state that they had become accustomed to with hits such as "Losing My Religion." While some of the tracks were certainly more upbeat and energetic than others, none caught on with the public (or R.E.M. fans), and the albums quickly faded into oblivion.
"Accelerate" more than makes up for the band's previous false starts, or, in this case, re-starts. The opening track, "Living Well is the Best Revenge," kicks off the album with renewed energy, an obvious change from the band's despondent course. It becomes clear very quickly that lead singer Michael Stipe has grown more comfortable with his position in life, sounding more self-assured than ever.
"Living Well is the Best Revenge" is injected with the same energy - and surprisingly enough, anger - that made "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" an instant hit with disenchanted early-'90s youth. The song opens, "It's only when your poison spins into the life you'd hoped to live/ and suddenly you wake up in a shaken panic," suggesting that Stipe has finally come out of the shell he should have shed long ago.
Stipe's storytelling is still in fine form as well, as is best displayed in the album's first single, "Supernatural Superserious." While the song's choruses are vaguely reminiscent of a '60s British Invasion hit, the rambling bass line from Mike Mills suggests that there's more at work than a simple pop recipe. The lyrics deal with the anger and sadness that accompany the common teenage youth, building up to the declaration that life is "An experience/ Sweet, delirious/ Supernatural, superserious."
The title track, which falls in the middle of the album, is another up-tempo rock standard. Guitarist Peter Buck starts the song with a strange array of discordant guitar noise, but he quickly brings the melody back with the entrance of Stipe's talking-in-tune vocals. The bouncy drum part helps push the piece forward with a dance-like urgency that is accompanied well by Mills' sliding yet steady bass line.
Stipe's subject matter is not completely explicit in its intentions, but most of the songs on the album can be related to his personal struggles with success and image, or similarly, those of the band. In the track "Accelerate," Stipe throws away his regrets by saying, "No time to question the choices I make/ I've got to fall in another direction/ Accelerate."
The song "Horse to Water" brings the band back to post-punk in the most literal temporal sense, beginning with a rapid Ramones-esque drumbeat from Bill Rieflin, the band's touring/studio drummer. Again, Stipe's vocals take the fore, as his distortion-laden voice declares: "You stumble on glass top table/ TV's chewing shock-gone cable/ Pump me up a beanstalk fable/ And I'll call this entertainment/ 'cause Humpty's falling down."
