What?: Slightly popular R.E.M.'s 14th, and second to last, album.
Why?: I was late to the R.E.M. party, not joining until the singer of my band got me into "Reveal" in 2001. I slowly, and reluctantly, built up my collection until I had all their albums. I'd say "Accelerate" would be the first R.E.M. album I was actively excited about and bought on its release.
Tell me more!:
I really didn't think much of "Around the Sun" (the previous album) but I love "Accelerate".
The whole album is a rocking, aggressive version of R.E.M. that I'd really been missing. The songs are riffy, melodic, short and to the point.
The story goes that the band previewed many tracks from the album at a residency in Ireland. The whole album does have a strong live feel and I imagine them all working well in that context.
Unusually for me I like the turn-it-up-loud production, although I think it's been used to good effect on songs like "Houston" when the keys, acoustic, drums all deliberately distort, adding to their power, and live feel.
I'm not a big fan of "Man Sized Wreath", it's a bit of a mess, and I don't like the "just don't care" lyric. I like the held vocal note at the end though, and how it kicks into "Supernatural Superserious". The final track ("I'm Gonna DJ") is a bit rough too... although I like how the album ends so suddenly with a big final "yeah".
Listening now I just want to pick up a guitar and play along! It's a rare album that can make me do that, especially one that is mainly "chord riffs" as I call them (riffs made up of string picking within a chord strum, as opposed to say palm muted metal riffs). It's the kind of guitaring I used to do in my band, and I miss it. It almost tempts me to take up a friend's offer of starting an R.E.M. cover band... buy why add to the pile?
7/10
