Yes, the rumours are true: R.E.M. are back on top form (Accelerate - R.E.M.)

Member Name: Wezzo

Product:	Accelerate - R.E.M.
Date:	04/04/08 (218 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality material through and through

Disadvantages: None, although some may think just 34 minutes of music is poor value

"Back on form", they say. "Miles better than 'Around the Sun'." "R.E.M. are rocking harder than they have since 'Monster'." There's no doubt that R.E.M.'s latest has been hailed by pretty much every reputable music review source as a real improvement on their last few albums, but can we really believe the hype? Q gave "Reveal" five stars upon release yet seven years on it's generally considered among the band's weakest efforts.

But trust me, there is no such confusion over "Accelerate". The reviews are right, the band are back on form, and the music world can breathe a collective sigh of relief that those elder statesmen of rock certainly aren't dead yet. Not even close. "Accelerate" rocks like "Begin the Begin", like "Bang and Blame", like "It's The End of the World As We Know It". It rocks like R.E.M. should.

They don't pussyfoot about this new-found (or re-found?) focus on the heavy, though - opening track "Living Well Is The Best Revenge" propels us straight into arena rock territory. Stipe sounds as fierce as he ever has as he belts out a damning appraisal of the Bush administration (the first of many on the album, to no-one's great surprise). "The future's ours, and you don't even rate a footnote, no!", he shouts. It's driving rock of the kind we haven't seen since the mid-'90s, pre-Bill Berry's departure; finally, in Bill Rieflin, they have found a drummer who at the very least means the listener doesn't miss the original Bill. The song propels along at a hundred miles an hour for the entirety of its three-minute length. It's the best R.E.M. album opener in a fair old while.

Things don't let up with album highlight "Man-Sized Wreath", another rocker - vaguely reminiscent of both "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" and "Imitation of Life", but faster than both - which is home to one of R.E.M.'s finest choruses - ever. Listen to it a couple of times and tell me you aren't calling out "throw it on the fire! / Throw it in the air! / Kick it out on the dancefloor like you just don't care!" along with Stipe. And what's that I hear -- a Mike Mills harmony?! That's right, folks, the cornerstone of R.E.M. conspicuously absent on the group's past few albums is back and better than ever. Add a funky Buck riff, some near-subliminal backing vocals in the chorus, and the hilariously venemous line "Nature abhors a vacuum but what's between your ears?" and you've got one damn solid song.

First single "Supernatural Superserious" concludes the album's opening triumvirate of rockers. Some have claimed it's R.E.M.-by-numbers, and to some extent they may have a point, but it's still undeniably irresistible, another in the line of what Matthew Perpetua of Pop Songs 08 likes to call the "Michael Stipe Pep Talk". The closing chant of "inexperience, sweet, delirious, supernatural, superserious, wow" is fantastic.

Track 4, "Hollow Man", at first appears to be some kind of melancholy ballad. But as the chorus begins the band kick into high gear once again as Michael's melancholy veers into desperation ("believe in me, believe in nothing .. have I become the hollow man?"). The slow-fast switcheroo continues throughout the song, meaning that four tracks in we still haven't had a ballad! Yes, this is the band behind "Around the Sun", which didn't have four up-tempo tunes on the whole damn album. Unbelievable really, isn't it?

"Houston" finally puts the more atmospheric side of the band on display, though at a jaw-droppingly short 2:05, it doesn't even have a chance at becoming any kind of snoozefest. Indeed, even though it's considerably slower than the first four songs, the chorus still soars, as Stipe does his best to recognise that there's more to Texas than George Bush ("Galveston sings like that song that I love, its meaning has not been erased").

Title track "Accelerate" follows, and we're back into full-on rock, if marginally less appealing than the earlier rockers. Nonetheless it's a solid tune, with some real driving drums and a lyrical ethos that sums up the album's overall attitude: "I've got to fall in another direction / Accelerate". "Until The Day Is Done", the first song on the set to clock in at over four minutes, returns us to the more melancholy side of R.E.M., and it's probably the only track here than could easily slot into "Around the Sun". It's certainly not bad but it's perhaps the most forgettable track here.

"Mr. Richards" gets us right back on track, though. Vaguely hypntoic, a little bit Simon and Garfunkel and a whole lot of fuzzy guitar, it's very memorable and the repeated refrain of "we know what's going on" will burn its way into your mind after just a listen or two. A couple of reviews I've seen say this is about Michael Richards' (Kramer from Seinfeld) racist outburst at a club back in 2006; that could be the case, but I'm not convinced he would be at the forefront of the band's criticism when the majority of the album is preoccupied with more general distaste for the Republican administration. Either way, though, it's another highlight.

"Sing for the Submarine" is the album's most surprising song, a meta-referencing wandering valley of metaphor, "electron blue" and "crazed" confessions. Namechecking past glories such as "Feeling Gravity's Pull" and "It's The End of the World.." its narrative isn't really clear but the "it's all here where I keep it / it's all in the submarine" chorus is pretty cool and reminiscent of "Reveal"'s finer moments.

"Horse to Water", the album's penultimate, is another standout. Absurdly fast, Stipe is almost tripping over his words as she powers through two minutes of fast-paced punk-pop (and the first use of the f-word on an R.E.M. studio album since 1994's "What's the Frequency Kenneth": "Friday night, f**k or fight, a pub crawl", Michael breathlessly spits.)

Closer "I'm Gonna DJ", a 21st-Century "It's The End of the World..", is surprising but hilarious in its reaction to impending apocalypse: "Death is pretty final / I'm collecting vinyl / I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world!". It's yet another short-but-packed all-out rocker, ending the album on fine form and its final line is rather appropriate: "music will provide the light you cannot resist, yeah!"

Pretty much every review of the album mentions its comparative brevity; and who am I to break tradition. The album is a terse 34 minutes long, its eleven tracks averaging barely three minutes a piece. This compares with 50-odd minutes for "Around the Sun" and "Reveal", and 60+ for "up" and "New Adventures". Cynics might suggest we're getting less bang for our buck this time round, but the last thing we wanted was 70 minutes of droning ballads and never-ending dirges. It may only be half-an-hour but it's half-an-hour of genuine quality.

The CD comes in three forms: digipack (cardboard slipcase basically), standard (typical plastic CD case), and deluxe (in a DVD case with a hand-bound lyrics book and bonus DVD).

The lyrics book is useful and is filled with hand-drawn logos and pictures, a nice treat for hardcore fans. The bonus DVD is also cool: a 46-minute indie film following the bad recording and performing in Dublin last year, though admittedly around a third of the running time is arty mood shots, which may not be to everyone's taste. The DVD is also home to two solid B-sides - "Airliner", a surf-rock instrumental similar to "White Tornado"; and the upbeat "Red Head Walking". (If you stick the DVD in your computer you'll find MP3s of those songs lurking there too, a nice and useful touch).

The standard versions can be found for about £8-9 each online. The deluxe is currently £11.99 at Play.com, which seems to be the best offer around.

Summary: R.E.M.'s best in many years