Hollow Fans
Posted on | April 17, 2008 at 7:14 am | Comments Off
I finally got a chance to listen to the new R.E.M. album Accelerate in its entirety. I’ve only listened to the whole thing once so far, but I have to say it’s their best since… oh… Out of Time. (I’m not a fan of Automatic for the People – it puts me to sleep.)
What gets me is all these fans who are saying, “Yeah, it’s kind of a return to form, but it really peters out after the first three songs.” Huh? It’s chock full of good songs. Yeah, those first three are really good (especially “Man-Sized Wreath”), but I would put the title song “Accelerate” right up there with them. It does start to drag a little bit in the second half, and there’s maybe one too many waltzes, but…
My God! The energy is back! The band is playing like they’re excited! The hooks and melodies and background vocals are back! I kept noticing little things, like those guitar bursts on “Houston” and the interesting bass playing on “Sing for the Submarine”. I never thought I’d get excited about an R.E.M. album again, especially after After The Sun. Their last “rock” album, Monster, was pretty tedious – all the songs sounded the same and lacked hooks. That’s not a problem here. This is getting me moving.
Best of all, the album works as a whole and I can’t see myself skipping over tracks (yet). It was really good decision to keep the album short – 11 songs in 35 minutes. If there were any padding like there has been on their longer albums, my reaction wouldn’t be as favorable.
Good going guys, you actually sound like a band again. I hope it’s not just a one-off.
Latre.