Album Title
R.E.M.
Artist Icon Accelerate (2008)
heart off icon (0 users)
Last IconTransparent icon Next icon

Transparent Block
Cover NOT yet available in 4k icon
Join Patreon for 4K upload/download access


Your Rating (Click a star below)

Star off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off icon


Star IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon off
Star IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon off
Star IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar Icon offStar Icon off
Star IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon off
Star IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon off
Star IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon offStar Icon off

3:10
2:31
3:23
2:39
2:04
3:33

Data Complete
percentage bar 80%

Total Rating

Star Icon (4 users)

Back Cover
Transparent Block

CD Art
CDart Artwork

3D Case
Album 3D Case

3D Thumb
Album 3D Thumb

3D Flat
Album 3D Flat

3D Face
Album 3D Face

3D Spine
Transparent Icon

First Released

Calendar Icon 2008

Genre

Genre Icon Pop-Rock

Mood

Mood Icon Moody

Style

Style Icon Rock/Pop

Theme

Theme Icon ---

Tempo

Speed Icon ---

Release Format

Release Format Icon Album

Record Label Release

Speed Icon Warner Bros. Records

World Sales Figure

Sales Icon 0 copies

Album Description
Available in:
Accelerate is the 14th studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on March 31, 2008 in Europe, and on April 1 in North America. Produced with Jacknife Lee, Accelerate was intended as a departure from the 2004 album Around the Sun. R.E.M. previewed several of the album's tracks during a five-night residency at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and recorded the album in a nine-week schedule.
wiki icon


User Album Review
Welcome to REM's 'new direction', folks. It's the old one, thank goodness! Eleven years after Bill Berry's departure from the drum stool it's finally ok for the band to admit that things haven't been too rosy on the communications front. The decision to soldier on was, they say, brave but maybe misguided, especially when it led to the stylistic dilettantism of albums like Up or the frankly moribund Around The Sun. But those who thought that the hiring of Jacknife Lee as producer (Bloc Party, Editors) might lead to another radical re-think will be disappointed. For what REM have done (in a mere nine days) is return to their indie roots and made a fast 'n' dirty album that thrills by its very speed. An apt title, indeed…

The opening chords of opener, Living Well Is The Best Revenge lets you know. Back are the wailing backing vocals of Mike Mills, the chiming D chords and drones of Peter Buck and some of the most impassioned singing that Stipe has laid down in eons. In interviews the band revealed that they'd slashed anything that wasn't instantly appealing. The results are a spartan 35-minute romp through the things that made us love them way back in the mid-80s. Viz: the punk thrash of hilarious closer, I'm Gonna DJ, which comes on like a cousin to End Of The World As We Know It. In fact the only downside of Accelerate is the album's tendency to recall too many of the band's best earlier moments. The folk waltz of Houston could come from their classic Out Of Time mid-period. Man-Sized Wreath could be from Green, such is the infectiousness of its chorus. The title track is just classic REM in any era. Yet when you get to the middle of Sing For the Submarine you realise that 20 years ago they couldn't have taken a song and lifted it so monumentally by sheer force of dynamics. So there's still progress of sorts.

Stipe's lyrics are as politically sharp as ever, with the aforementioned Houston's lyrics dealing with Hurricane Katrina (''if the storm doesn't kill me the government will'') but so often the whoops and hollers mean far more than the more jaded worldview. For, this late in the day, REM have begun to act like a band again. We should be thankful, and not a little amazed...


External Album Reviews
None...



User Comments
seperator
No comments yet...
seperator

Status
Locked icon unlocked

Rank:

External Links
MusicBrainz Large icontransparent block Amazon Large icontransparent block Metacritic Large Icon