Accelerate

The Best band out of the Athens,Ga. scene is by far R.E.M. No disrespect towards The B52's,Pylon or Love Tractor, but even they know it's true. I have been a fan since the early 80's and think I qualify to review this album. I am not obsessed with R.E.M. and have an EXTENSIVE CD collection, so that I am not listening to any one band or style as some others might.

I would find myself in the group who would declare that the last truly GREAT R.E.M, albums were "Monster" and "New Adventures In Hi-Fi", But unlike those that totally trash albums like "Up","Reveal" and "Around The Sun"' I simply think those were weaker efforts. The remaining three members tried various things scaled back the rockers in favor of lower key and more arranged song structure. Some of the stuff off these 3 albums is great, but as a whole each album was not in the same league as anything they did when they were a quartet.

It is with great pleasure that I announce that this is the best stuff they have done since Bill Berry retired. The album has solid rockers and a couple of low key songs. If you are a TRUE R.E.M. fan you have likely all ready bought this album and this review is a waste for you. If however you are casual fan disappointed by recent albums and want something closer to the days of "Monster", plop down your cash because here it is.

I am bewildered by some of the people who have given this album a poor review. These are likely the people who screamed loudly for an album in the vain of "Monster" and then they are given one and they trash it.

DON'T LISTEN TO THEM!! This album will bring you back to the R.E.M. faithful. Currently my favorite tracks are the title track and "Man Size Wreath", however the album is solid enough that I will likely jump around on favorite tracks.

I gave this album five stars and while I don't think it is quite worthy of five, it is a solid 4 maybe 4.5 I gave it five because of the clueless wonders who gave it poor reviews. There needs to be some of us who add some balance in the world. Is this their best work?? No. Is this a great album?? HELL YEA!!!!

Below is my original Review, I have to admit I only listned a couple of times. What turned it for me was hearing the stuff live on Austin City limits and I got a copy or the Stubbs shows at SXSW. This CD reminds me of a better version of Document with a couple of songs sprinkled from Reconing, Fables and Pagent. Ignore those giving this 1 or 2 stars. They are not paying attention. Great Album, I will be enjoying it all summer.

After reading the reviews early on Amazon I bought the new CD. I have all of R.E.M's studio releases and on first listen I liked a couple but further listening something really bothered me. I never liked Monster. It was like what a waste of guitar and it was a revertion back to Murmer, probably my least favorite R.E.M. CD. As other reviewers have pointed out there is a wall of sound. Heavy distortion on the guitar. What is the point? Play guitar Peter. We know you can. I do have to admit I like some of the cuts but when I'm making a mix CD of R.E.M. I start with Automatic and Out of Time and move backwards. I really have not listened to anything regular since Monster. Also something happened to Stipes voice. I don't know if he blew it out or what but he sings nothing like he did in the hey day. Just search up on YouTube for later stuff and you will hear what I am saying. I've been saying for the last 4 CD's that it will be the last one but I'm still holding out hope that there will be another Reconing or Fables or Document or Lifes Rich Pagent and heres hoping the next one will be better

I don't understand how any serious fan can give this any more than 3 stars tops. I've seen this compared to Monster which has been my favorite since 1994 so I guess I got my hopes up too high. Only about 3 good songs, the rest is mediocre at best.

I have listened to this album a dozen times and have enjoyed it immensely. Best album from REM in a very long time.

'Accelerate' is the album where R.E.M. attempt to stop the rot and put a halt to a run of shockingly bad albums. They succeed, mostly. It's good to hear them sound somewhat fired up again and there are a few songs here (mainly 'Mr Richards', 'Man-Sized Wreath', 'Sing for the Submarine', 'Horse to Water' and 'Living Well is the Best Revenge' that are R.E.M.'s strongest compositions for several years.
Unfortunately, the fact remains that R.E.M. are WAY past their best. 'Automatic' is their last classic and this doesn't come close to that, and these songs are aeons away from the brilliance they achieved on their first four albums. 'Supernatural Superserious' and 'Hollow Man' are bland rockers with no new ideas whatsoever, 'I'm Gonna DJ' is just downright bad, 'Houston' too ponderous... about half of this album is R.E.M. trying to imitate their old albums, but these songs are simply less inspired.
Nevertheless, this is still a fairly satisfying listen and the best songs on 'Accelerate' at least show they aren't completely washed up yet.