"I said, 'Guys, I'm too old to spend nine months doing something I don't want to do, making work I'm not proud of,'" Buck said. Stipe said: "It was a very important moment for us. We decided to do something that was really raw, immediate, unrehearsed - basically, gut and instinctual. And we chose the most obvious thing, which is to write really fast songs and record them in a really fast way." Recorded in a matter of weeks rather than months, with 11 songs totaling less than 35 minutes, Accelerate is a steady blast of short, sharp rockers, a breathless tumble of hooks and harmonies. The album is reminiscent of REM favorites like Lifes Rich Pageant and Document, from the mid-1980s era when the band managed the feat of being both cool and popular, but it avoids the feel of nostalgia.
Stipe's signature obscure lyrics are more focused and penetrating on Accelerate. In conversation Stipe, who has devoted as much attention to activism as to performing in recent years, retained his mysterious aura, veering from pragmatic political analysis to elaborate science-fiction metaphors and offhanded remarks about his depressions and insecurities.
REM is promoting Accelerate with the energy of a young band, using strategies like posting a series of 90 one-minute video clips on the group's Web site. The official premiere of Accelerate will take place on Facebook.
"REM have been pretty savvy about the new music distribution model," said Scott Lapatine, founder and editor in chief of the music blog Stereogum.com.
Buck bristles a bit that Accelerate is being widely greeted as a comeback album. "I don't feel like this is a return to form so much as this is the level we work at generally," he said. "Of the 14 records we've made, I think 12 of them are pretty close to this."
A return to REM's classic sound may not be enough to attract new listeners. Aaron Axelsen, music director of Live 105 in San Francisco, said his station played Supernatural Superserious, the first single from Accelerate, about 50 times before dropping it from rotation. He described the reaction it received as "polarizing" for his modern rock audience. "We were hoping it would bridge the gap to our younger, alternative listeners, but to a lot of them REM is their dad's band."
RSS