Customer Reviews
The triumphant return of REM!!! 
2008-09-29
Though Reveal had some lovely moments, this is the first
example of REM sounding like a "complete" band since Bill Berrys retirement. Power and passion!!! Awesome!!!
Simply amazing!! 2008-09-27
Short and sweet. REM is back with a vengeance, with this new CD a masterpiece right up there with Automatic for the People. I've seen some of these songs performed live, and they are stunning and creative.
The best REM album since Automatic and New Adventures 2008-09-09
Although I quite liked Around the Sun (I cannot say that to Reveal, as I don't like it), I guess Peter Buck & Co. weren't happy with the result and they stormed the studios with Accelerate!
At first I thought the REM were back with the usual stuff. Not so. They are angry, fast and heavy! Many songs are political or social as they are not happy with the current situation in the US and you can feel the urgency in many of the songs. What's better, the whole album is consistent, no fillers here.
For the first time since New adventures in HiFi and Berry's departure, REM can be really proud of themselves! When I think about them I feel invigorated and proud too.
The best songs for me are Accelerate, Supernatural superserious, Horse to water, Until the day is done, with the first being in the top 5 list of the best REM songs ever!
Wow this is bad - Pete, continue playing with Robyn Hitchcock! 
2008-08-27
I'm altogether dispirited
I've listened to this about 5-6 times all the way through, and not one song has made an impression
Read the lyrics - they're ok - I don't really care too much about lyrics. My favorite album by REM (Murmur) and I don't know the lyrics on most of my favorite songs on that (Radio Free Europe, Perfect Circle)
I am absolutely miserable. I mean, I'm still gonna listen to the group. I'll stick pick up the next album. But none of these songs are very good. There aren't really any strong melodies
Pete, you can do better! You played on Robyn's very good album Ole Tarantula for gods sake.
I can't imagine someone picking up this album and loving it. The first few times I listened to this album I was depressed for a week
Blah! Not a bad album (I guess) but unmemorable. It sounds off; I like when REM rock out (Monster's good) but there seems to be a distinct lack of good solid songs here
I'm sticking to Love's Forever Changes from now on.
R.E.M. Returns To Rock, But Michael's Voice Is Frayed! 
2008-08-25
I was really excited to hear that R.E.M. had returned to a more Rock 'n' Roll style of music. However, other than the loud guitars, a staple of R.E.M. music became very strained on "Accelerate." That would be Michael Stipe's voice. He was never a crooner or a screamer for that matter, but he really seemed to struggle to sing along with the accompanying chiming guitars on this album. The only song that would negate that statement would be the beautiful "Until The Day Is Done." On that track, a break from the guitar racket, Michael sings very well about the current state of affairs in this country, the USA. Overall, I appreciate the album, and that track makes "Accelerate" worth every penny I paid for it. I think the worst sung track on this cd is "Hollow Man," oddly during the calmer parts of the song.
REM is back 
2008-08-22
In the decade since the departure of drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. could seem at times schizophrenic. Their albums of the era, which veered from the experimentalism of Up and reaffirmation of Reveal to 2004's more diffuse, reflective Around the Sun, often stood in stark contrast to the vibrancy of their live act. But here the alt-rock godfathers have resolved that dichotomy with their most focused and satisfying album in over a decade; a collection that doesn't so much revisit the bracing ethos of the band's '80s coming-of-age, as boil it down to its essence and supercharge it with the energy of their contemporary stage shows. That sensibility is evident from the opening track, "Living Well's the Best Revenge," where Peter Buck's aggressive, distortion-drenched riffs and Michael Stipe's gruff snarl set the tone for "Mansized Wreath," "Horse to Water," and "Supernatural Serious"; rockers that bristle with the abandonment and aggressive energy of a band half their tenure. Yet it's no mere blast-from-the-past. The inclusion of the band's recent touring musicians (Scott McCaughey on second guitar and drummer Bill Rieflin) into the session mix, as well as working out much of the material live onstage in Dublin, has yielded something more sonically akin to R.E.M. 2.2. Stipe's penchant for the lyrically opaque has been largely supplanted by an edgy, articulate passion that variously explores "Houston'"s displaced Katrina refugees, the bluegrass-tinged "Until the Day is Done," and the more typical, quiet self-examination of "Hollow Man," before exploding in the album's unlikely, upbeat elegy "I'm Gonna DJ," where singer and band find renewed hope in not only music, but themselves.
--Jerry McCulley
Accelerating away from Around the Sun 2008-08-19
crap sound notwithstanding, this album is not only a return to form, but it rocks! and theres not one song to skip in the bunch. a top album from beginning to end. the band can't let an album go by without some political whining. surprised will they be that hurricanes will hit during the mccain administration too. but it's not overbearing. the album flies by so quick, you don't realize how good it is until you realize you've spun it a few times in a row.
my top three: living well is the best revenge, until the day is done, hollow man.
too bad the lyrics aren't included. welcome back r.e.m.
we missed you.
Stepping On The Gas.... 2008-08-12
So when we last left the boys they had just given us AROUND THE SUN, a somber, lackluster, lackadaisical trudge through synthesizer/overproduction hedes. Welcome the polar opposite, or shall we say, classic mode of R.E.M.. Don't have your volume up too high, as the mastering of this album is LOUD! Rightly so, as it's 90% electric! While the lyrics that Michael and the gang recite aren't the greatest in their catalogue, they also aren't their worst and are pretty good. "Supernatural Superserious" is a great song and a rightful tune for pop radio overplay. "Houston" flaunts a bit of high-powered organ that only comes up to breathe every few beats, but it adds to the humidity of the song. "Mr. Richards" is destined to become a forgotten classic. The downside on ACCELERATE is "Until The Day Is Done." It's a protest song, and it's unfortunate because you can tell 10 seconds in that it's a protest song. Aside from "...day is done", this is a mighty fine highway listen (or a workout soundtrack). Welcome back to the late 80s, R.E.M..
Very disappointing bid to return to the band's roots 
2008-08-11
It's sad to see REM trying to return to their roots to produce a good album and then turning out a work that's significantly worse than their early works. This is nowhere near as good as Murmur, which came out almost 20 years ago. "Around the Sun" was disappointing but this is worse. Perhaps Mr Stipe and pals should concede that they've already achieved all they could in the world of music and retire. If they issue many more albums like this they're going to start seriously tarnishing their heritage.
R.E.M. - Accelerate 8/10 2008-08-10
Accelerate is just what its name implies: the sound of a band approaching middle age, a band whom many critics and fans had written off as past its prime, reaching back to their early records and restoring their music with a sense of fire and vigor that had been missing for well over a decade.
Singer Michael Stipe has said in an interview with Spin that the band "spent less time making this record than we have in twenty years," and it shows. Accelerate charges out of the gate with "Living Well is the Best Revenge," an up-tempo, guitar-and-bass-driven rock number that recalls the band in their `80s heyday.
The music turns away from the studio experiments that many considered R.E.M.'s downfall in the new millennium to what made them famous: guitar, bass, drums, and Stipe's distinctive wail. His lyrics are just as sharp as ever, and with the Iraq War still going strong after five years, he has no shortage of targets, bemoaning the "vacuum between his ears" of our outgoing president on "Man-Sized Wreath" and political deceit on "Mr. Richards."
After so many years, R.E.M. has finally rediscovered what made them great in the first place: simple, angry, and impassioned rock `n roll.
