1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2. Man-Sized Wreath
3. Supernatural Superserious
4. Hollow Man
5. Houston
6. Accelerate
7. Until The Day Is Done
8. Mr. Richards
9. Sing For The Submarine
10. Horse To Water
11. I'm Gonna DJ
Amazon.com
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
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Accelerate
- Audio CD: 0 pages (2008-04-01)
- Publisher: Warner Bros / Wea
- Label: Warner Bros / Wea
- Studio: Warner Bros / Wea
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 195 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #90
Avg. Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Back to basics for REM 2008-07-18
Comment: I always loved REM but have lost interst in the last so many years. I guess the music was not what I expected but this album brings them back to their roots. It is a fun album that you can listen to over and over and will remind you of the good old days of REM
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: a good record 2008-07-16
Comment: Look I've read a lot of reviews and have listened to the record many times. It's not great and it's not bad. REM is band where you expect something different - hit or miss - its what you expect. Some songs are catchy, some are not. All in all a good effort. That's why the IPOD was invented to edit the stuff you dont want. buy it and enjoy
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: De los mejores albumes de la banda 2008-07-11
Comment: Basicamente uno de los mejores albumes de la banda, por un momento pareciera que regresas a lo mejor de la música en los 90's: Riffs grunge y tiempos agresivos con una aspera pero melodiosa ejecución vocal.
REM se reencuentra en este album y nos trae muy buen música, no sigas leyendo esto que pierdes el tiempo, simplemente pon el cd en tu carro y dejate llevar hasta alcanzar el REM.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great return! 2008-07-07
Comment: It's an amazing return. And it was really refreshing to listen great rock again. I recommend it if you still love professionals and hate those insultant new cartoon-teen-so-called-bands from radio.
4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Thin and Noisy 2008-06-29
Comment: There is certainly a lot of clamor being made over this clamorous wreck of a record. R.E.M may very well be the best American band thus far but not by the merits of Accelerate. This album has no texture and no depth. If, as touted, it is a return to roots it went too far, i.e. back to the formative Athen's basement years too far. But that does not even seem to be the case because though the earliest albums might have been unintelligible they were not unintelligent. And this one is as dumb as a bag of hammers. So all the claims of "back to form" are nonsense. Accelerate is simply the new millennium's "Monster" and simply an obstreperous and cantankerous dud.
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