R.E.M. Has Critics Racing For Their Memories

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration today is the latest album by R.E.M., Accelerate, which hits stores tomorrow:

• “But Accelerate doesn’t really sound nostalgic. Buck isn’t busting out the Rickenbackers; he’s playing aggressively melodic riffs again, yet they’re full of contemporary crunch and compression, not jangliness. Stipe’s also striving to make the album feel timely–railing against ‘business first flat earthers’ (‘Until the Day Is Done’), among other anti-conservative broadsides. Occasionally his lyrics fall prey to politicized smugness, but mostly he commits to confronting tough times with a mixture of thoughtful self-examination and playful combativeness. ‘You’re going down down down,’ he promises any sparrers on ‘Horse,’ the punky high point, after describing himself as ‘a bantamweight with a mouthful of feathers.’ Heavyweight champeen or not, Stipe’s got his fighting spirit back, and so does his band. A-” [EW] • “But it ends with a beautiful line, which may explain why REM have continued long after most observers assumed they had passed their sell-by: ‘Music will provide the light you can’t resist.’ Accelerate isn’t quite as irresistible as some people might have you believe, but you can’t help feeling glad they stuck around to make it. [Dave Lee Travis], it seems, is as wrong as ever: their career isn’t over yet.” [Guardian] • “When fans say they long for a return to the R.E.M. of old, they’re missing the magical band camaraderie and the mysterious but undeniable poignancy of the old songs, not the particular chord patterns, jangling guitars or mumbled vocals. If R.E.M. really could write another Murmur or Automatic for the People whenever it wanted, I wish for once it would.” [Chicago Sun-Times] • “They’re better at it now. What they’ve surrendered in tonal elegance they’ve made up for in raw energy and vigor. And it certainly sets the band up nicely for another triumphant world tour or two. The unfair question is how long anybody will want to listen to these songs beyond the initial ‘Wow, better than I expected,’ and my bet is, not very. R.E.M. have shown themselves to be a capable rock band, but in their prime, they were a much better un-rock band, and those songs still cast an inescapable shadow.” [New York]

Earlier: The New R.E.M. Accelerates Past Its Release Date To The Web