Album: R.E.M. Accelerate 
Friday, March 28, 2008
When I caught R.E.M. rehearsing material from this album at last year's
Dublin shows, the new songs sounded fresh and intriguing.
I don't know what's happened in the interim, but Accelerate isn't anything
like as exciting as anticipated. Its muscular riffing recalls the
mainstream-rock moves of Lifes Rich Pageant and Document but, crucially,
without the winning melodies and the sense of ambitious necessity.
"Living Well's the Best Revenge" opens the album with a surging swagger,
while Michael Stipe offers what is, by his standards, a charmless and
clichéd lyric about having it large: "History will set me free/ The future's
ours, so get on in..." The withering sarcasm of "Mansized Wreath" seems
churlish, a dissatisfying substitute for the less literal lyrical conceits
of earlier albums.
There's a Ziggy Stardust flavour to the single "Supernatural Superserious",
in both the riff and the bitter sense of loss behind lines like "You realise
your fantasies/ Are dressed up in travesties"; but it lacks the anthemic,
uplifting quality of much of Bowie's and R.E.M.'s best work. "Hollow Man" is
better, a heart-searching piano-based number about someone struggling to
define themselves. "I've been lost inside my head, echoes follow me," sings
Stipe, repeatedly resolving into a chorus of "Believe in me, believe in
nothing": it's as if, after decades as rock's most thoughtful conscience,
he's suffering doubts.
Elsewhere, brooding organ chords cast a lowering sky over the brief
rumination on the state of Texas, "Houston", and over the title track
itself, a fraught piece that seems to extend further the Hollow Man's
desperate desire to escape his situation – "Where is the ripcord, the
trapdoor, the key?" – and find completeness in a new direction. In case
anyone believes this escape might involve Stipe's departure from the
rock'n'roll circus, he's at pains to point out, in the surly rocker "Horse
to Water" and the concluding "I'm Gonna DJ", that he's not to be
second-guessed in this manner. "Hey, steady steady, I don't wanna go until
I'm good and ready," he proclaims, explaining his intention to "deejay at
the end of the world".
Sadly, Accelerate does not bode well for R.E.M.'s future, despite the
familiar bullish talk of being "back on form". Apart from the 12-string
guitars in "Until the Day Is Done", there's scant evidence of the group's
once sublime folk-rock stylings. The album is over-heavy with stodge and
weighty riffs, and short on subtlety. It sounds as if, in seeking to
revitalise their muse, the group have confused sheer power with progress.
Pick of the album: 'Hollow Man', 'Until the Day is Done', 'I'm Gonna
DJ'
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