btw, here's my take on the latest R.E.M album:
R.E.M has aged so moderately from the critical smash
Automatic People to the self-indulgent
Around the Sun, freewheeling on their accolade as one of the pioneering alt-rockers and probably, one of the best American college-rock band (along with The Pixies and Sonic Youth) that emerged during the mid 80’s.
But more than the astute musical direction that they showcased throughout the years, R.E.M has suffered greatly to its excess and the other side of its rockstar fume. Michael Stipe -- the wunderkind behind R.E.M’s success and pitfalls, has even become a midnight celebrity and a once tabloid fodder for having a life open to the public. Sure, we all knew about him being mocked for admitting to the public that he is gay or that he is very outspoken of his political ideals and conundrums, but what marked the most is his enviable credibility that made him the icon that he is. He might not wear the same garland as Morrisey’s or Robert Smith’s, yet his contributions to the rising flesh of forward-thinking musicians will always be highly regarded despite the fact that the band hasn’t released any interesting record since 1998’s
Up. This time around, Michael Stipe bugs off the unlikely controversy and instead focuses on making a record that could endure lasting impression the way
Automatic for People or at least
Up did to them. Their latest record,
Accelerate has all the “it” attempts to win old fans over with its hook-filled songs and its arrangements from MOR guitar balladry to 90’s rocker anthem to 70’s power pop minus the goddamn AM radio thing. Its R.E.M back on their good old sound, only that it’s more intense, its riffs – bigger in proportions yet everything seems to be a B-side output of their past. Michael’s voice still sounds gruff on the mix, the entire political backlash is still emboldened through out the 35-minute opus and the jagged guitars has stuck out as their two decades-old accessory.
The first half of the record is more than just an exercise of fan excitement. It’s all but beefed with stirring productions and elaborate three-minute alt rock opus that have found its musical strength on variety and unpredictable shift song per song. The dynamic of a rocker blasts on the ferocious and almost rollicking “Living Well is the best Revenge” and “Man-Sized Wreath” and reaches its ultimate pop camp by trying to outdo Liz Phair’s Average-everyday-sane-psycho-supergoddess superlative with the truly enjoyable “Supernatural Superserious” and the faker of a track “Hollowman” whose piano balladry turns into jangly glee rush after 30 seconds. The somber and George Bush-bashing “Houston” deserves to be in the middle of the record as a breather, as a dark retrospective to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and how it became the perfect metaphorical reference to what America has become: a storm.
From there, everything picks up as experiments or just some overkill. This is not to say that they are bad or just rummaging on mediocrity, of course. Its just everything that follows seems to be overshadowed by the shell-out power of the first half. “Until the day are done” is exactly what Jeff Tweedy or Johnny Cash might have reworked on their habitual folk musings, only if they care more about the ruins the war creates towards humanity and beyond. “Sing for the Submarine” is in all sense of it -- dreamy but becomes too dragging after minutes and so. “Horse to Water” is too rushed, too short but puts the energy in clout – something that’s fun and jabbing at the same time. Its fresh though to hear R.E.M ending the album with the preppy and almost punk’d out “I’m gonna DJ,” messing up with the whole song through self-mockery and the entire goofing intro of rapping over the drumbeats and the hurried sonic spurt.
R.E.M never sound so resurrected with
Accelerate. From their humble indie beginnings in the 80’s towards their entire immaculate state to the present, they have ferreted out the best of what they could offer whether they are basking on the stadium decrying a political statement or they are at its most hungered experiment of the recent. With
Accelerate, everything is a hurried punch of glee and excitement – a sort of greater new direction from the band who continues to excite music fans across the globe.
