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| Artist: Rem
Label: Wea
Category: Music
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £4.98
You Save: £11.01 (69%)
New (61) Used (16) from £2.90
Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 639
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.3
MPN: 418620
UPC: 093624988588
EAN: 0093624988588
ASIN: B0013BNY2Q
Release Date: March 31, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Don't be fooled by the guitars; REM are still treading water. May 16, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Every time I listen to this record I think I'm going to enjoy it, and always end up feeling disappointed. I've figured out why that is - it's that I like the first 5 tracks (even Supernatural Superserious, which had particularly underwhelmed me when I first heard it), but really feel that the rest of the album is lacking in new ideas.
There's nothing outstanding or groundbreaking about those first 5 tracks, but at least they're lively. For a while you don't notice that REM are treading water again -that they're writing the same kind of songs that they were writing on Reveal and Around the Sun, but this time they've done it with loud guitars. I'm sorry, but that's not the way to make great music. I've got nothing against guitars, nor against REM using them once again; my gripe is that REM once convinced the world that they were special, but only once since Automatic for the People have they actually done anything experimental or exploratory in music (I'm talking about Up).
So they disappoint me. When I listened to this record last night, I had been listening to The Beatles' Abbey Road just before, and that's what got me thinking - by 1969 The Beatles had already recorded 10 albums, and they were still breaking new ground, while REM seem to have ground to a halt, and be relying on their marketing department to convince a legion of still hopeful fans to buy their new record each time there is one.
The star on Accelerate, and the person who saves the album from being altogether unlistenable is Michael Stipe. Sure, his voice seems to have seized up almost to the point of monotone, but his enthusiasm, his exuberance, and the ease with which he rides over the chord changes is magnificent. Lyrically he's inventive too - at one point he rhymes "rattle" with "piano". That's just brilliant.
Now, I remember reading that when recording REM would work out the music first, and then afterwards Stipe would finish up his lyrics. If that was the case here, it just makes me wonder how lazy Peter Buck and Mike Mills have become. There's rarely anything going on that isn't a standard 3 chord progression with an "all-the-right-moves"* bass line behind it. Sure, the band sound like they're enjoying playing music, but where's the creative fire? It just sounds like someone said, "It's time to make a new record". Stipe said, "yeah, I'm well up for that." And Buck and Mills went, "we-e-e-ell... I can't really be bothered with all that hard work we have to put in, so what if we just make some fun songs? We'll come up with some simple rock stuff, then just jam it out in the studio and take it on tour. People will say it's a return to form".
It's not a return to form. It's better than Reveal and Around the Sun, but it's treading water.
* "all-the-right-moves" is a reference to Pavement's The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence which is a tribute to REM - "The singer, he had long hair/ and the drummer, he knew restraint/ the bass man had all the right moves/ and that guitar player was no saint".
 Garbage! May 13, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have to agree with the minority here. I believed the hype and bought this album hoping for a return to the well produced and memorable sound of vintage REM. How disappointed I was. All this album does is continue the dull, droning non-melodic sound of a band who took the corporate dollar and invested it in mediocrity. These days I tend to give a band two chances - two boring releases in a row and that's it for me! For some reason, with REM I kept giving them another chance as I honestly cannot think of a single song they have written since 1994 that I would want to listen to. Accelerate is no exception. To compare it to Monster is a joke. It's nothing like. At least Monster sounded like fun. This one sounds like they're trying too hard. And failing! The production is appalling. Producer Jacknife Lee and mastering Engineer John Davis apply the same 'talents' to this as they did to Snow Patrol's Eyes Open - they smash the levels up to maximum resulting in a mashed up mess of distortion where dynamic range is non-existent. No wonder CDs get such a bad press - it's not the format that's the problem, it's the people using the software. Unlistenable, ear piercing noise designed for the hearing-challenged, quality-free MP3 generation.
For sure, this was the last REM album I will buy. The only REM music I will buy in the future are remasters of the IRS years if these ever happen.
A sad time for music and anyone who likes good sound. Accelerate is just another example of the lo-fi trash that passes for music these days.
Good album spoiled by atrocious mastering. May 9, 2008
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This album is not as good as it could be. Like most other reviewers I agree this is the best REM album for some time. However, my beef is with the mastering. I can only listen to about three songs in a row due to the sonic bludgeoning that this CD inflicts on me. It really is physically tiring to be subjected to a virtually constant volume level on every song. Like others I'm frustrated at how this recording has been mastered. Every song is the same volume, every part of every song is the same volume, every guitar part is the same volume, thrashy guitar chords and guitar arpeggios are the same volume. Can't we have some light and shade? This is particulary draining to listen to. The whole recordings been turned into some sort of liquidised sonic mush where there's no lumpy bits and everything's the one gloopy texture. No doubt guitar/drum/bass etc parts were compressed when they were recorded, compressed further when they were mixed, and then the whole mix was probably compressed. .. leading to a unpleasant listening experience.
It would be better if the songs were allowed to breathe and not suffocated. Please let's have some music recorded with natural dynamics instead of squashing everything.
Most of the songs are great by the way...
 The old REM are back! May 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After a change of style over the last few years, REM have come back with a real corker. I am really enjoying this album and it grows on me each time I play it. A fabulous first track 'Living well is the best revenge', I just love the lyrics, it really gets the album off to a flying start. You ideally need to sit in a quiet room to recover once the album has finished. Brilliant!
Solid Effort April 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've recently bought a number of albums based largely on hype and lead singles - Foals, Wombats, Vampire Weekend, Guillemots - and been sadly disappointed by them all. Just as I was about to give up hope and dig out some of last years favourites such as Ian Brown and The Maccabees I went for one last throw of the dice by buying this on a whim, despite never being a big fan.
Blown away I wasn't but I was pleasantly surprised and wanted to hear more. After repeat listenings I now rate this very highly.
It gets off to a thumping start with 4 quality songs, including the brilliant single Supernatural Superserious.
I found that the three slower tracks were the definetely the weakest on the album (Houston, Sing For The Submarine and Until The Day Is Done - this reminded me of a Take That song!!).
Thankfully the end of the album follows a similar mould to the start including the bouncy "Mr Richards" and the thunderous last track "I'm Gonna DJ.
All in all not perfect - a bit short and a couple of weak tracks - but a very enjoyable listen that will get many repeat listenings..
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