REM- 'Accelerate'
(Warner Bros, 2008)
Rating: 8

Navigating nine lives can be a tricky thing, as seminal transcendental rock icons R.E.M. found out while dodging more slings and arrows than all of the characters from their Losing My Religion video combined upon the release of 2004’s Around the Sun. Fanaticism definitely has its downside, and R.E.M. seemingly obliterated all of the good will they had managed to bank in the previous two decades by going very quietly into that night into which bands recede before an appropriately acrimonious split. Into the Sun would perhaps have been a more apropos title given the meltdowns that emanated both within and beyond the band’s camp during those dark days, but nearly half a decade later, R.E.M. have refocused and resurfaced while breathing some welcome fire into their working model and producing a remarkably vibrant and lucid album in Accelerate.

R.E.M.’s decision to continue in the wake of losing original drummer and compatriot Bill Berry was both welcome and understandable, but there’s no question that his loss seriously inhibited the band’s ability to come off as a, well, band for much of the last decade. Accelerate stands as the group’s foremost display of intraband synergy in their post-Berry timeline, as the album sounds like a collection of songs bounced off of rehearsal space walls and bandmembers alike. Whereas previous efforts hinted at a less than joyful acknowledgement of the band’s legendary status, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills now seem content not only to stare down their shadow but ask it to pick up a guitar and join the proceedings. The album commences with the up tempo, jangly rocker Living Well Is the Best Revenge, as Stipe enlists a sneer and an upturned middle finger as he bellows a presumably rhetorical “The gospel according to WHO?” while breaking out the knives for his critics and other assorted targets of his contempt. Stipe is a slight man, but righteous fury has always been one of his strongest traits, and his ability to elucidate the stream of consciousness connected to his myriad misgivings marks the rest of Accelerate. Luckily for Stipe, Buck and Mills give him enough sonic leeway to paint within the borders of some undeniably catchy pop missives.

Accelerate incorporates various parts of R.E.M.'s catalogue without resorting to cannibalism, as the album takes some of the bombast of Monster and mixes it with the counterpunctural whimsy of Green. This record is not the byproduct of rote nostalgia, however, as the band's willingness to revisit previous efforts has given R.E.M. the juice their most recent output lacked. Supernatural Superserious stands out as a track that allows the band to showcase this new found wealth of energy, as Stipe puts a face on teenage alienation (yeah, I know that sounds paradoxical at this point, but it works) over a soaring chorus that emanates from one of Buck's signature chop shop guitar riffs. Even when Stipe strikes a plaintive pose, he doesn't evoke a frown so much as a knowing wink, as he illustrates on Hollow Man with the refrain "Believe in me/Believe in nothing/Corner me/And make me something". When Stipe announces on Until the Day Is Done that "providence blinked", it's apparent that he's once more at ease trafficking in the band's brand of moody elegiacs that mark their earlier output, but his summation of a culture in disarray seems to have emboldened and not defeated him. The listlessness of Around the Sun has been replaced by a call to arms that the members of the band most importantly have answered themselves before seeking to spread. Accelerate functions in reminding listeners why R.E.M. once galvanized a generation even as it suggests that Stipe and crew may have emerged as the primary beneficiaries of such a refresher course.

- Brant Miles