When R.E.M. made a comeback bid in 2008 with Accelerate, its aggressiveness and off-the-cuff feel were jarring after a decade of overly thought out (and largely ignored) experimental pop albums. I was excited to hear the band rock again — often with surprising venom — and hoped that it was a sign of things to come; as I wrote at the time: “if the band could find a way to retain the urgency and excitement of this record, while adding some of the polish of their “mature” albums, they could have some really great albums in their future.”
So I was pretty excited back in December when Stereogum posted “Discoverer”, the lead track from the band’s new album Collapse Into Now
. A chunky, riff-driven rocker, it replaced the ragged, live-in-the-studio vibe of Accelerate with a polished swagger reminiscent of the band’s mid-90′s work. Subsequently “leaked” tracks indicated that the band was going for an eclectic effort this time out — while “Mine Smell Like Honey” was another fast song, a stomping fuzzy garage rocker highlighted by Mike Mills’ backing vocals (too bad about the title, though), “Oh My Heart” was a gentle, mandolin-driven ballad, and “Uberlin” was a mid-tempo acoustic number echoing 1993′s “Drive”, but replacing that song’s exhausted tone with a more hopeful vibe. Now the whole album is streaming off the Rolling Stone site, and having been listening to it non-stop for the past week, I can honestly say I’m thrilled — it sounds great, and is indeed all over the place stylistically.
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