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| Accelerate | 
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| Artist: R.e.m.
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy Used: $5.00
You Save: $13.98 (74%)
New (74) Used (41) from $5.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  211 reviews
Sales Rank: 489
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: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: West Omaha Store **
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lifelong REM fan says, "Yeah!" April 6, 2008
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
First of all I need to say that I am not a hater of the late period REM. Though the recent albums haven't been classics, they have featured some of the best songs REM has made. Accelerate reminds me of Lifes Rich Pageant and Fables with a little bit of Automatic mixed in. My favs are Hollow Man, Until the Day is Done and Houston. Great rocking album. Keep it coming guys, you are on a roll.
Rapid Guitar Movement April 1, 2008
22 out of 32 found this review helpful
This has to be the strongest REM album since their drummer quit. They weren't a bad band most of the 90s and early 00s, but they weren't a great one either. It's as if Peter Buck has rejoined the band. Peter getting front and center on the opening track sets the tone and this continues on through this entire exuberant, downright celebratory album.
Stipes got pretty pretentious with his lyrics the last few albums too and his sometimes borderline inane attempts are more tolerable on this one. (I even forgive him another reference to Electron Blue. Enough, Mike...)
I'm sure many fans will see this as a return to greatness of some sort.
This is may be true, but there just doesn't seem, to me, after you get over the shock of them being a rock band again, that many stand out tracks. Hopefully, like their stuff in days gone by, it will grow on me and I will change my mind.
Mike & Co step on the gas... April 10, 2008
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
I've followed the music of REM since their first US top 10 single "The one I love", but I really became a fan after the release of their 1994 "Monster" album (with great songs like "Tongue", "What's the frequency Kenneth" and "Crush with eyeliner"). That was about the time I was also getting into The Cranberries, 10,000 Maniacs, and The Smiths, opening my musical palette to include indie music but I digress.
Accelerate (their fourteenth album) is a return of sorts to their earlier sound and like its name, is a full throttle ride of jaggedly energetic songs. The album is produced by Garret Lee, who has also produced albums for a pair of my favourite British indie bands; Editors and Bloc Party.
At just over thirty minutes, the disc cuts right to the chase, with the exception of the epic ballad "Sing for the submarine" which is almost 5 minutes long. There's the sweaty shouty opening rocker "Living well is the best revenge", the sunny yet melancholic lead-off single "Supernatural superserious", the bouncy "Horse to water" (with a rapid-fire vocal delivery and a great chorus), the brief "Houston" (which references what must be the most popular hurricane in music history; Katrina), and the brilliant groovy "I'm gonna DJ" (with great Woo hoos), my favourite!
Title track "Accelerate" does just that, an urgent indie number, while taking inspiration from George Bush (no less) is "Man-sized wreath" (taking a dig at a clumsy stage-managed appearance by Bush at last year's Martin Luther King day celebrations - "A pageantry of empty gestures, all lined up for me" sings Stipe). "Until the day is done" is a jangly acoustic song that reminds me a bit of John Lennon's "Working class hero".
The album has already topped the UK charts (their seventh #1 There) and given them (at #2) their highest charting US album in almost 12 years. A welcome return from Michael Stipe and the lads.
 Very Disappointing Release April 2, 2008
21 out of 32 found this review helpful
I had high expectations with Accelerate after a four year R.E.M. drought and given the lackluster release "Around the Sun." Certainly, this is more raw than we've seen from the band since "Monster." But this time around, with a few notable exceptions, the material is just not that strong. Melody lines, except for the couple of ballads, are missing in favor of jamming the guitars and bass down our throats. The recording quality is horrible, sounding much like it was recorded in someone's garage using cobbled together equipment vs. state of the art equipment in a decent studio. Perhaps they were trying to go for that 90's grunge vibe with heavy, mushy sounding bass drowning just about everything else out. And clocking in at a paltry 35 minutes?? Not even giving the listener their money's worth to boot. C'mon guys, you can do much better than this.
Solid return to what makes REM great April 4, 2008
21 out of 24 found this review helpful
I, like many, was so thrilled to hear that REM were getting back to making a more straight-ahead rock album featuring guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Stylistically Accelerate takes from Life's Rich Pageant, Document and to some degree Monster. To me nothing will beat the IRS records from Murmur to Document. But Accelerate just sounds so good given their recent 3 releases. REM became one of my all-time favorite bands playing straight ahead rock w/o the atmospheric fluff heard on recent albums. The songs here are played with a sense of urgency.
I'm not going to sit here and write a dissertation on each song. What I will say is that this is the best REM album I've heard since Automatic. I do think it deserves a 5 star. I get excited when I listen to this album. Gives me the feeling I used to get when they put great albums out. I can assure you one thing. Accelerate will win back the fans they've lost since New Adventures In Hi-Fi. Like many great albums it gets better with subsequent listens. I don't think this disc will sit in the dust bins of one's CD collection.
It's great to have REM back making great music again. Thanks to the boys from Athens, GEE AYY.
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