Music Review: Accelerate - R.E.M.

In a near-perfectly timed statement, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe came out as 'queer' in an interview with Spin magazine, although this had been common knowledge for many years, and also released a video at PEOPLE magazine, where he acknowledged his fellow band members as being 'straight' and promised to support them in this difficult time.

This sets the stage, as it were, for their richly complex new album, the first in four years. While Around The Sun had a layered, keyboard-focused sound, Accelerate goes for a strong guitar-based effect. Some of the fixation with chronicling people and places is retained, part of the wanderlust that has defined R.E.M. from their beginnings as a Southern alt-rock band in Athens, Georgia.

For those who reveled in Around The Sun, this brief set (34 minutes) will take some getting used to. There is much intensity in the album, though, appropriately suited for our age of turbulence. From the first notes in 'Living Well is The Best Revenge', we are thrust into the passion and anger. The song mocks 'sad and lost apostles', refuses to "sit and spin, 'cause living well is the best revenge", and most aggressively, demands 'don't turn your talking points on me/history will set me free'. The guitar sets its own insistent refrain, the chords falling on each other in a memory of wall-of-sound effects from that late great period of protest, the '70s.

The by-now richly played "Supernatural Superserious" is a critique of the current teenage generation, a world that R.E.M. might have grown up from, but has not by any reckoning left behind. They recognize the "Humiliation/of your teenage nation/No one cares/If your fantasies are/Dressed up in travesties/Enjoy yourself with no regrets." This is classic Stipe, the metaphors layered on each other, which memories of summer camps, how 'you cried and you cried.'

"Hollow Man" slows the paces down to begin with, talking of how he's been 'lost inside my head' and later acknowledging how he's 'become the hollow man I see.' This is reminiscent of auteurs like Michael Mann's recording of the death of masculinity, of the inability of individuals to stand against the superstates that make up the modern system. The song has a final tragic confession that, "I'm overwhelmed/I'm on repeat/I'm emptied out/I'm incomplete/You trusted me /I want to show you/I don't want to be the hollow man."

"Houston" looks at another recent failure of the new, accelerating, world order, from the very first images, "If the storm doesn't kill me/the Government will" to "Houston is in the spell of commerce". The music adds to the discordant mood, with gentle pluckings blended with distortion-rich chords.The disagreement with the current mood is clear, "belief has not filled me, and so I am put to the test."

The title track,"Accelerate" continues the protest notes, "I don't know what I need/I needed time/I need to escape." The realization is that there is no 'rip chord', 'trapdoor', no 'key', no "time to question the choices I make/I've got to find another direction". Guitar-sawing is used once again to reinforce the feeling of things having gone wrong.

"Until The Day Is Done" sets the refrain to mournful organ notes, amidst observations that "the verdict is dire/the country's in ruins." This is as much a critique of the media, the chroniclers of our time, as it is of the time itself. "We've written our stories to entertain/these notions of glory in bull market games/the tele-prompter flutters/the power surge screams." The orchestration is light on this song, to give preeminence to the pungent lyrics. Given the relative brevity of most of the songs, this one seems over-long, all the better to drive the stake in.

"Mr Richards" has a steady bass tone, over which certain 'decisions' are 'forgiven for a narrow lack of vision.' The political criticism at the heart of this song might be of our muteness in the face of a steadily mounting pace of subtle decisions and changes that have disconnected the self from the whole, a not-uncommon meme in post-modern art. 

This is reinforced by the next song, "Sing For The Submarine", one intended to connect the dots, as it were. From references to earlier R.E.M. Anthems (Electron Blue", "gravity's pull", etc.) to the great ones like the Beatles, and somewhat more cryptic connections ("Give in To the machine"), this track is the secret at the heart of the cryptology that is "Accelerate". Deconstructing the codes is not needed, though - as Stipe says "I knew that you could not believe me/.../The World as we know it.../we'll pick it all up and start again." This, then, is a message of hope, a recognition of the supernatural superserious efforts that will be needed to right the wrongs, to set it right.

The easy notes give way once again to the rough and tackle of "Horse to Water", a refusal to give in easily, stating badly, "I'm not that easy/I'm not your horse to water" and that "you're only as big as your battles." The fretwork is as demanding as the vocals, and we discern Mills providing the chorus to counterpoint Stipe's incendiary wail.

The final "I'm Gonna DJ" hearkens back to classics like "Its the End of the World (And I Feel Fine)". The drums and guitars set the stage for a final rockin' Armageddon. "Death is pretty final/I’m collecting vinyl/I’m gonna DJ at the end of the world!/.../I don't wanna go until I'm good and ...ready." Appropriately enough, metal will be the final notes of the world, 

The album is accompanied by an audiovisual experience, ranging from a mix-your-own array of video clips that then are available on a YouTube channel, to music videos for all the tracks, and Ninety nights of Hi-def video clips directed by Vincent Moon, as well as others on the delux versions of the disc. 

The media brouhaha might seem a bit odd, given a disc that critiques easy commentary and lack of change-making action, yet it is appropriate, given the back-to-roots R.E.M., and the critically important content being purveyed. The album launches worldwide soon, and a world tour is already under way.