R.E.M.
Accelerate

In 2001, in the aftermath of the release of "Reveal," Peter Buck said they could have released not one but four albums, all with the same songs but each with a different sound from the others; had that happened, we probably would have heard, besides the one that was released, an acoustic album, an electronic one, and an electric one.

Equally likely, however, none of these hypothetical albums would have been able to capture the soul of that animal called R.E.M.; instead, "Accelerate" does this perfectly.

A short album, under 35 minutes, once it would have been defined as "urgent", meaning written and produced quickly due to the musicians' desire to communicate something to their listeners.

In reality, 4 years have passed since "Around The Sun" (the only weak link in R.E.M.'s discography), so there wasn't all this creative urgency; instead, what's sensed and appreciated is a desire to find new ways to communicate, to carry ideas forward, and to do this Stipe and company look back and retrieve something from every phase of their career.

Having abandoned electronics and ended the predominance of slow times and extended melodies, the group rediscovers the desire to play with flattened guitars, something that was already sensed in the last tours with the retrieval of much-loved past tracks; the pace is often sustained, there is simply no time to get bored, as was the case with some of the previous albums, far too long and elaborate.

"Accelerate" begins with an arpeggio of a few notes reminiscent of "Feeling Gravity's Pull," and continues with a nervous rhythm that recalls a bit the early albums, a bit "Orange Crush"; the opening "Living Well is The Best Revenge" is a heart-stopper, with a guitar riff and chorus that recall "These Days" (from "Life's Rich Pageant"); the single is perhaps the only song you expect, a nice, airy melody somehow "familiar." "Hollow Man" could have fit on any album before "Green," without looking out of place, just like "Mr. Richards," while "Horse To The Water" is a candidate for the most "wicked" track ever recorded, as well as being equipped with a chorus for the ages.

Strange to say, this time the weakest point of the album is the acoustic and slower tracks, also permeated with atmospheres already known to fans. So many references and hints, you might say (even 2 titles of old tracks are referenced in "Sing For The Submarine"), so is it an album copied from previous productions?

No, not at all: as written in the magazine "MOJO," R.E.M. take a step back to take two forward, leaving behind certain discussions among themselves, certain recent delays, and in general all the frills that weighed down the productions of the last twelve years, and recovering excellent compositional inspiration, the spirit (thought to be long dead and buried) typical of their youthful years and, not least, their true soul.