Accelerate
Accelerate is patchy at best, with only the blaring finale, ‘I’m Gonna DJ’, really catching the attention.
Paul Nolan, 27 Mar 2008
These days, Stipe utilises a more thematically narrow brand of agitprop, and while the sentiments are unquestionably very admirable, some of the humour, unusual digressions and surrealist imagery of old wouldn’t have gone amiss.
After ‘Living Well’, Accelerate continues with a series of thumping rockers that will be familiar to those who attended the band’s series of live rehearsals in Dublin last summer, including ‘Mansized Wreath’ and ‘Supernatural Superserious’. The only time the record really pauses for breath is on the acoustic numbers ‘Houston’ and ‘Until The Day Is Done’ which, ironically, are two of the best tracks.
The former is a moody folk composition that ends, incongruously enough, with a short blast of feedback a la Sonic Youth, whilst the latter is a slice of rootsy Americana in the classic REM mould. Next up is the best song of all, ‘Mr. Richards’, in which Stipe plays the angry-but-defiant spokesman of the anti-GOP consortium (“You’re mistaken if you think we’ll just fall down”), against the backdrop of some superb, near shoegazer-style guitar work from Buck.
Unfortunately, thereafter Accelerate is patchy at best, with only the blaring finale, ‘I’m Gonna DJ’, really catching the attention. REM’s body of work ensures that they are unlikely to ever be anything other than a formidable live act, but on the evidence of Around The Sun and now Accelerate, they are in danger of becoming a sort of alternative rock Rolling Stones; a huge touring draw whose appeal is heavily reliant on their back catalogue.
Key track: ‘Mr. Richards’
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