Friday, January 4, 2008

Accelerate Driver 48

We can reach our destination, but it's still a ways away. And we won't get there until you put the petal somewhere near "the metal". And switch off that damn turn signal!

Michael Stipe turns 48 today, and his band has a new album called Accelerate coming out in April. The new album is evidently R.E.M.'s return to The Rock. I join this guy from one of our local papers in thinking this is a Good Idea.
After delivering four consecutive albums of mostly mellow, moody and introspective indie-pop, R.E.M. is apparently ready to rock once again.
Bring on The Rock! It should be a welcome respite from the mellow, moody and introspective indie-pop of albums like New Adventures In Hi-Fi. Judging from these new songs I found on the youtubes, the new songs are sound like a return to their roots. It's like R.E.M. found the fountain of youth, because they almost seem 25 years younger in these clips.
  1. HarborcOat
  2. 7 chineSe Bros.
  3. so. Central Rain
  4. Pretty Persuasion
  5. second GuessinG
  6. letter Never seNt
  7. (dont Go back TO) Rockville
  8. little america
(Update: Apparently these actually songs are from a record called "Reckoning "that R.E.M. made in 1984. That's why they look 25 years younger. Mea culpa! )

Still, these 1984 songs still sound fresh, even in 2008. Here's Michael Stipe back when he was half as old as he is now. Those were the days!


And the singer, he had long hair
And the drummer, he knew restraint
And the bassman, he had all the right moves.
And the guitar player was no saint.
Pavement - Unseen Power of the Picket Fence

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Love this entry, and guffawed at the bit about the Reckoning clips. But I did find it odd that you namechecked New Adventures in Hi-Fi as one of the "mellow, moody, and introspective" albums. It has both the latter qualities for sure, but it's far more rocking, diverse, and, to me, interesting than Up, Reveal, and that last one that I didn't even buy. New Adventures is definitely the one that doesn't belong. You know my lack of tolerance for stuff that's stuck in midtempoland, so for New Adventures to continue to have the Miles Seal of Approval, well after I've broken up with REM, is big. :)

Steve said...

I was being facetious about the NAIHF description. That album is a lot of things to me, but "introspective indie-pop" isn't one of them!