R.E.M. - ACCELERATE

[borracho]

a very solid album... good to hear them rocking again...

[solace]

i'll give it .5 better and go w/ an '8'. definitely no 'second coming', but a solid album nonetheless...i'm just having a lot of fun hearing the band so upbeat in sound and peter buck turned up to 11. man, 'living well' is a great fucking track.

yeah, i could see agreeing with that eventually... have only listened 3-4x so far. there's no tracks that blow me away, but overall just very solid.

[watch me fall]

Trying to hold out until the 1st...

[John Smith]

Shocking, I guess it's official now. Who would have ever guessed??

 

http://www.usmagazine.com/node/16132/

 

R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe: I'm Gay

Monday March 17, 2008

 

Michael Stipe at the Louis Vuitton Party of LOVE on May 3, 2007.

Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.comR.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has come out of the closet.

 

 

[Modified Bear]

So all the fuss over R.E.M. learning to "rock" again and writing songs under 3 minutes, and it turns out the best song is "Sing for the Submarine," a midtempo waltz that clocks in at 5 minutes. Ha.

 

I generally agree that this is a solid album, no more, no less (after two listens anyway). Certainly nowhere near as actively awful as Around the Sun, but still very slight compared to the IRS years.

[Oil Can Boyd]

Shocking, I guess it's official now. Who would have ever guessed??

 

http://www.usmagazine.com/node/16132/

 

R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe: I'm Gay

Certainly a candidate for the Worst Kept Secret Award.

[Chris_H_2]

I wish they would cut that awkward 3 seconds of Mike Mills at the end of Man-Sized Wreath.

[turtlegirl37]

Certainly a candidate for the Worst Kept Secret Award.

 

 

Yeah, I know. My friend and I were so disappointed when we realized that he was probably gay, because we had such huge crushes on him. That was around the Monster years. (Ah, I'm gettin' sentimental....) I'm holding out for the cd until my birthday, cuz I'm old school like that.

[remphish1]

I wish they would cut that awkward 3 seconds of Mike Mills at the end of Man-Sized Wreath.

 

I dig the Mills extra 3 seconds! We need more Mills!

[watch me fall]

Certainly a candidate for the Worst Kept Secret Award.

 

No joke.

[LouieB]

Two things.....

 

Hasn't REM been kind of lame for a long time...

 

And haven't we all known Stipe was gay for even longer??

 

LouieB

[PigSooie]

I like this album.

[tangara]

The show at SXSW was pretty damn solid. Not my favorite of the week, but good times and the band had lots of energy, even if the crowd didn't. I was surprised that they dug out "Auctioneer" and "Second Guessing". The new stuff sounded catchy; I'll be interested to hear it on the record.

 

The openers were unimpressive (with the exception of Dead Confederate; they were fantastic). At one point during Paper Cranes (ugh), Mike Mills came out to watch and was standing about 10 feet in front of me. *eeeeee*

[airtaco]

This album is pretty solid. Nothing mind blowing but nothing even close to bad. Def a 7 at this point and it may even go higher.

[myboyblue]

They are now offering a free video download of "Living Well..." video on iTunes. It's an acoustic video that they shot in a moving car. It is unbelievable how talented they are.

[hardwood floor]

here's what bugs me about REM

 

i mean, i grew up with REM as my favorite band -- for quite a long time. they were my doorway from prog into the guitar-heavy pop shit i've listened to for the last 20 years

 

but, christ, every record they put out since they commenced sucking i'd read stipe say, "This is our best album yet." Every fucking one. And you know what? they all sucked. Up, Reveal, Around the Sun. sucked. and yet I'd read each time these arrogant fucking quotes from Stipe about how they've grown so much and are now releasing their stuff ever

 

and i'd listen to this shit and say, um, no, this sucks. you used to be the greatest band ever

 

so now, i just have a hard time reading Stipe say, oh yeah, those albums really did suck. so now we're gonna ROCK AGAIN.

 

you know what? i'm sure this record sounds good but i have no fucking desire to listen to it

 

these guys lost me a while ago with their suckitude and hypocracy

 

fuck 'em

[myboyblue]

The REM bashing that has gone on for the last several albums is a bit over the top for me. I think Up is a pretty good album. Reveal and Around the Sun are nowhere near as offensive as people make them out to be. They have some very nice songs on them and they have songs that missed the mark a bit.

 

It's become somewhat fashionable to bash them. Michael Stipe's personality may feed some of that.

 

Either way, they are probably the most solid band album to album as any band in history. Their live shows have always been tremendous. Let's see how this goes.

 

They are now offering a free video download of "Living Well..." video on iTunes. It's an acoustic video that they shot in a moving car. It is unbelievable how talented they are.

 

oh, and I don't want this post to get lost.

[TheMaker]

Shocking, I guess it's official now. Who would have ever guessed??

 

I thought Stipe addressed this yeeeeeeears ago. And then again a couple years after that. Huh.

[auctioneer69]

The REM bashing that has gone on for the last several albums is a bit over the top for me. I think Up is a pretty good album. Reveal and Around the Sun are nowhere near as offensive as people make them out to be. They have some very nice songs on them and they have songs that missed the mark a bit.

 

"Up" wpuld have been brilliant if they had trimmed 2 songs (classic case of no band member wanting amy of their songs cut), "Reveal" was ok and had some good/decent songs but "Around The Sun" was not only the worst album of their career by a country mile but as big a pile of steaming keik as I have ever heard released by a major talent. And not because it was experimental and missed the mark. It was an album full of poor/mediocre songs with clunky lyrics made by a band who were bored and going through the motions completely. Seemingly, Peter Buck's contribution to the album was to fill up Mill's and Stipe's I-Pod's in the studio. In the interviews for "Accelerate" he admits it is total shit.

 

Thank goodness for Accelerate. It's not perfect but has restored this long time fan's faith in the band

[Rusty Shackleford]

but, christ, every record they put out since they commenced sucking i'd read stipe say, "This is our best album yet." Every fucking one. And you know what? they all sucked. Up, Reveal, Around the Sun. sucked. and yet I'd read each time these arrogant fucking quotes from Stipe about how they've grown so much and are now releasing their stuff ever

 

and i'd listen to this shit and say, um, no, this sucks. you used to be the greatest band ever

 

True. I get the feeling, however, that the last 2 records were really Stipe solo projects, and that the other guys, especially Buck, weren't very involved. Buck's had some recent interviews where he basically suggested as much.

 

So, with Peter Buck apparently back on board--he's always been my favorite R.E.M. guy anyway--I'm looking forward to the new record. It might not be another Reckoning or Fables, but it damn sure won't be another Around the Sun.

[EL the Famous]

True. I get the feeling, however, that the last 2 records were really Stipe solo projects, and that the other guys, especially Buck, weren't very involved. Buck's had some recent interviews where he basically suggested as much.

 

So, with Peter Buck apparently back on board--he's always been my favorite R.E.M. guy anyway--I'm looking forward to the new record. It might not be another Reckoning or Fables, but it damn sure won't be another Around the Sun.

 

i don't know if that's true or not, but i will say that my like and/or dislike of an REM album has been based off of how much/how little peter buck i really hear on it.

[SunkenKamera]

True. I get the feeling, however, that the last 2 records were really Stipe solo projects, and that the other guys, especially Buck, weren't very involved. Buck's had some recent interviews where he basically suggested as much.

 

So, with Peter Buck apparently back on board--he's always been my favorite R.E.M. guy anyway--I'm looking forward to the new record. It might not be another Reckoning or Fables, but it damn sure won't be another Around the Sun.

 

 

I think the last two were Mills/Stipe projects, Around the Sun especially.

 

I remember an interview several years ago where R.E.M. were talking about how they didn't want the band to become a hobby where they get together ever few years for an album. This seems to be exactly what happened after Bill left. The good thing is, all evidence seems to show that they've recognized this and want to communicate again. As far as I'm concerned, the thing for them to do now is to start earnestly working on the next album while they tour.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I think the last two were Mills/Stipe projects, Around the Sun especially.

 

I remember an interview several years ago where R.E.M. were talking about how they didn't want the band to become a hobby where they get together ever few years for an album. This seems to be exactly what happened after Bill left. The good thing is, all evidence seems to show that they've recognized this and want to communicate again. As far as I'm concerned, the thing for them to do now is to start earnestly working on the next album while they tour.

 

 

Yup. I was shocked at how bad Around the Sun was, not because it's godawful (it's not--it's merely mediocre), but because when I saw these guys on tour in 2003 they sounded great. They were playing a mix of old and new material like they hadn't done since the Green tour and generally sounding better than they had in years. But clearly they did not spend any time on that tour working on new songs, and it showed on ATS.

 

I hope they take the opportunity that seems to be presented by the favorable critical response (so far) to Accelerate and get back to being a working band. They really haven't been one since Bill Berry left. Since the late 90s R.E.M. has been just another side project for Peter Buck, while Stipe makes art films and Mike Mills plays golf. If that's all they're going to do, you'd think they could convice Bill to get down off the tractor once every 3 years and help churn out a record...

[Analogman]

I won't buy this album. I am no longer willing to buy cds that I will end up listening to once. That is the great thing about this BT business - you can hear something and decide if you want to buy it or not. I did like a couple of the songs - so I will probably snag those in FLAC at some point. It did remind me of Monster somewhat - but I don't care for that album - except for

[LouieB]

There was a time when recording artists realized that their time had passed and that the best way to keep their career alive was to play hits and fan faves and leave it at that. I can't imagine any reason to get very excited about an REM record when they made many great albums with great songs (that are still played at least once an hour on WXRT). At some point REM is going to have to embrace its oldness (not unlike the Pixies and a myriad of other groups) and play the back catalogue and leave it at that. Not a bad way to make a living frankly.

 

LouieB