The hype has been suffocating. Everybody from Rolling Stone to friggin' Sunday Morning on CBS has been yelling at me about the new REM album, Accelerate. They're saying it's a return to form, that they've made a bold move in cementing their legacy, that they've finally got their feet back under them after the departure of drummer Bill Berrry.
Well, they're right. In this case, you can believe the hype. I picked up Accelerate at my local vintage clothing Store/CD Shop/Coffee Shop/Boarding House/Yoga Studio Purple Haze, and damned if it didn't take me back in time, or rather along a different timeline.
Accelerate is all the things people are saying it is, sure. But it mostly sounds like REM in some kind of alternate timeline version of 1988, one in which they didn't sign to Warner Brothers Records and make Green and didn't become "Shiny Happy People." It's the record that they should've and could've made after Document. It's loud and fast and angry. Peter Buck's guitars blaze, Stipe mumbles, Mills nails the high harmony. This is the band I loved back then, and if you did too, get this record, turn it up to eleven, tight-roll your jeans and go back to a different 1988.
Here's some YouTubage from it:
No comments:
Post a Comment