Accelerate!
Well I’ve succeeded in going a whole month without posting anything on here. But to more exciting news, R.E.M. have released their new album!! Accelerate is amazing, I must say. Now I’m not too keen on giving reviews, or accreditation to an album after only 3 days, but as of now I’m gonna give it 4/5 stars. And in this, it would be typical R.E.M.-fare. Now it may seem like such a breath of fresh air after Reveal and Around the Sun, which haven’t necessarily gone down too well with other R.E.M. fans, including me. Though I listen to both those albums quite a bit, I think they’re the two weakest in the canon.
The opening two tracks hit like a perfect one-two punch reminiscent of Lifes Rich Pageant. Everything in between is not as fast and hard-hitting as the first two tracks, though they’re on average more aggressive than anything on the previous two albums. And about the final track…the closer “I’m Gonna DJ”…what a amazing and exciting recording. I was there in L.A. 5 years ago when they first played the track live in front of an audience. Subsequent bootlegs have not deterred my likeness for the track (which would be played at every concert since). And with this new album I was wondering how they’d record it and how it would sound. Well the achieved an amazing result, I believe. As of now it has the highest play-count on my iTunes for the album.
The entire album is lean with a 3 minute track norm and 33+ minute existence. What excites me the most is the energy that runs through the entire album. Even it’s slower songs have some weird sense of urgency. I’ve read that they suddenly realized that life is short. It sounds like they carried that mantra into the recording studio.
In other R.E.M.-related news, I got two tickets this morning to see them in Berkeley on May 31st. I goofed earlier this year and didn’t renew my fanclub membership on time and thus missed out on the fanclub ticket specials. Oh well. Their only other show in California is 2 days before in Los Angeles. I’m still undecided about going for the following reasons:
money–time–the drive–money–going by myself–money–a place to stay
Well, I’ve gone by myself before so that’s not too much of an issue, and I always have places to stay when I go down south, but my friends live east of L.A., not necessarily in the city so thus I have a nice 40 minute drive by myself back to their house after the show. I’ll have time as well since I’ll be out of school, but I’ll have to miss a couple days of work. The upside? Well besides the actual show and seeing my friends again, Michael Stipe is having a book signing the night before the show at some bookstore in Hollywood. The book is a new collection of band photos through the last few years. And since I’ve never met a member of the band, this is my chance. I’d probably buy the book anyways, but autographed by JMS in person and possibly a handshake and photo with the best songwriter in the past 28 years…well that tips the scales and it looks like I might just buy that ticket to L.A….though now the best I’m most likely to get is the lawn. But I’m not complaining. 
Tags: Current Events
