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R.E.M.--"Accelerate" track listing

post #1 of 258
1/25/08 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
It sounds like maybe they've done it. Plus, there's a song called "Hollow Man," so the record should automatically get some love around here. From Billboard:

Quote:
R.E.M. Rocks Hard On New 'Accelerate'


January 25, 2008, 10:55 AM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
After two consecutive albums dominated by mid-tempo fare, R.E.M. gets back to its stripped-down, fast-paced rock roots on "Accelerate," due April 1 via Warner Bros. The 11-track set, which gets in and out in a lightning-quick 34 minutes and change, is led by the single "Supernatural Superserious."

Opener "Living Well's the Best Revenge" sets the tone, with a prominent lead guitar figure from Peter Buck, thumping, melodic bass lines and backing vocals from Mike Mills and a rapid stream of lyrics from frontman Michael Stipe. The track almost seems like a musical cousin to "Just a Touch" from 1986's "Life's Rich Pageant."

The up-tempo approach extends to "Supernatural Superserious," a video for which was shot earlier this week on Manhattan's Lower East Side. "You realize your fantasies are dressed up in travesties / enjoy yourself with no regrets," Stipe instructs on the track, which should hit radio sometime next month.

Elsewhere, "Hollow Man" begins as a piano ballad but quickly morphs into a revved-up chorus, while "Horse To Water" is a noisy, angular rocker with the unmistakable stamp of R.E.M.'s pre-major label days.

Among the slower departures are "Houston," which is vaguely reminiscent of the vintage "Swan Swan H," and the politically charged "Until the Day Is Done" ("The verdict is dire / the country's in ruins," Stipe sings).

A number of the "Accelerate" tracks were premiered last summer during "working rehearsal" shows in Dublin. The album was produced by Jacknife Lee, best known for his work with Snow Patrol and U2.

Here is the track list for "Accelerate":

"Living Well's the Best Revenge"
"Mansized Wreath"
"Supernatural Superserious"
"Hollow Man"
"Houston"
"Accelerate"
"Until the Day Is Done"
"Mr. Richards"
"Sing for the Submarine"
"Horse To Water"
"I'm Gonna DJ"
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post #2 of 258
1/25/08 at 4:11pm
35 minutes?
Fuck that's short.

Love R.E.M
Can't wait to have them back in form.
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post #3 of 258
1/25/08 at 4:30pm
When the hell did REM become the Ramones?
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post #4 of 258
1/25/08 at 5:42pm
After they became Sting and Don Henley, apparently.
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post #5 of 258
1/25/08 at 5:42pm
I've always thought the range of 33 – 37 minutes as optimal for album length.
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post #6 of 258
1/25/08 at 5:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Warren View Post
I've always thought the range of 33 – 37 minutes as optimal for album length.
Committing to a short album length can do wonders for eliminating filler. Some of my favorite albums are really long, but most of these seem long by necessity. Like Tommy and Quadrophenia needed all of those songs to get a point across, and the Clash had a lot to get off their chests with London Calling.

A lot of long albums are disappointing because the artist went into the project with the intent of making an epic and came up short in the song department. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the textbook example of this. That would have been a great 40-minute album.
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post #7 of 258
1/25/08 at 6:27pm
Yeah, before 1991, 35 minutes was about what most albums were (I'm sure of this, because you could usually fit 3 songs on the end of a 45 minute cassette after the album). We've had arguments here about how the rise of mp3's is killing the album format, but as far as I'm concerned, the ability to put every piece of shit outtake on an album is what killed it.

I'm not crazy about that title, though. They should have called it XLR8. That would have been awesome.
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post #8 of 258
1/25/08 at 10:05pm
They had me with "melodic bass lines" and "backing vocals from Mike Mills."

The length doesn't bother me; it seems right in line with Reckoning or Lifes Rich Pageant.
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post #9 of 258
1/25/08 at 10:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
. That would have been a great 40-minute album.

And it would have been a fantastic 9 minute album.
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post #10 of 258
1/26/08 at 2:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
Committing to a short album length can do wonders for eliminating filler. Some of my favorite albums are really long, but most of these seem long by necessity.
I agree, length seems to work best when it's tied-up in the concept. A lot of my "favourite" albums clock-in at around 35 minutes, and the longer ones tend to be exceptions to that rule.

Adding an oddity to the end of an album seems to be a popular way to violate this rule — I'm fairly sure Neon Bible, for example, could do without "My Body is a Cage".
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post #11 of 258
1/28/08 at 5:10pm
Thread Starter 
And now we have tourdates and openers. Of course, to prove God's ongoing hatred of me, they're playing my least favorite local venue. From Billboard:

Quote:
Modest Mouse, The National Opening R.E.M. Tour

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

R.E.M. has drafted Modest Mouse and the National as support acts for its upcoming tour of North American theaters and arenas, which begins May 23 in Vancouver. The outing comes on the heels of the April 1 release of R.E.M.'s new Warner Bros. album, "Accelerate."

Although an official announcement was made today (Jan. 2, the National frontman Matt Berninger spilled the beans during an interview last week with Australia's Triple J radio.

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has been a vocal admirer of the New York-by-way-of-Cincinnati band in recent months, and attended one of its shows in London last year.

Modest Mouse has been off the road since mid-December; the group's 2007 Epic album, "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sunk," was its first to feature former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.

Here are R.E.M.'s tour dates:

May 23: Vancouver (Deer Lake Park)
May 29: Los Angeles (Hollywood Bowl)
May 31: Berkeley, Calif. (Greek Theatre)
June 3: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks)
June 6: Chicago (United Center)
June 8: Toronto (Molson Amphitheatre)
June 10: Raleigh, N.C. (Walnut Creek)
June 11: Columbia, Md. (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
June 13: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)
June 14: Wantagh, N.Y. (Jones Beach)
June 18: Philadelphia (Mann Center
June 19: New York (TBA)
June 21: Atlanta (Lakewood Amphitheatre)
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post #12 of 258
1/28/08 at 6:39pm
There's an R.E.M. song called "Houston"?

Holy shit. Excited again.
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post #13 of 258
1/28/08 at 6:41pm
Just like that, huh? Your big, brave blog about not caring anymore, all gone. I see how it is.

Edit: Too bad it'll probably be some obvious rant on the George Bush. (And at this point, I wouldn't dismiss some hackneyed "Houston, we have a problem" line about W.)

I miss the mumblin'.
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post #14 of 258
1/28/08 at 6:45pm
Heh. Yeah, I'm a fickle bitch.
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post #15 of 258
1/28/08 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil! View Post
Edit: Too bad it'll probably be some obvious rant on the George Bush. (And at this point, I wouldn't dismiss some hackneyed "Houston, we have a problem" line about W.)

I miss the mumblin'.
You know what... I have the feeling it's going to be something else. Here's why.

When R.E.M. toured with their greatest hits CD a couple of years back, at the end, Stipe said that this show was their favorite show they performed on the tour. Apparently they loved Houston so much that they tributed a song the next day in Austin to the Houston crowd, or so I'm told by someone who was there. So it may be a love letter kind of song. Or maybe not, who knows. Either way, I'm happy my favorite band references my hometown.
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post #16 of 258
1/28/08 at 6:58pm
You keep that dream alive, Nordling. I BEEN BURNED! I been burned by a jangly fire!
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post #17 of 258
1/28/08 at 10:01pm
Thread Starter 
I remain optimistic, despite the last few albums.

Keep in mind I was voted "Most Likely to be Naive and Dumb Forever" in high school.
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post #18 of 258
1/29/08 at 1:31am
Whoa. NYC gets The Cure and R.E.M. on back to back nights in June. That's kinda cool.
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post #19 of 258
1/29/08 at 3:59am
I want to buy into the hype, it's just tough. But somethin' better happen soon or it's gonna be too late to bring me back.

Amiright?!
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post #20 of 258
1/29/08 at 9:22am
I see what you did there.
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post #21 of 258
1/30/08 at 4:53pm
http://perpetua.tumblr.com/post/25020780

Sounds like it could be the opposite direction from their last few albums. I'm vaguely intrigued.
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post #22 of 258
1/30/08 at 4:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan "Nordling" Cerny View Post
There's an R.E.M. song called "Houston"?

Holy shit. Excited again.

There's also a song called "Supernatural Superserious"
which is about as lame as a song title could be.

Don't get your hopes up too high, how good could it possibly be?
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post #23 of 258
1/30/08 at 5:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Collins View Post
There's also a song called "Supernatural Superserious"
which is about as lame as a song title could be.

Don't get your hopes up too high, how good could it possibly be?
From the clips I've heard, that song sounds like winner. So, to answer your question, I think the spectrum runs from "not very good" to "really, really great." Kind of like the spectrum for judging everything else ever.
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post #24 of 258
1/30/08 at 5:14pm
"it feels really fucking desperate, in a good way. like, the last word before the bombs go off"

That's the best possible one-line review I could have hoped for.
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post #25 of 258
2/6/08 at 4:26pm
first single

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/f...serious-stream
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post #26 of 258
2/6/08 at 5:04pm
I like it!
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post #27 of 258
2/6/08 at 5:18pm
I kinda like it, but I'm not yet ready to herald their return to form...
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post #28 of 258
2/6/08 at 5:21pm
Dammit, can't hear it here at work. I'll have to wait till I get home.
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post #29 of 258
2/6/08 at 5:23pm
Thread Starter 
I hate my work firewall.
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post #30 of 258
2/6/08 at 10:44pm
MP3 here.

Stipe's lyrics still aren't as good as the early days, but Mills and (especially) Buck are back on point. As a single, it's very radio-friendly for 2008 without compromising the R.E.M. sound, which is exactly what the band needs at this point. All potential success for the excellent New Adventures and the over-hated Up was wasted by releasing meandering first singles, but "Supernatural Superserious" should get people talking about the band for the first time in years. Sure, I sound superficial, but I want my favorite band to pull themselves out of the has-been gutter, sell some records, and regain their popularity. Even if the song doesn't get any airplay, maybe at least a few good reviews will keep the band from regressing back to the lethargic mess of Around the Sun.
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post #31 of 258
2/7/08 at 12:19am
Really fucking good. I'm happy.
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post #32 of 258
2/12/08 at 12:04pm
Review.
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post #33 of 258
2/12/08 at 12:17pm
Not entirely sold on the single, but still look forward to the album.
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post #34 of 258
2/12/08 at 12:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
From that review:

Quote:
I can’t imagine this is at all intentional, but some of Accelerate reminds me of late-period Guided by Voices, specifically the Isolation Drills album
!!!
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post #35 of 258
2/12/08 at 12:28pm
I'd say that first single did, a bit.
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post #36 of 258
2/12/08 at 12:31pm
Thread Starter 
I could see that. I'm feeling more and more positive about this.
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post #37 of 258
2/13/08 at 5:56pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.supernaturalsuperserious.com
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post #38 of 258
2/13/08 at 6:08pm
That's fucking cool.
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post #39 of 258
2/13/08 at 6:17pm
That's cool. Wish the footage was a little more varied.
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post #40 of 258
2/15/08 at 6:11pm
My friend and I decided to take a crack at the footage from the site and cut our own videos last night. This song is definitely growing on me.

His. (The superior one, if you ask me.)

Mine.
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post #41 of 258
2/22/08 at 4:03pm
Thread Starter 
They may be going a little overboard with the sub-sites. That being said, here you go:

http://www.remaccelerate.com/
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post #42 of 258
3/11/08 at 1:08pm
Thread Starter 
R.E.M. nerd Misfit here, with the latest R.E.M. news. From Billboard:

Quote:
Forget the traditional radio premiere: R.E.M.'s new album, "Accelerate," is set to debut on the social networking application iLike.

The roll-out, the first of its kind for a major act, will allow fans to stream and share "Accelerate" in its entirety beginning March 24, a week ahead of the album's April 1 release date.

"It was one of those ideas that was presented to us and it seemed like a good one so we ran for it," R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe tells Billboard.com. He also noted that the way people embrace music "has certainly changed in the last 5 or 10 years. I think you can either go with it or sit back and watch it happen, and I would rather be out on the field than in the bleachers."

Accompanied by an exclusive video of the band talking about the album, the iLike launch will make the 11-song set freely available to anyone using iLike.com, Facebook, iTunes or any of the other social networks and sites that offer an iLike application for their platforms.

The iLike premiere of "Accelerate" is R.E.M.'s latest example of using direct-to-listener online initiatives to present their music. As previously reported, the band recently launched a Web site of raw footage and invited visitors to edit their own video for the album's first single, "Supernatural Superserious." The trio has also been doling out downloadable glimpses of the new material one day at a time via Ninetynights.com.


R.E.M. played its inaugural show of the year last week in Florida at the Langerado festival. Aside from mixing old favorites with a large sampling from "Accelerate," Stipe revealed his presidential candidate of choice by sporting a Barack Obama t-shirt.
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post #43 of 258
3/11/08 at 3:40pm
live version of hollow man

http://remring.com/index.php?option=...=670&Itemid=26
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post #44 of 258
3/12/08 at 6:10pm
Thread Starter 
Excellent, thanks for that.

From Murmurs. This is an Atlanta station, but they stream online:

Quote:
On Thursday, March 13th at 9PM, Dave92.9fm presents:
"R.E.M. An Inside Look At Accelerate."

It is a 1 hour radio special featuring an interview with the band and previewing songs off of the new record.

Time is 9PM (R.E.M. Athens time) or GMT-5.

You can listen live by going to www.Z93.com
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post #45 of 258
3/13/08 at 9:47am
The show from last night is streaming on npr

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=88155007
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post #46 of 258
3/13/08 at 10:00am
Okay, I'm interested. Living Well is the Best Revenge had a lot of good moments in it.

Thanks for that SXSW link.
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post #47 of 258
3/13/08 at 11:21pm
The SXSW show is pretty good so far. If the album versions of the songs sound as good as the live versions then I'll think we'll have us a pretty great r.e.m. album.

That version of "Drive" from the SXSW show is pretty great, too. I'm not sure I've ever heard a live version of that song that I've really liked.
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post #48 of 258
3/15/08 at 6:02pm
Listening to the whole album right now and I'm really liking what I hear.
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post #49 of 258
3/15/08 at 10:23pm
My first impression is that it starts really strong and loses a little steam near the end. Still a really good album. Easily their best in a really long time. Hopefully the couple of songs near the end that didn't grab me will grow on me over time.
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post #50 of 258
3/16/08 at 9:25am
"Hollow Man" is greatness. Holy shit, it feels like they made this album for me alone. "Houston is full of promise..."
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