Full Throttle
R.E.M. - Accelerate
It really is that good. Everything I'd read about this album said that it was great. A return to form. Back to being a rock band. Usually that kind of hype just sets up unrealistic expectations, but R.E.M. deliver the goods, big time. Maybe it was reuniting with Bill Berry for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year that infused them with their old spirit. Maybe it was their career-long emulation of U2 that led them to hire Jacknife Lee, the producer of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Whatever it was, the band has rediscovered their vitality. I wouldn't go so far as to say that their last couple of albums sucked, but I don't remember the last time I listened to Up or Reveal, and I never even bought Around The Sun. But listening to Accelerate for the first time reminded me of how it felt when I first got into the band in high school. It just has that kind of energy. It's not only their best album since Berry left the band, it's their best since Document.
R.E.M. - "Living Well Is The Best Revenge" (mp3)
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I agree completely. I listen to this and I am transported back to FHS when my friends and I listened to R.E.M. religiously (trying to decipher what the heck the lyrics were) and seeing them play at MTSU's Murphy Center.
I just keep playing Accelerate over and over again.
I just keep playing Accelerate over and over again.
I've got a flyer for the Murphy Center concert hanging up in my apartment. I remember we were all disappointed because Robyn Hitchcock was opening some of the shows on that tour, but we got the Indigo Girls. It was hard to be disappointed after the show though, REM was great. One of my friends and I snuck into their dressing room before hand, and left a note asking that they play "Secret Agent Man." They didn't of course, but Mike Mills made a reference to the bootleg it came from between sets. I've still got a really crappy copy of the bootleg we made floating around my cassette collection.
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