I've documented my love of R.E.M. before (and I just made a pun), but I didn't really get into my waning interest of each successive post-Bill Berry album. All of these albums have highlights (well, barely for Around the Sun (I just had to look up the name of the album if that gives you any idea)), but I'm tired of hearing that each subsequent album is their best in 10 years, a return to form, or some cliched variation thereof. I found Accelerate to be passable but not close to approaching their best, and perhaps it's because I went into it with these aforementioned positive reviews in my mind.
When I heard the first song off of Collapse into Now, R.E.M.'s 2011 record, I was not impressed. I read the usual hubbub about how great the record was, but I was disenfranchised to the point where I thought about not buying the album - an idea that even 10 years ago would have been unthinkable.
Well, it turns out it's still pretty unthinkable, and a trip to Amoeba for some other records made it impossible to withstand the pull. So I took the album home, listened to the first side and was pleasantly surprised. Then I listened to it a few more times, and found myself thinking this is, in fact, a very good album. I think the key reason for me was that it wasn't R.E.M. trying to rock out, and Accelerate seemed to want to prove that the band still could. But at this point I'd rather hear R.E.M. try to recreate Automatic than Monster, which is probably why the song on Collapse that really stuck with me is today's song of the day, "Uberlin."
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