R.E.M. to Reviewers: Don't Call it a Comeback

An honest yet comedic moment came last week when rock 'n' roll greats R.E.M. appeared on "The Colbert Report."

While interviewing the band, host Stephen Colbert mentioned the great critical reaction to Accelerate, the band's recently released 14th album.

"People are calling this your comeback album," Colbert said, referring to the murky reviews and lukewarm sales of their three albums since the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997. "When you hear people say that, do you want to tell those people to go f*** themselves?"

The audience laughed and so did the band. "There's a small part of me that kind of wants to say that," lead singer Michael Stipe finally replied.

It was a moment where humor revealed the truth. R.E.M. hasn't gone anywhere since its percussionist retired, though its records in the post-Berry era have gone largely unnoticed by the American record-buying public.

Around the Sun, the band's 2004 record, sold just under 250,000 copies in the band's home nation, despite moving 2 million copies worldwide. That speaks to the international appeal the group has maintained.

When America bailed on R.E.M., the group decided to bail on it. Maybe this is why Ireland and its people were so essential to the development of Accelerate.

The record's producer, Garret "Jacknife" Lee (an Irish lad) was recommended to the group by The Edge, the guitarist in U2 (which hails from Dublin, Ireland). Dublin's Olympia Theatre hosted R.E.M. for a five-night residency in 2007, the same venue at which R.E.M. Live was recorded two years earlier.

The Irish influence isn't apparent on the record, but these factors contributed to making Accelerate a robust blast of rock 'n' roll, especially its first three tracks.

Still, calling Accelerate a comeback ignores that R.E.M. has made a career out of shapeshifting. This is a band which, at the height of its popularity in the early '90s, showed pop chops (1991's Out of Time), beautiful sadness (1992's Automatic for the People) and fuzzed-out density (the underappreciated classic Monster) on consecutive records.

The word "comeback" also ignores the stellar material from 1998's Up, 2001's Reveal and Sun. Let there be no doubt — upon its first listen, Up sounded like a dissonant, alienating way to begin the post-Berry period. But further plays revealed its charms — "At My Most Beautiful" is a drippy, melancholic ballad that lives up to its title and ranks among the best songs R.E.M. has done. Reveal brought lead single "Imitation of Life," which would've fit seamlessly on 1988's gloriously poppy Green.

So Accelerate merely adds another wrinkle to their evolution, a new era for the ever-changing group. Ireland's Lee has them sounding tight, polished and rocking harder than they have since Berry's departure. Just hear guitarist Peter Buck blast out the riff which opens lead single "Supernatural Superserious" to know we've entered a new stage of the band's development.

Maybe the Irish connection helped charge R.E.M.'s rock 'n' roll batteries. Maybe it didn't. But however we got here, for the chamelion-like R.E.M., Accelerate marks an exciting new phase — not a comeback.

Update: Accelerate gave the band its highest American chart debut since Berry's departure, selling 115,000 copies to take the No. 2 spot on this week's Billboard chart.

Comments

[TimeToRock]

I saw this and it was as funny as hell. The Colbert Report rocks!