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| Manufacturer: Warner Bros.
Buy New: $9.99
Rating:  201 reviews
Sales Rank: 942
Genre: alternative-music
Media: Music Download
Running Time: 0 Minutes
ASIN: B0016679JW
Release Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not even close to Automatic for the People April 5, 2008
Musicman
35 out of 92 found this review helpful
Almost all songs on this CD are totally lacking a melody line. Listen to the lyrics - they are mostly mono-tonal. With the exception of Supernatural Superserious, the CD lacks the catchy R.E.M. sound that I was hoping would be recaptured on Accelerate. Also, the recording is not crisp, again, with the exception of Supernatural Superserious. Interesting how it almost sounds like that song was recorded intentionally cleaner, to make for better radio play in anticipation of the debut of the CD, so we would all expect (I did) that this would be the sound and song quality of Accerelerate. Much to my dissapointment, it wasn't.
 The Best Revenge April 9, 2008
Howlinw (California, USA)
35 out of 44 found this review helpful
(Please note, this is a review of the songs on the album rather than the mixing quality. Other reviewers seem to have amply covered the whole mixing issue. I'll agree that the overall sound of the album veers more than a bit towards the monolithically loud/distorted side of the fence which can at times be somewhat grating, and I would definitely have made some different production choices were I the man behind the boards. However, with songs this fantastic I'll just have to make do...)
I am always wary of the "comeback" record, although enough of my old favorites have experienced recent late-career renaissance periods to open my mind a bit to the concept (a great example of this, by the way, is Ray Davies's new album Working Man's Cafe). I was particularly wary in the case of REM, however, because of what I call the "Monster phenomenon." REM dropped the Monster album after recording two quiet, primarily acoustic albums (Out Of Time and Automatic For The People) in the early 90s. I recall that this album was billed as a return to more of a pure rock style but turned out to be very different than REM's earlier work. At the time I enjoyed it but it hasn't aged as well as their earlier work and the band itself moved away quickly from this sound with the far superior New Adventures in Hi-Fi which was sort of a concept disc about the road.
So when I saw how much press this one was getting for its "return to the basics" I was a bit apprehensive. Still curious enough to buy a copy, but half-thinking it'd be in the used bins in less than a week. Was I ever wrong in that judgment!
This album hit me from the get-go and didn't let up. I felt the old excitement that discovering a new REM album would bring to me back in the day, back in high school when my friends and I traded tapes of albums like Document and Green. In fact, those albums are a direct parallel to what I heard here. This is the true return to form that "Monster" wasn't. Michael's lyrics are once again razor-sharp and directed outwards at the world around him (as opposed to the insularity present on more recent efforts like Up and Reveal, or the terrible Around The Sun). When he does choose an inward focus (as on the heartfelt "Hollow Man"), the message stands out in stark relief from the songs around it and is that much stronger for it. The real treat here comes with the last five songs. "Until The Day Is Done" is a beautiful, mournful reflection on our times which would fit in perfectly on Automatic For The People. "Mr. Richards" is one of the most effectively pointed criticisms of the greed-oriented mindset that besets the modern business world that I have ever heard put to music (who IS this Mr. Richards anyway?). The album then veers beautifully into a deep, rich, haunting jangle-pop sound that references the band's very early work (Fables Of The Reconstruction) with "Sing For The Submarine" (catch the "Gravity's Pull" reference, old fans, and rejoice!) before upping the ante with the punkish "Horse To Water" (perhaps the best song on here, which would fit perfectly on Document or Life's Rich Pageant) and concluding with the fun, catchy "I'm Gonna DJ." What a finish - if there were any doubts about REM's renewed relevance, this "second side" of the album dispels them all.
Unlike some reviewers here I don't find any of this music to sound forced or studied - in fact the feel is quite the opposite. This is the sound of a band with something to prove - that being their relevance after years of growing soft around the middle. When cornered they just let it all loose with renewed purpose and the result is jaw-dropping. Who knew they still had it in them? This album once again sounds like REM, the band founded by a man who threw up the first time he heard Patti Smith, and who loved the Velvet Underground. I am proud to shelve this alongside Murmur, Reckoning, Life's Rich Pageant, Automatic For The People, and a slew of other life-changing recordings that have consistently made this one of the essential bands in my music-loving life. Welcome back my friends and may you churn out more great American music with heart and conscience for years to come.
REM Needs a Reconstruction for this Fable. April 9, 2008
Rezzak
31 out of 80 found this review helpful
[...] This is the second cd I bought this week that sounds like the recording mastering was done by monkeys. The other was the Breeders Mountain Battles. Why must good songs be ruined by sound that is unbearable? I find myself listening to this cd very quietly after MUCH EQ fiddling. Its like the cd is daring me to jam out to the amazing songs but when I do I get punished with eardrum shattering distortion. How can some bands let the record companies turn their art into 35 minute sonic crap sandwiches? Man I thought REM would know better. Shame on all the bands and labels lately trying to swindle us with these cost cutting 35 minute recordings and LOUDER is better mastering. REM needs to add a few tracks to this cd and remaster it!
PEEE-EW! April 8, 2008
K. B. Mason (Atlanta, GA)
28 out of 93 found this review helpful
Who knows? Maybe I'll change my mind later, but right now this one stinks like old feet. I typically hate their politics with a burning passion, but like their music. Sorry guys. Not this time.
Yes Yes Yes!!! April 9, 2008
D Gonzalez (New Jersey, USA)
28 out of 37 found this review helpful
I have been a fan of R.E.M. from their inception and I can't express how happy I am to see them return to their roots. After ending up in the limbo state of Up, Reval, and Around The Sun, they have finally shaken off their introspective experimental chains and returned to what they do best. Every track on thsi album seems to blow back to Monster, one of their best works. But there is no need to compare it to their past works, this is just an amazing album. Welcome back R.E.M.!
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