Accelerate
release date: Apr. 1, 2008
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
[3,35]
producer: Jacknife Lee and R.E.M.
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA
Track highlights:
1.
"Living Well Is the Best Revenge" -
2.
"Man-Sized Wreath" (3,5 / 5) -
3. "Supernatural Superserious" (4 / 5) -
4.
"Hollow Man" (3,5 / 5) -
5.
"Houston" (3,5 / 5) -
7.
"Until the Day Is Done" (3,5 / 5) -
9.
"Sing for the Submarine" (3,5 / 5) -
10.
"Horse to Water" (
live)
14th studio album by R.E.M. released on Warner Bros. and produced by Jacknife Lee and R.E.M. Maybe it has to do with a new producer in the driving seat, or it's just a strong will to do better than their worst release 3,5 years earlier with
Around the Sun (2004). I know that many had seen the end of the band, and almost 4 years is a long time without releasing new material. Apparently, The Edge of U2 recommended to have Jacknife Lee produce the album. Stylistically, it's like a decision to make a another rocking compilation of energetic songs, which makes it their most hard rocking album since
Monster (1994). It's only recently that I have listened fully to the album, and it really blew me away 'cause frankly, I had given in on the band, which is why I didn't bother when it was released. The album consists of 13 tracks with 8 fine compositions and the rest not much lower, so it's not an album of fillers. It's not great like their 5 best albums but just below that. To me, it's better than
Up (1998), equaling their first three albums,
Out of Time (1991),
New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), and
Reveal (2001).
[
allmusic.com,
The Guardian,
Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
~ ~ ~
"Sing for the Submarine"
"It feels in dreams
That everything is there for you
The city breathes and pulses
It's for you electron blue
I knew that you could see right through it
So this is where I give in to the machine
Lift up your voice feel gravity's pull
Drown out the siren's ring (or silent dream)
Oh...
It's all here where I keep it
It's all in the submarine
It's all a lot less frightening
than you would have had it be
But that's the good news my darling
It is what it's going to be
So sing, sing for the submarine
I tried to explain how it all begins
How its all destroyed and built again
I knew that you could not believe me
But now you're here and it's different
How the light shines in your eyes
In every second or situ
It's then that I realised
That the world as we know it
The High speed train
We'll pick it all up and start again
It's all here where I keep it
It's all in the submarine
It's all a lot less frightening
than you would have had it be
But that's the good news my darling
It is what it's going to be
So sing, sing for the submarine
The city did not collapse in a shudder
The rain it never came
At least my confessions made you laugh
I know it's a little crazed
But these dreams...
they seem so real to me
It's all here where I keep it
It's all in the submarine
It's all a lot less frightening
than you would have had it be
But that's the good news my darling
It is what it's going to be
So sing, sing for the submarine
So this is where you trust me
And this where it begins
It's all a lot less frightening
Your tear you let it in
Tyrel and his mechanical owl
A moth disguised as a leaf...
Don't tell me what tomorrow brings
Climb into the hidden machine and
sing sing sing sing sing sing
sing sing for the submarine"
~ ~ ~
