Album Review: R.E.M. Collapse Into Now

R.E.M. is a band written off by some as having tumbled too far down a rabbit hole it dug deeper and deeper with every post-Bill Berry release. Though the albums that followed the drummer’s 1997 retirement included many great nuggets (Walk Unafraid, Imitation of Life, All the Way to Reno), their records’ increasingly esoteric production finally resulted in a popular backlash with 2004’s impenetrable Around the Sun. The songs were still there on that album, they were just shrouded in a listless sound that no longer resembled R.E.M. In fact, a re-working of some of the ATS material for 2007’s Live brought a few of the moribund tracks back to life.

The ATS backlash resulted in 2008’s Accelerate, an album that saw R.E.M. charge at listeners at a breakneck pace. Far from ramshackle, however, the collection of short, crunchy, not-overproduced songs re-energized the fan base. That the band would look to its early IRS-era material for a revitalization made sense; it was no surprise how well the new songs tucked in with the old, as evidenced by 2009’s Live at the Olympia in Dublin, a recorded rehearsal of unfinished Accelerate material and classics before a live audience.

If Accelerate was their “great comeback,” what would come next for R.E.M.? The answer is Collapse Into Now, a fine collection of 12 tracks that captures the texture of the band’s late-80s through early-90s period as effectively as Accelerate mined from their earlier history. CIN is not just a time warp to the successes of Green, Out of Time or Automatic for the People, however. The new material sounds modern and like the natural next step forward from Accelerate; R.E.M. gives one look back to the stylings of its previous release before moving onward. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare a veteran band’s new work to its past instead of look at it on its own merit, but that’s the natural by-product of a long and prolific career that’s kept fans wonder where the next destination would lie. After CIN, it seems R.E.M. has settled into doing what they do best – writing and recording great R.E.M. songs.

1. Discoverer The opening guitar and singular bass drum beat fire off the star of CIN like a shot across the bow. While the crunchy pre-chorus keeps one eye on Accelerate, the chorus veers into a new direction with Michael Stipe’s yelping of track’s title. It’s stark enough to engage the listener and pique curiosity of what’s to come.

2. All the Best After the initial electric buzz of amp static, the band kicks in like gangbusters with Mike Mills driving bass combining with Peter Buck’s guitars to build an intensity that peaks with each chorus. Two tracks into CIN and R.E.M. are still attacking the ears as if they’re in Accelerate mode.

3. Uberlin The third song marks the point where CIN departs from Accelerate. The echo on Stipe’s “hey, now” at the beginning of the song recalls Automatic’s Drive., as does Buck’s baroque-sounding acoustic guitar, but the new track has a certain momentum lacking in the older one. The bridge draws texture from the Imitation of Life’s bubbly synths. Here, R.E.M. blend their classic and contemporary stylings to create, not surprisingly, the album’s best song.

4. Oh My Heart Fans of Peter Buck’s mandolin, rejoice! The that that gave The One I Love (along with numerous other tracks, such as Green’s You Are the Everything) its signature, pastoral touch returns on CIN’s fourth cut. Thematically, Oh My Heart seems like a follow up to Accelerate’s Houston, as if the listener is getting the second installment of a story.

5. It Happened Today If Uberlin is the best song on the CIN, It Happened Today may be the most infectious. After getting down in a groove on the previous two tracks, R.E.M. raises spirits with the light acoustic guitar and pounding bass pedal before the song really lifts off with handclaps and tambourine. “It happened today, hip hip hurray” may not be Stipe’s finest lyrical moment, but any notion that insightful lyrics are a must-have get blown away at the 1:30 mark when all words are sidelined in favor of layers of ahhhs, ooooohs and mmms by Stipe, Mills and special guest Eddie Vedder. What’s a more appropriate way to harness E.V.’s vocal prowess than to capture some of his indecipherable, warbled crooning? Fan of Yellow Ledbetter may say there isn’t one.

6. Every Day is Yours to Win R.E.M. sound as if their playing in an echo chamber with Stipe’s vocal and Buck’s methodical arpeggios bouncing endlessly over the horizon while rhythm section given the listener something to grab on to. Though probably the slowest tempo of all the songs, the bridge lightens it up a tad and keeps it from going sad sack.

7. Mine Smell Like Honey The opening drum roll signals that the rollercoaster ride is going to careen upward. The crunchy chords give way to a transcendent chorus where Mills shows off his vitality in the harmonies department. This sounds like it could be a modernized track off of either Reckoning or Monster, an impressive feat given the gap between those two albums.

8. Walk It Back This piano-driven ballad again revisits Automatic and could even suffice as an uplifting coda to Everybody Hurts. Try these two tracks together for an astonishing listening experience.

9. Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter Here lies perhaps the only throwaway on CIN, and it’s a good throwaway at that with a charging tempo and crunched up guitars. The guest appearance of Canadian-born musician Peaches on backing vocals doesn’t really add much but doesn’t distract, either.

A note on sequencing CIN flows masterfully. The album has the right combination of rocker, mid-tempos and ballads and the listener never becomes fatigues by any of them; it all flies by in a fast 40 minutes. Credit goes a veteran band and producer Jacknife Lee for this. What some may consider a detail, but here the proper sequencing elevates the album and lets it work as a whole while letting its individual parts shine.

10. That Someone Is You The tenth track is pure power pop with punky energy, catchy harmonies and a stick-in-your-head lyrical rhyme in the form of Sharon Stone Casino, Scarface Al Pacino, ’74 Torino. At 1:44, it’s over before you’re ready to stop nodding your head. One criticism is that there are great guitar fills that are a little buried in the mix that would’ve really shone had they been turned up a notch.

11. Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I There’s no real connection, but perhaps this song will R.E.M.ind you of Neil Young’s Pocahontas? That may be too far a stretch, and the two sound nothing alike. In any case, R.E.M. starting cooling down the album with this cut as we drift into the final track.

12. Blue There’s a lot going on in CIN’s finale. Layers of down-tempo acoustic, reverb-drenched electric, descending bass a deliberate beat set a roiling canvas for Stipe’s spoken word riffing. There’s some trememdous imagery in the words. R.E.M.’s final vocal guest, Patti Smith, floats above the din, then delivers the songs final line before the track, and the album, swirls to its climax . . . only it doesn’t. A surprising coda of Discoverer fades in through the chimes and ends CIN on a sonically brighter note and brings everything back home again. It’s this reprise that sets the stage for the listener to hit “play” and start the ride once more.