Release March 8th
On R.E.M.’s last album Accelerate, released nearly three years ago, they blazed through 11 songs, some of those barely breaking two minutes. Accelerate showed that even at their age they could still rock with the best of them. On their new album, Collapse Into Now, they’ve found a way to pull all of the pieces of their 30 year career into one album.
Just because you hear an acoustic instrument don’t immediately hearken back to your “Losing My Religion”/”Country Feedback” days. The 5 songs we’ve heard off the new album cover the sounds of their entire catalog.
“Discover” could have found a home on Green.
“It Happened Today” could have found a home right beside “New Test Leper” on New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
“Uberlin” would have fit in nicely on Up somewhere between “Sad Professor” and “Daysleeper.”
“Oh My Heart” sounds like it could have been taken straight from the Out of Time sessions.
And the single “Mine Smell Like Honey” that is all over the airwaves now seems to be R.E.M.’s modern day sound. It’s the modern sound that put “Bad Day” all over the airwaves not too many years ago.
Long story short, the new album might not change your life like some of their earlier albums had the potential to do, but long time R.E.M. fans will find their niche somewhere on this album.
