Looking Out To Sea

I mentioned that Helen bought REM’s new album Accelerate last week. It’s been a while since I’ve said this but I’m really enjoying their new stuff. For a start — and this has proved to be a good sign in the past — Michael Stipe is angry. His lyrics have bite and his singing does too.

Peter Buck and Mike Mills have given up farting around with their E-bows and keyboards and started making some loud noises with their instruments again. There’s real distortion on some of these songs! Angry chords! I’d say their current style is an amalgam of Monster, Automatic for the People and Up in all the good ways: political, loud, tuneful, energetic and alive.

It’s so good to hear them back on form again. We’ll just politely pretend that this is their first release since Up and all will be well.

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