R.E.M.: Accelerate - 04/01/08
 

http://www.murmurs.com/acceleratecoveruk2.jpg

Tracklisting:

1 Living Well's The Best Revenge
2 Man Sized Wreath
3 Supernatural Superserious
4 Hollow Man
5 Houston
6 Accelerate
7 Until The Day Is Done
8 Mr Richards
9 Sing For The Submarine
10 Horse To Water
11 I'm Gonna DJ

from pitchforkmedia:

R.E.M. Gear Up to Accelerate on New LP
There's some bands we like to report on, and one of them is R.E.M.

The name all but gives it away, but according to Billboard.com, R.E.M.'s forthcoming 14th LP, titled Accelerate, is gonna be fast. The lethargic (read: forgettable) touch of 2004's Around the Sun is nowhere to be found, replaced with what band managed Bertis Downs calls "rockers." Accelerate emerges on Warner Brothers April 1 in North America and the day before in the UK and elsewhere, but a good new R.E.M. LP can't come fast enough.

Though a full tracklist has yet to be finalized, quite a few tunes from the band's recent live residency in Dublin made the cut, including "Living Well is the Best Revenge", "Until the Day is Done", "Horse to Water" and "Aftermath". The band plans to tour this spring, but with those dates still up in the air, your best chance at previewing these snappy tunes and smiling patiently through a slow one or two will come at March's Langerado Festival.

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Well, it can't be any worse than their last effort, right? :)

Seriously, I am a big, big R.E.M. fan but that last album was pretty rough. Glad to hear that this one will be more rock oriented.

Never heard their last one, but this sounds good.

I hope this will be great their last outing was disappointing. Overall REM is still one my fave bands.

REM is way past due for some sort of good album. the fact that they're still signed to any record label is beyond me.

i'll keep my fingers crossed.

R.E.M. Prepares To 'Accelerate'

Nobody would ever confuse R.E.M. for Metallica, but the guitars have definitely been turned up for the Georgia group's 14th studio album, "Accelerate," due April 1 via Warner Bros.

Nearly all the material was tested out during a summer run in Dublin, although manager Bertis Downs tells Billboard a few of those songs didn't make the cut, and that a couple of album tunes were held back from live airings.

Mostly gone is the drowsy vibe of 2004's "Around the Sun," with "Living Well Is the Best Revenge," "Horse to Water," "Aftermath" and "Until the Day Is Done" recapturing the old R.E.M. energy. "It's not like we're going to pretend these are ballads. These are rockers," Downs says.

"I feel like there's a confidence in the material, and a communication between the three of us that hasn't been there for some time," frontman Michael Stipe told Uncut. "We didn't talk to each other for a couple of records -- as friends or as bandmates. And we reached a point before this LP where we just sat down at a table and hashed it out."

R.E.M. will tour this spring; for now, the lone confirmed date is an appearance at the Langerado Festival, which runs March 6-9 in Big Cypress, Fla.


BILLBOARD.com

I'm looking forward to this. R.E.M. was strong for so many years, I think they can still crank out another great album or two.

I'm not sure I have ever had such a favorite band drop to such levels of mediocrity before. Their last album was god-awful and "Reveal" only had a couple of decent songs. It's nice to hear they are making some changes for the new album.

There are bootlegs floating around from those Dublin shows where they did about a dozen new songs. What I heard gives me hope about this new album, especially after "Around The Sun". I have to defend "Reveal" though, I think that's a really lovely album.

I have liked all of their one word titled albums and expect this one to be good too.

Here's a link to the site with a pic of the cover. A track listing is also out there somewhere. I'll see if I can track it down.

http://www.murmurs.com/node/2060

Around the Sun was the first REM album I didn't buy. Let's hope this one ends that trend.

If you took 3-4 songs each off Up, Reveal and Around the Sun you could put out a pretty good album, instead of the bleh ones we got. IMHO their last truly great one was New Adventures in HiFi, which I think is very underrated. I wonder if Bill Berry was the real secret weapon in the band?

Way, way back in the 80's, I remember reading an interview where they made a band pledge that they would break up the band on New Years Day 2000. I kinda wish that they had.

I think they also pledged to not go on if a member quit.

So much for pledges.

Didn't Berry tell them that he would only quit if they stayed together?

Tracklisting:
1 Living Well's The Best Revenge
2 Man Sized Wreath
3 Supernatural Superserious
4 Hollow Man
5 Houston
6 Accelerate
7 Until The Day Is Done
8 Mr Richards
9 Sing For The Submarine
10 Horse To Water
11 I'm Gonna DJ

Reveal and Around The Sun were massive disappointments after the underrated masterpiece that is Up.

Agreed. I may be in the minority but I loved Up.

Just read that for the upcoming tour Modest Mouse and The National will be opening up for R.E.M. What a great triple bill that is!!

IIRC, they closed out some shows on the 2004 tour with this song.

I hope it's good, I haven't liked an album since New Adventures In Hi-Fi

Woohoo!

R.E.M. TO TOUR NORTH AMERICA IN SUPPORT OF ACCELERATE

We are thrilled to announce that R.E.M. will tour North America this May and June in support of Accelerate , their new record, set to be released on April 1. The band will be joined on the tour by Modest Mouse and The National in Canada and the United States.

++the dates++

Vancouver
5/23 - DEER LAKE PARK

Los Angeles
5/29 - HOLLYWOOD BOWL

Berkeley
5/31 - THE GREEK THEATRE

Denver
6/03 - RED ROCKS

Chicago
6/06 - UNITED CENTER

Toronto
6/08 - MOLSON AMPHITHEATRE

Raleigh
6/10 - WALNUT CREEK AMPHITHEATRE

Washington DC
6/11 - MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION

Boston
6/13 - TWEETER CENTER

Long Island
6/14 - JONES BEACH THEATER

Philadelphia
6/18 - MANN CENTER

New York City
6/19 - TBA

Atlanta
6/21 - LAKEWOOD AMPHITEATRE


REMHQ.com

No Detroit. :(

no STL, either. :(