REM, Accelerate Review

Overall Rating

Likeable, with the single Supernatural Superserious being a stand out.

A few non-stand outs too like 'I'm gonna DJ' which sounds like a near-to-death cat being killed very slowly...

Considering they've been out of it for years, REM with Accelerate have come back with a worse album than they should be able to come up with. My friends' favourite track, 'Horse to Water', has a solid chorus but the verse sounds rushed, while the first track 'Living Well is the Best Revenge' holds a similar problem.
As with the Killers it seems like the problem may reside with the lyrics. I preferr their old stuff simply because they weren't being loud for the sake of it (which I think occurs a lot in this album). Why pin the blame on the singer then? It seems that his voice isn't suited to 'loud' music (by which I mean 'containing OTT guitar lyrics and a darker tune over-all') and as the latter part of the album shows, his voice isn't particularly suited to softer music either.
In Conclusion then, a welcome return to an above average band, but it could have (and probably should have) been better.