Accelerate
Artist: R.E.M. 
Label: Warner Bros / Wea 
ASIN: B0013BNY2Q 

Full of guitar riffs, great melodies and lyrics with a little more depth than all the dragonflies they have been singing about recently, this is R.E.M. doing what U2 declared they were trying to do after Pop had lost them some ground; re-applying for the job of biggest band on the planet. Accelerate is the sound of a band on an urgent mission; to re-establish their importance. Weighing in at less than thirty five minutes it is urgent, punchy and vital. Jacknife Lee is in the production seat and brings that edgy yet accessible sound that has seen Snow Patrol and Bloc Party enter the big league. The shiny happy people fans will probably be less enamored with the sound than the new test lepers ones but it never veers too close to _Monsterous_ as it seeks to assess the end of the world as we know it. 

Words tumble and fall onto the lyric sheet with a consternation that everything going on around is "a pageantry of empty gestures" and that there is a lot of hollowness and nothing much to believe in; "the Gospel according to who?" they ask. Not that there is a nihilistic feel to the deal at all. This will be a jumping celebration live. Stipe has credited Jesus refrains before and steals one again on the Automatic For the People-like "Until The Day Is Done; ""so hold tight your babies and your guns/Forgive us our trespasses, father and son." In the end there is some kind of hope as in "I'm Gonna DJ" "'Cause if heaven does exist/With a kicking playlist/I don't want to miss it at the end of the world." It won't get them the top job but it is good to see them giving it a good lash again!

Steve Stockman

Steve Stockman is the Presbyterian Chaplain at Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, where he lives in community with 88 students. He has written two books Walk On; The Spiritual Journey of U2 which he is currently updating and The Rock Cries Out; Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music. He dabbles in poetry and songwriting and he has a weekly radio show on BBC Radio Ulster (listen anytime of day or night @ www.bbc.co.uk/ni/religion/rhythmandsoul). He has his own web page--Rhythms of Redemption at http://stocki.ni.org . He also tries to spend some time with his wife Janice and daughters Caitlin and Jasmine.