R.E.M. – ‘Collapse Into Now’ – The brand new album released March 7th
aaamusic | On 17, Jan 2011
R.E.M. are set to release their eagerly anticipated new album, ‘Collapse Into Now’, on March 7th 2011.
Recorded in Berlin’s legendary Hansa Studios (David Bowie, Nick Cave, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode) as well as Nashville and New Orleans, ‘Collapse Into Now’ was produced by Jacknife Lee, who also produced R.E.M.’s acclaimed ‘Accelerate’ album, alongside the band themselves.
Singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, and bassist Mike Mills are joined by some very special guests on their 15th album. Patti Smith, guitarist Lenny Kaye, Peaches, Eddie Vedder and The Hidden Cameras frontman Joel Gibb all lend a hand to the captivating ‘Collapse Into Now’.
A brilliant album – in a career which has seen the band deliver nothing but – ‘Collapse Into Now’ begins with ‘Discoverer’, a punchy, epic call to arms, which shows that thirty years into their career, R.E.M. are showing no signs of slowing down.
The slow burning ‘ÜBerlin’ is classic R.E.M.; emotive, melodic and laced with a gorgeous kind of mystery. ‘Every Day Is Yours to Win’ treads an equally tender path, as does the eloquent goose bump groove ‘Walk It Back’ while Patti Smith adds haunting vocals to album closer ‘Blue’ and ‘It Happened Today’ features a raucous vocal celebration in the chorus with Eddie Vedder and Joel Gibb joining Michael Stipe and Mike Mills in one of R.E.M.’s most stunning vocal moments ever.
Fans of the harder side of the band will be happy to hear that it’s not just heartfelt balladeering. Bold guitar anthems that deserve to be played as loud as they possibly can also take their deserved place on the record. ‘Mine Smell Like Honey’ is an anthemic soon to be classic while perhaps unsurprisingly – due to the presence of Peaches and Lenny Kaye – ‘Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter’ is a raucous, relentless helping of real rock’n’roll.
Tracklisting
1. ‘Discoverer’
2. ‘All the Best’
3. ‘ÜBerlin’
4. ‘Oh My Heart’
5. ‘It Happened Today
6. ‘Every Day Is Yours to Win’
7. ‘Mine Smell Like Honey’
8. ‘Walk It Back’
9. ‘Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter’
10. ‘That Someone Is You’
11. ‘Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I’
12. ‘Blue’
Collapse Into Now is the follow-up to 2008’s Accelerate, which debuted at No. 1 in the Official U.K. Album Chart and spawned the charged singles; ‘Supernatural Superserious’, ‘Hollow Man’ and ‘Man-Sized Wreath’.
