ARTIST: R.E.M.
ALBUM: Collapse Into Now
LABEL: Warner Brothers
RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2011
Begin to Discover
Photo by Anton Corbijn
Written by Katie J. Norris
R.E.M. has such an expansive career history, that we’ll just jump ahead and Collapse Into Now. Released March 8th, 2011, this is R.E.M.’s fifteenth studio album. I think that bears repeating: fifteenth studio album. For the creation of this album, the band traveled to different cities to record and rewrite in between. They went to Berlin, Nashville, Louisiana, and Portland, enjoying their vacation-like time along the way. In this album, they include the featured guest appearances of Patti Smith, Peaches, Lenny Kaye, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, and Joel Gibb. Mike Mills claimed he wanted to have more variety and not be limited to any one type of song this time around. I assume he was referring to creating a mix of slow songs with hard rock jams because as far as the style is concerned, it is very reminiscent of some of their earlier hits. This is both good and bad. One of their best songs on this album, “Uberlin,” echoes “Losing My Religion” a little too closely. However, it captures an upbeat vibe that comes alive even more when you watch the music video for it.
R.E.M. is still sans drummer, Bill Berry, but have found their classic sound again anyway; venturing back to their true musical identity after Accelerate in 2008, for which they had more or less tried to force their way through. The song collection of Collapse Into Now has some winners. “Mine Smells Like Honey,” though an odd and off-putting title, hones a really catchy melody. The following song, “Walk It Back,” is a nice song of looking at the past with a full chorus of back-up vocals. “Every Day Is Yours to Win” opens with an uplifting guitar riff and bleeds into some decent lyrics. “Blue” is their closer song, or rather, more of a spoken-word poem set to music (and a bit surprisingly, the poem and delivery are quite good). There is a looming melancholy feeling with this song. However, interestingly enough, it ends with the entire beginning of their opening song, “Discoverer” – a convention I haven’t really found in another album. It lends to the thought that reaching the end might just be the discovery of a beginning.
There are no tour dates for this album release as of yet. Mike Mills has stated that he doesn’t feel it improves album sales and that they’ve toured so many times it would just be more of the same. In lieu, to promote this album, they’ve created twelve long-form videos. Everything can be found on their website, as well a plethora everything R.E.M.