R.E.M.- Collapse Into Now

My, it's been a while. R.E.M. is one of my favorite bands of all time, and seeing as they broke up a year ago last week, I thought it fitting to post a review I wrote of their last album together, 2011's "Collapse Into Now". Purchased at CD Alley In Chapel Hill (Preorder) March 2011.

Anyone who knows popular music's history cannot deny the importance of the work of Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe, better known collectively as R.E.M., whose remarkable 30-year career took them from humble beginnings, playing abandoned churches as students of the University of Georgia in Athens and eventually going on to signing historic 6-figure record deals with Warner Brothers and selling out stadiums worldwide. And with the band's breakup just over a year ago on September 21st, 2011, R.E.M. will forever be remembered as the perfect example of a band enjoying wild success without sacrificing originality or authenticity. It is for this reason that they are viewed by many as the godfathers of independent rock- and possibly the one band new acts want to most emulate. The breakup was a surprise to most fans- especially as their fifteenth album, "Collapse Into Now", was released in March without fanfare of it being the last R.E.M. album ever. As such, it is a very interesting album because it becomes the band's swansong in retrospect, though the band had stated in future interviews that this was always the case. For starters, "Collapse Into Now" is unique in that it is the only album R.E.M. didn't tour or perform live to promote sales - an anomaly, considering R.E.M. started out by touring from Georgia to North Carolina every weekend as students in Athens. It is also one of their most introspective records, eschewing the Southern Gothic storytelling of their first 5 records and the themes of disillusionment of stardom, faith, critics, and music that were evident in the next ten. Despite all this, and the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1996 after album #10, (Adventures in Hi-Fi), "Collapse Into Now" acts as a fitting bookend to close out the career of this most influential band. That being said, it has its flaws; namely, that the track listing doesn't seem to do the songs justice, in the sense that the constant shift of "energetic" to "laid-back" song choices shows a significant lack of build and release, a staple of earlier albums. Simply put, "Collapse Into Now" feels a touch less cohesive compared to most of their work, which is kind of a bummer for a final record. It is still by all means an excellent representation of latter-period R.E.M. The album begins with the triumphant call-to -arms "Discoverer"- an autobiographical number penned by Stipe describing his arrival to New York City as a young man and becoming aware of all the possibilities the city had to offer- Buck's trademark jangling guitar rings in parallel fifths, evoking the sense of a blaring horn section in a royal ceremony. "Discoverer" segues into the album's first single- the faster and grittier "All The Best", a straight-ahead rocker that sounds like a b-side to their last record, 2008's back-to-basics "Accelerate". The band then kicks back with "Überlin", a reflective song on car crashes and relationships, and then the mandolin-and accordion fueled folk song "Oh My Heart". This is where things start to become strange, as tracks 2 and 4 became the two of the three singles for "Collapse Into Now", when they are "just okay" tracks by comparison to what comes next. Track number five, head-scratchingly enough, is the glorious "It Happened Today". Arguably the best thing R.E.M. had released since losing Bill Berry, it features a rousing chorus evocative of "Me In Honey" off of 1991's "Out Of Time", but it is so poignant, as the lyrics seem to evoke the end of the band's career; "We'll leave the allegory to another bible story out of deference and choice/ and close it on a promise after all I've done today, I have earned my voice". The end choruses and bridge are classic R.E.M., with the trademark intertwined harmonies of Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills along with Peter Buck's trademark jangling guitar arpeggios. "It Happened Today" would have been better suited as the album's final track, or better yet, as the last single the band ever released instead of the sub par "We All Go Back To Where We Belong" (R.E.M.'s final song, off of the November 2011 retrospective "Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011"). In any case, the placement of this song as the fifth track is extremely puzzling. The album takes an interesting turn with "Every Day Is Yours To Win", a reverb-drenched, partly spoken-word ditty reminiscent of "E-Bow The Letter", a duet they cut with Patti Smith on "HiFi" (Smith also appears on the final track of "Collapse Into Now", a tune titled "Blue", another guitar-heavy, spoken-word expedition). "Mine Smell Like Honey", the third single from "Collapse Into Now" is next, a fast, danceable homage to their earlier work; a heavy emphasis on toms and fast guitar picking in the verses, with a characteristically repetitive, single-phrase chorus with cascading harmonies provided by the always reliable Mike Mills, in a fashion very similar to "Moral Kiosk", off of their very first LP, 1983's "Murmur". The Coldplay-inspired "Walk It Back" (quite similar to "Walkabout", from 2003's critically-panned "Around The Sun") bridges "Mine Smell Like Honey" to "Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter", a fuzzed out, straight ahead rock song featuring Canadian electro artist Peaches on backing vocals. Next up is the fast and sweaty ode to love, "That Somebody Is You". The band ends the album with the slow and haunting "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I", followed by "Blue" and a reprise of the opening of "Discoverer", completing the album full-circle. Though it appears to be "just another R.E.M. album", what makes "Collapse Into Now" a truly remarkable recording is that the band wrote songs evocative of other songs they released over the course of their fruitful, thirty-year career. And, as a result, rather than having a "Here's Our Best Album Ever" approach as many bands' final, mostly lackluster records seem to strive for, R.E.M. seemed to have adopted more of a "What A Ride It's Been, Thanks For Being A Part Of It" mentality. In short, "Collapse Into Now" presents R.E.M. as they should be remembered- a collective of musicians that always stuck to their Southern roots and a desire to play and write the music they wanted to play and write, with no regard for popular consumption. And after all, what's more punk-rock than that?