Listening Post: R.E.M – Collapse Into Now

R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now – 2011

Everything on Collapse Into Now sounds like something else. By that I mean there are melodies that harken back to other melodies in REM’s past. I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise, after all, songwriters aren’t fonts of infinite combinations. The ear and mind’s ear hear things a certain way. Then they run ideas through that personal taffy machine and it comes out sounding singularly like that musician. The paradox is: we expect both familiarity and diversity from our musical heroes.
The trouble with this for me as a listener and lover of REM is that I’ve heard it before and none of the familiarity predates Automatic For the People. Which means that REM is echoing themselves mostly from sounds of their most fallow and least interesting period. Strike that. Their least “exciting” period. In other words, they sound like the Warner Brothers version of REM and decidedly NOT the I.R.S. REM.
But, while “Uberlin” calls to mind “Drive” that doesn’t mean the former is bad, it means that I would rather pull up the latter, curl up on the couch and let that brilliant record wash over me. The fact that “Blue” could be a rewrite of “E-Bow the Letter” reminds me that REM’s best days are behind them. (Having Patti Smith on both isn’t really helping avoid that comparison, guys). I have no idea why it reprises “Discoverer” however.
“Oh My Heart” is lovely but the chord progression is a way too obvious lift from Automatic’s “Try Not to Breath” which is a damn shame because that chorus could be so beautiful.
It’s that way all through the record. If Accelerate was their 21st century Lifes Rich Pageant, then the experimental side of Collapse Into Now makes this the follow up in spirit to Out of Time, a disjointed album despite it’s commercial success.

The album doesn’t get cracking until more than halfway through with the horribly titled “Mine Smell Like Honey” (Discoverer is more of an opener than a real rocker, though it’s one of the best songs on the record) and it’s so uninspired that I find myself wanting to reach for my mouse and click over to the title track from Accelerate, which this sounds like, if watered down.
I do have to admit that “Walk it Back” is one of the loveliest songs the band has put together. And Stipe is in fine, rich, baritone. He seems to be reaching for more Elbow and less Radiohead and I am thankful for that.
The album is a herky jerky disjointed mess. I mean that in a good way. It’s familiar, yes, but holy crap, we could have gotten another Reveal or Around the Sun, instead of a band realizing from the last album that the people don’t want what’s good for them, but we want our band just to be good. The fact that it’s got no thematic center, be it the “every instrument except guitar” of A4tP or the moodiness of Around the Sun or the wannabe electro relevance of Up is a boon to this record.
In an era of shuffle play, this album plays just fine on your ipod when you set it to random play REM.

“I cannot tell a lie. It’s not all cherry pie. But it’s right there waiting for you.” – Stipe has written some annoying “don’t give up, I believe in you, you’ve got so much to live for” crap, but that might be one of the worst lyrics ever.

Grade: B
ASide: Discoverer, Uberlin
BlindSide: Walk it Back, Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatte
DownSide: Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I