Collapse into Now

by R.E.M.

Overview

Righting themselves via their long-awaited return to rock Accelerate, R.E.M. regrouped and rediscovered their core strengths as a band, strengths they build upon on its 2011 sequel, Collapse into Now. Cautiously moving forward from Accelerate's Life's Rich Pageant blueprint, R.E.M. steer themselves toward the pastoral, acoustic moments of Out of Time and Automatic for the People without quite leaving behind the tight, punchy rockers that fueled Accelerate's race to the end zone. This broadening of the palette is as deliberate as Accelerate's reduction of R.E.M. to ringing Rickenbackers, and while it occasionally feels as if the bandmembers sifted through their past to find appropriate blueprints for new songs, there is merit to their madness. R.E.M. embrace their past to the extent that they disdain the modern, reveling in their comfortable middle age even if they sometimes slip into geezerhood, with Michael Stipe spending more than one song wondering about kids these days. He's not griping; he's merely accepting his age, which is kind of what R.E.M. do as a band here, too. Over a tight 41 minutes, they touch upon all the hallmarks from when Bill Berry still anchored the band, perhaps easing up on the jangle but devoting plenty of space to rough-hewn acoustics and mandolin, rushing rock & roll, and wide-open, eerie mood pieces that sound like rewrites of "E-Bow the Letter." Any slight element of recycling is offset by craft so skilled it almost seems casual. This may impart a lack of urgency to Collapse into Now but it also means that it delivers R.E.M. sounding like R.E.M., something that has been in short supply since the departure of Berry. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	07/14/2023
Label:	Craft Recordings
UPC:	0888072426306

Tracks

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

Album Credits

Performance Credits

R.E.M.   Primary Artist
Bill Rieflin   Drums,Guitar,Bouzouki,Keyboards
Jacknife Lee   Guitar,Keyboards
Eddie Vedder   Vocals,Featured Artist
Mark Mullins   Trombone
Lenny Kaye   Guitar,Soloist,Featured Artist
Joel Gibb   Vocals
Patti Smith   Vocals,Featured Artist
Peaches   Vocals,Featured Artist
Kirk Joseph   Sousaphone
Leroy Jones   Trumpet
Scott McCaughey   Guitar,Vocals,Accordion,Keyboards
Craig Klein   Trombone
Shamarr Allen   Trumpet
Greg Hicks   Trombone

Technical Credits

Stephen Marcussen   Mastering
Jacknife Lee   Mixing,Producer
Mark Mullins   Horn Arrangements
Tucker Martine   Engineer
Sam Bell   Mixing,Engineer
Peter Buck   Composer,Group Member
R.E.M.   Producer
Mike Mills   Composer,Group Member
Michael Stipe   Composer,Packaging,Group Member
Anton Corbijn   Photography
Tom McFall   Engineer
Marc Muller   Assistant
Patti Smith   Composer
Scott McCaughey   Composer
John Netti   Assistant Engineer
David Hefti   Assistant Engineer
Bertis Downs   Advisor
Bob Whittaker   Technical Assistance
DeWitt Burton   Technical Assistance
Chris Bilheimer   Packaging
Kyle Lamy   Assistant Engineer
William Moesta   Assistant