R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now 71/100

An album review written in 2011 mentioning the effect of a 1997 departure of a band's drummer should be met with necessary skeptism; the guy left nearly 15 years ago. Regardless, the retirement of Bill Barry from R.E.M. sparked an alt-rock controversy unsettled to this day by fans and critics alike: how much did it effect them and their subsequent output? Fortunately, the emergence of Collapse Into Now somewhat stimies the debate by introducing a solid and at times good addition to the band's canon.

Collapse Into Now begins as almost every R.E.M. record does with an uptempo mash of searing guitars and a shouted chorus from vocalist Michael Stipe. This time they named it "Discoverer" and it's one of the better songs from the set. "Uberlin" borrows heavily from "Drive" off Automatic for the People for chant-like verses over a fingerpicked acoustic guitar, but instead employs a traditional bridge and chorus in favor of the circular pattern used in the latter. The first two minutes of "It Happened Today" features a folk stomp replete with mandolin that harkens back to Out of Time.

In contrast to 2008's Accelerate, this album relies less on pace and more on space for dynamics. The piano line in quasi-gospel ballad "Walk It Back" sounds exactly like its title and fits perfectly between bangers "Mine Smell Like Honey" and "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter." Guitarist Peter Buck lays down a gentle strum in "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I" that allows Stipe to execute his pattened high-pitched wails for great results. The guys even allow themselves to enter jammy sing-a-long territory for the outro of "It Happened Today," ending in a cacaphony of their trademarked "OHHH-ohhhh-OHHHHs" with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.

Although the band deserves admiration for their continued emphasis on politics and world events, it sometimes leads to dismal offerings. Nothing exemplifies this better than the underthought "Oh My Heart," an update on the Hurricane Katrina victim from "Houston" on Accelerate. In direct response to the worst ever R.E.M. lyric contained in that song: "if the storm doesn't kill me the government will," Stipe delivers another gaffe with "the storm didn't kill me/the government changed." This type of assembly line political sloganeering runs counter to the mysterious ambiguity that makes the band great, especially when dealing with such sensitive subject matter.

Simpy stated, Collapse Into Now fits nicely in the middle of the R.E.M. discography. It pales in comparison to career achievements such as Murmur and New Adventures in Hi-Fi but separates itself from the trio of forgettable post-Barry releases that started with Up, continued to Reveal and culminated in their creative nadir, the embarrassing Around the Sun. Whereas those albums felt more like Michael Stipe solo projects, this record develops the band-focused concept explored on Accelerate. How much should this be attributed to an artistic power struggle in the absence of Barry? Or did the guys just need time to discover their places with one less contributer at the table? Whichever the answer, Collapse Into Now comes from a reenergized band moving away from mediocrity and closer to form.