R.E.M. back in form with new release

When an unnamed band plays its first show in a former Episcopalian church, it doesn’t necessarily insinuate nearly three decades of success.

For R.E.M., however, it served as the launching pad to superstardom.

Released Tuesday, the band’s 14th studio album, titled Accelerate, serves as R.E.M.’s surprising, albeit much-needed, return to form. With the help of producer Jacknife Lee, former Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin, and guitarist Scott McCaughey, R.E.M. has crafted an aggressively engaging yet straightforward alternative rock album.

Since bursting onto the college radio airwaves with their 1983 debut Murmur, R.E.M. defied convention with a signature blend of minimalist instrumentation and tersely honest lyrics, during a decade that celebrated excess and superficiality.

The Athens, Ga.-based quartet experienced their first mainstream success in 1988, scoring both a Billboard Hot 100 hit with “The One I Love” and their first platinum album, Document.

As the group headed into the 1990s, they moved away from the upbeat, guitar-driven sound of their previous work to that of an experimental and ethereal territory with the albums Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992).

Although they experienced a tremendous amount of success with this sound initially — as apparent with the tunes “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts” — it marked as a major departure from their post-punk roots.

In 1997, drummer and co-founder Bill Berry left the group, leaving vocalist Michael Stipe, bassist Mike Mills and guitarist Peter Buck to drive what Stipe then described as “a three-legged dog.”

This feeling of incompletion made itself apparent during their next three releases: Up (1998), Reveal (2001), and Around the Sun (2004). Each album sold marginally well, but didn’t live up to the standard they had set in their previous endeavors.

Yet after the first aggressively strummed chord of “Living Well is the Best Revenge,” the opening track of Accelerate, the dust of the post-Buck years is blown off in dramatic fashion.

Throughout the album’s 11 tracks and 34-and-a-half minutes, Stipe and company keep the blood flowing, with the three-chord strummer “Supernatural Superserious,” the stuttering bass and drum work of “Mr. Richards” and the hammering guitar of “Horse to Water” — a song reminiscent of the band back when Stipe had hair.

In between these firestorms lie brief oases of acoustic waltzes (“The Day is Done”), haunting harmonies (“Sing for the Submarine”) and sporadically droning guitars juxtaposed against mandolins (“Houston”).

While Buck and Mills retain a level of brilliant simplicity, Stipe’s voice and lyrics stand at the forefront of this revamped R.E.M.

During the 1980s, Stipe’s wailing nasal vocals and openly political songs resonated with those feeling disenchanted during the Reagan administration. The elements shine all the clearer in Accelerate.

Stipe sings of a troubled post-Sept. 11 American society in several tracks, but none more apparent than “The Day is Done.”

“The battle’s been lost, the war is not won, an addled republic, a bitter refund, the business-first flat-earthers licking their wounds. The verdict is dire, the country’s in ruins.”

Despite this serious tone, Stipe also knows how to present such subject matter in a sardonic and humorous light. With the album’s closer, “I’m Gonna DJ,” Stipe spouts off his unique blend of continual, stream-of-consciousness lyrics: “Death is pretty final, I’m collecting vinyl, I’m gonna DJ at the end of the world.”

All in all, the title Accelerate is quite fitting. The band that lost a lot of its momentum years ago finds new life by increasing the speed. Although this album may not be as deep or surreal as some of R.E.M.’s previous work, Accelerate serves as a shot of adrenaline for the band that single-handedly brought alternative rock to the mainstream.

At times, the band sounds as though they’re sharing the bill with Patti Smith and Television at New York’s CBGB Club in the late 1970s. Which, for a group of guys pushing 50, is an unheard of yet cool thing.

Amazon.com cites the current list price for Accelerate at $18.98.