“R.E.M.’s first album in four years shoehorns 11 tracks of jagged guitars, quick and dirty drums, and Michael Stipe’s gruff keen into 34 minutes, rocking with a blacker, blunter edge than “Document,” “Green” or “Monster.” Armed with deadpan “wow’s” and “T-Rex moves” honed from 1996’s “Wake-Up Bomb,” Stipe limns politics, the media and the velocity of modern life with gimlet eyes, from the strutting “don’t turn your talking points on me” of “Living Well’s the Best Revenge” to the candid “uncertainty is suffocating” of the title track. A ’70s jukebox grit dominates “Mansized Wreath,” while Peter Buck’s cool riff for first single “Supernatural Superserious” strikes like a cartoon mallet. “Accelerate” may not stun on impact like some R.E.M. records, but it’s still habit-forming.—Jessica Letkemann”
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