Released in 2011, Collapse into Now would prove to be R.E.M.'s last album. Although we didn't know it would be their last when it was released, maybe we should have known better as Micheal later said "I was waving goodbye on the front cover".
It's not possible now to listen to Collapse Into Now without the fact that it was the final R.E.M. release coloring the way you hear the songs. So I've tried to remember back to my impressions when the album was released. I have to admit even though I had listened to R.E.M. since almost the beginning of the band, I did not immediately catch on to the "clues" that were supposedly all over the album that pointed to it being the last one.
It was obvious that a lot of the songs looked back, and there is a sense of nostalgia that runs through many of the songs. All the best, It happened today - both have passages that seem to say R.E.M is passing the torch, "let's show the kids how to do it" and "yes I will write that after all I've done... I have earned my wings" both are indications of looking back, not forward. And of course the loop and connection between Discoverer and Blue, the last and the first songs seemed obvious to me as a look back even though I did not connect that to the band calling it a day.
As far as the merits of the album, I thought it had much more going on than Accelerate. The music had more variance and the lyrics are more focused, the cause of which is obvious now. Stipe had something specific to say on most of the songs, and that helps out. The sound is still a little “compressed” feeling to me, I guess I just don’t like the Jacknife Lee sound for the band, although you have to give him credit for getting them moving forward again after Around the Sun. The uptempo rockers are decent songs, but the good old R.E.M mid tempo songs sound better to me.
All in all it’s a good final album. I guess ideally I would have wanted them to go out with a re-make of Reckoning or Life’s Rich Pageant, but that was never going to happen. Or better yet, keep making albums that were worth spending time with like we’ve done on this blog. I guess I do have to agree with Stipe though as he says in what I think looking back is the key to the whole album, “I have earned my voice”. He’s saying he has shared his voice with the world for a long time and now he just wants to use it for himself. You can’t argue with that after all the good music R.E.M. gave us.
It's not possible now to listen to Collapse Into Now without the fact that it was the final R.E.M. release coloring the way you hear the songs. So I've tried to remember back to my impressions when the album was released. I have to admit even though I had listened to R.E.M. since almost the beginning of the band, I did not immediately catch on to the "clues" that were supposedly all over the album that pointed to it being the last one.
ReplyDeleteIt was obvious that a lot of the songs looked back, and there is a sense of nostalgia that runs through many of the songs. All the best, It happened today - both have passages that seem to say R.E.M is passing the torch, "let's show the kids how to do it" and "yes I will write that after all I've done... I have earned my wings" both are indications of looking back, not forward. And of course the loop and connection between Discoverer and Blue, the last and the first songs seemed obvious to me as a look back even though I did not connect that to the band calling it a day.
As far as the merits of the album, I thought it had much more going on than Accelerate. The music had more variance and the lyrics are more focused, the cause of which is obvious now. Stipe had something specific to say on most of the songs, and that helps out. The sound is still a little “compressed” feeling to me, I guess I just don’t like the Jacknife Lee sound for the band, although you have to give him credit for getting them moving forward again after Around the Sun. The uptempo rockers are decent songs, but the good old R.E.M mid tempo songs sound better to me.
All in all it’s a good final album. I guess ideally I would have wanted them to go out with a re-make of Reckoning or Life’s Rich Pageant, but that was never going to happen. Or better yet, keep making albums that were worth spending time with like we’ve done on this blog. I guess I do have to agree with Stipe though as he says in what I think looking back is the key to the whole album, “I have earned my voice”. He’s saying he has shared his voice with the world for a long time and now he just wants to use it for himself. You can’t argue with that after all the good music R.E.M. gave us.