In 2008, R.E.M. administered smelling salts to their sagging career in the form of Accelerate, 35 minutes of the rawest, most visceral music they’d recorded since Lifes Rich Pageant and Document.

The band was in need of a comeback (according to Peter Buck, Michael Stipe himself said “If we make another bad record, it’s over” following the collapse of Around the Sun) and they got it with Accelerate.

The album earned them their best reviews in years and, even more important, they sounded like a band again… Stipe tears into his vocals with a passion he hadn’t tapped consistently in more than a decade and Buck lets loose on the guitars like a real headbanger.

While I acknowledge Accelerate as a good and necessary direction for the band, it’s not one of my favorites. But the difference between this album and Around the Sun or Reveal is that R.E.M. sounds like R.E.M. again… even if it’s not my favorite version of the band — the loud, relentless R.E.M. of their early live shows.

Accelerate sounds like three guys throwing a bucket of water in each other’s faces and letting out a primal scream that proves they’re still alive. I have a feeling it was either record this album or break up, and I’m glad they went with the former. I’m very curious to see what they come up with next, now that they’re awake again.

[Note: After all that stuff about how fast and furious this album is, I’ve selected the slowest track on the album as my SOTD… probably not the best way to represent Accelerate, but what the hell.]