R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (German Original) Vinyl rip in 24 Bit/96 Khz + CD-format

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Righting themselves via their long-awaited return to rock Accelerate, R.E.M. regrouped and rediscovered their core strengths as a band, strengths they build upon on its 2011 sequel, Collapse into Now. Cautiously moving forward from Accelerate’s Life's Rich Pageant blueprint, R.E.M. steer themselves toward the pastoral, acoustic moments of Out of Time and Automatic for the People without quite leaving behind the tight, punchy rockers that fueled Accelerate’s race to the end zone. This broadening of the palette is as deliberate as Accelerate’s reduction of R.E.M. to ringing Rickenbackers, and while it occasionally feels as if the bandmembers sifted through their past to find appropriate blueprints for new songs, there is merit to their madness. R.E.M. embrace their past to the extent that they disdain the modern, reveling in their comfortable middle age even if they sometimes slip into geezerhood, with Michael Stipe spending more than one song wondering about kids these days. He’s not griping; he’s merely accepting his age, which is kind of what R.E.M. do as a band here, too. Over a tight 41 minutes, they touch upon all the hallmarks from when Bill Berry still anchored the band, perhaps easing up on the jangle but devoting plenty of space to rough-hewn acoustics and mandolin, rushing rock & roll, and wide-open, eerie mood pieces that sound like rewrites of “E-Bow the Letter.” Any slight element of recycling is offset by craft so skilled it almost seems casual. This may impart a lack of urgency to Collapse into Now but it also means that it delivers R.E.M. sounding like R.E.M., something that has been in short supply since the departure of Berry.

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Track listing:

All songs written by Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, except as noted.

"Discoverer" – 3:31
"All the Best" – 2:48
"Überlin" – 4:15
"Oh My Heart" (Buck, Mills, Stipe, and Scott McCaughey) – 3:21
"It Happened Today" – 3:49
"Every Day Is Yours to Win" – 3:26
"Mine Smell Like Honey" – 3:13
"Walk It Back" – 3:24
"Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter" – 2:45
"That Someone Is You" – 1:44
"Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I" – 3:03
"Blue" (Buck, Mills, Stipe, and Patti Smith) – 5:46

Personnel

R.E.M.

Peter Buck – guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, production
Mike Mills – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals, keyboards, production
Michael Stipe – lead vocals, production, packaging

Additional musicians

Shamarr Allen – trumpet on "Discoverer", "It Happened Today", and "Oh My Heart"
Bonerama Horns:

Greg Hicks – trombone
Craig Klein – trombone
Mark Mullins – trombone and horn arrangements

Joel Gibb – vocals on "It Happened Today"
Lenny Kaye – guitar solo on "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter", guitar solo on "Blue"
Jacknife Lee – production, mixing, keyboards, guitar
Leroy Jones – trumpet on "Discoverer", "It Happened Today", and "Oh My Heart"
Kirk M. Joseph, Sr. – sousaphone on "Discoverer", "It Happened Today", and "Oh My Heart"
Scott McCaughey – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, accordion
Peaches – vocals on "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter"
Bill Rieflin – drums, bouzouki, keyboards, guitar
Patti Smith – vocals on "Blue" and "Discoverer"
Eddie Vedder – vocals on "It Happened Today"

Technical personnel and packaging

Sam Bell – engineering and mix engineering
Chris Bilheimer and Michael Stipe – packaging
Anton Corbijn – photography
Stephen Marcussen – mastering
Tom McFall – engineering