There’s been a lot of talk about REM’s decision to finally sound like a rock band again for their new album, Accelerate. I rather like the first single, “Supernatural Superserious,” which sounds like the REM I remember, rather than some bloodless adult contemporary act.
So I bought the album, and it’s been of shuffle play with a bunch of other stuff for a few weeks now. And you know what? The rest of it is pretty tedious. It is a departure from their recent stuff in that it’s at least loud and tedious, rather than adult-contemporary tedious, but I’m not liking it all that much.
I just wanted to throw that out there. Feel free to suggest other recent releases which are less likely to be disappointing.
New Death Cab for Cutie on Tuesday — that’s the biggest thing I’m looking forward to. Otherwise though I haven’t found anything new in a while that’s got me pumped.
(Arguing with myself now…) Depending on your definition of “new”, the Mike Doughty disc that came out in January is pretty good stuff.
New Portishead came out a fortnight ago. Not at all nostalgic for the days of trip hop, but still, very much their style and very good.