R.E.M. has announced that the 14th studio album of their impressive career will be released April 1 via Warner Bros. The new effort, entitled Accelerate, was recorded in 2007 with producer Jacknife Lee, and is allegedly their most uptempo record to date, perhaps in reaction to the critical shrug over 2004’s more plodding Around The Sun. This time around, the band tested their material to fans, posting working rehearsals of their songs in a five-night residency at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin. Those shows in became the ‘Live’ album that was released in 2007.

One of the songs, ‘I’m Gonna DJ’, was recorded during the ‘Around The Sun’ sessions, but was not included on that record. However, it was a regular in the band’s set on their 2004/2005 world tour. 2008 UK tour dates are to be announced very shortly. The band filmed a video for first single ‘Supernatural Superserious’ in a New York lingerie shop on Monday (January 21).

According to the band’s official website, the tracklisting for ‘Accelerate’ is:

‘Living Well’s The Best Revenge’

‘Man Sized Wreath’

‘Supernatural Superserious’

‘Hollow Man’

‘Houston’

‘Accelerate’

‘Until The Day Is Done’

‘Mr Richards’

‘Sing For The Submarine’

‘Horse To Water’

‘I’m Gonna DJ’

Frontman Michael Stipe had the following to say about the record: The new album is a bunch of songs that we played at the live rehearsals for the Dublin shows [at the Olympia Theatre in June-July]. The most challenging part of what I do is the lyrics, and with those songs I had some idea of what they were about, but that was all. And then there’s a bunch more.

I don’t remember whose idea the live rehearsal was. It might have been Bertis’ [Downs, R.E.M.’s manager]. When the band started in 1980, and for the better part of that decade, we toured. So when we wrote a new song, we would just introduce it into the set. I wouldn’t even announce it was a new song. We’d just play it, and work it out on tour. This was a similar process, but more concentrate in that every song we had that was in any way presentable, we performed in one set.

It was a great exercise for us, and no, I didn’t get nervous. I don’t really get nervous about performing, to tell you the truth. It as more. . . . Do I know where the next chorus comes? Do we have an idea yet for the middle eight? That’s where a lot of the energy of that week came from, the five of us backstage – including our drummer Bill Rieflin and our second guitarist Scott McCaughey – kind of scratching our heads two minutes before we went on, asking each other “How does that go again?”

We did change things based on audience reaction. There was one song that I announced as a B-side. We were basically just fleshing out the set playing it. It’s not a song we even thought might make the grade, but the reaction from the audience indicated that it should most definitely be a contender. That’s called “Man-Sized Wreath”.

I really liked the songs on the last album [2004’s Around the Sun], but none of us were happy with the way the record came out. All of us loved the material, but we watched it kind of disappear over the course of the recording. I want to stress that it was no fault of the producer – Pat McCarthy – it was really about myself, Mike and Peter being unable to sit together and talk about the music and what we wanted it to be. And that turned into a record of potentially great songs that just didn’t reach their potential.

As for the new album as a whole, well, we spent less time making this record than we have in 20 years. I was in Vancouver for two weeks, Dublin for three weeks, and Athens for two weeks. We started working with [producer] Jacknife Lee, the first thing I was “What do you want to hear from R.E.M., and what do you want this record to be?” and he said: “I want it to be thrilling.” I feel like there’s a confidence in the material, and a communication between the three of us that hasn’t been there for some time. We didn’t talk to each other for a couple of records-as friends or as bandmates. And we reached a point before this LP where we just sat down at a table and hashed it out. Did we come close to splitting? Over the past 27 years? About 12,000 times.

No tour in support of Accelerate has been officially announced, but on December 22, Ken Stringfellow blogged that he and Mike Mills had come to the decision that he would not be a part of R.E.M.’s upcoming tour.

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