R.E.M.

Collapse Into Now (2023 Vinyl Reissue)

Craft Recordings

Sep 06, 2023
Internet Unique

By Frank Valish

Craft Recordings has performed a commendable job at reissuing R.E.M.‘s catalog on vinyl. Already having revisited its early- to mid-‘90s albums Automated for the Folks, Monster, and New Adventures in Hello-Fi, they’re now taking over the band’s latter-day recordings.

Collapse Into Now was R.E.M.‘s last studio album, its fifteenth in complete, and was initially launched in 2011. It discovered the band crucial success, reaching the High 5 within the U.S., UK, and all through Europe, however R.E.M. didn’t tour to assist the album, quite letting the assertion resonate as its last one as a band. And what an announcement it’s.

The album, pressed right here into 180g vinyl and sounding terrific, options all of the hallmarks of R.E.M.‘s 30-plus yr profession, balancing Monster-leaning rockers (e.g., “Discoverer,” “All of the Greatest,” “Mine Odor Like Honey”) with extra delicate ethereal materials (“Uberlin,” “Oh My Coronary heart”) and a honest-to-goodness piano-led ballad (“Stroll It Again”). A couple of company punctuate songs: Eddie Vedder with backing vocals towards the top of “It Occurred Immediately,” Peaches with vocals and Lenny Kaye with guitar on the rocker “Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter,” and Patti Smith with vocals on each “Discoverer” and the spoken phrase and drone of “Blue.” Michael Stipe’s lyrics are as thought-provoking and oft-inscrutable as ever. However the one fixed is the good melodies that circulation all through the document.

Not ones to tip their hand, R.E.M. don’t do a lot foreshadowing that Collapse Into Now is their swan music, until one reads maybe an excessive amount of into issues, however “All of the Greatest” does appear a posthumous, snarky goodbye letter, Stipe singing, “I’ll sing and rhyme/I’ll give it yet another time/I’ll present the children how you can do it,” and later “It’s identical to me to overstay my welcome.”

They had been by no means ones to overstay their welcome. The power of Collapse Into Now makes one want they’d stayed only a bit longer. (www.remhq.com) (www.craftrecordings.com)

Creator ranking: 7.5/10