Release date: 31/03/2008 | Length: 2:07 | Release: Accelerate | SuE: #189

The music could provide the light
You cannot resist

For an album that proved to be a minor resurgence in R.E.M.’s career, it’s expected that Accelerate ends on a party tune. R.E.M. have always been a self-aware band, rarely putting a foot wrong and embarrassing themselves, but I’m Gonna DJ does feel like the group misjudging their age here. They were almost (or were) in their 50s by the time Accelerate came out, and this song comes across as Michael Stipe shouting “Hey look at us! We’re cool, we like vinyl, see!”

The use of ‘vinyl’ as a replacement noun for records always niggles me, so it’s doubly frustrating to witness it thrown out with aplomb in the opening line: “If death is pretty final, I’m collecting vinyl”. And then after that we have the group singing along to “I’m gonna DJ at the end of the world!”. It’s just all a bit…lame?

One could see this song as a riposte to the stagnant Around the Sun, an album that saw many permanently turn their backs on R.E.M., as in many ways it’s the antithesis of that record: fun, lively, and short. “I don’t wanna go until I’m good and ready” oozes Stipe, a defiant statement that says only he can proclaim his death.

The duff notes are forgivable though, as Mike Mills grooves through this song without a care in the world and as with most of the record, it’s over before you know it. The snappy, rocky sections are where the song lives most comfortably, as it’s one that thrives on stage.