Release date: 31/03/2008 | Length: 3:11 | Release: Accelerate | SuE: #103

All your sad and lost apostles
Hum my name and flare their nostrils

“If we make another bad record, it’s over”, so said the band after the languid Around the Sun. It was important that the next R.E.M. sound people heard was an awakening from this stupor. The time between Around the Sun and Accelerate was their longest between albums, was it well spent? Living Well Is the Best Revenge is a sudden typification of this final phase of R.E.M.: straight-up rock and roll.

Not only did Living Well Is the Best Revenge open their 2008 album, it also opened a large chunk of their gigs around this time. Whether you like it or not, this was a punchy opener. Stipe yells these words at the top of his voice, almost tripping over his lines at points. Mike Mills is the fellow star, his highly-strung bass dancing all over the stage floor, sounding its most impeccable when Buck and Stipe breathe for a moment.

Unusually this is a rare example of Michael Stipe rebuking his critics. Ever since there the late 80s there’d been some quiet barbs thrown R.E.M.’s way, but when you’re continuing to forge your own unique path, why reverse to take down your haranguers? But now, the heat was clearly too much. Accelerate was and will be defined by its reaction to Around the Sun, and Stipe could have some fun taking down those who lambasted him.

The title is a catchy mantra, though not one Stipe coined himself. It’s a quote from Welsh poet George Herbert, though pop punk band Midtown got their first with their identically named 2002 album.

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.