Album: Collapse Into Now
Year: 2011
. . .
File Under Hooray
After the tour to support Accelerate, Michael Stipe decided that he didn’t want to tour anymore, their second WB contract was ending, Peter Buck suggested that maybe they break up, Mike Mills agreed, and so R.E.M. went into the studio to make one last last album, essentially free to do whatever they wanted.
So, naturally, they made an R.E.M. album, pulling out pretty much all of their bag of tricks: jangly guitars, gorgeous harmonies, dumbass rockers, piano-driven ballads, special guest vocals, swirly experimentation. That was 2011’s Collapse Into Now, as fine of a purposely final album as you’re ever going to find.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1764: R.E.M. – “It Happened Today”