Infinitely unqualified to write music reviews, but someone's just given me REM's new album and i gotta put in a plug, encourage anyone who thinks the band had become passée to listen to Accelerate. They are rocking with that combination of righteous anger and raucous irreverence that was so tempered down in Empire of the Sun (which i also like, but it's ballet music in comparison to the new release). Exceptional lyrics... is that Mr. Richard Perle Michael's singing about?