EXCLUSIVE PHO TOGRAPHS FROM THE BOOK “R. E. M.: HELLO”; PHOTOGRAPHS B Y DAVID BELISLE, IN TRODUC TION BY MICHAEL S TIPE, FROM CHRONICLE BOOKS IN JUNE ( CHRONICLEBOOKS.COM). THE BOOK COLLEC TS MORE THAN 150 OF BELISLE’S PHO TOGRAPHS OF R. E. M. FROM OVER THE PAS T SIX YEARS, WI TH HAND WRI T TEN CAPTIONS BY THE BAND.

It’s been more than ten years since an R.E.M. album had even

the absolute greatest records of all time, and, you know, do

one genuine rocker on it—Accelerate has seven. From the opening

Clockwise from top: With

Rieflin and McCaughey in

we match up? My feeling is, probably not. We’ve done great

blast of the aptly named “Living Well’s the Best Revenge” on, the guitars are louder, noisier, and denser than ever. Mills’ trademark

Germany, 2004; pre-encore

relief in England, 2005; Stipe

work, but I always like to think maybe there’s one more great one in there.

melodic bass lines and vocal harmonies and countermelodies

with Thom Yorke in 2003; with

tour manager Bob Whittaker

“Honestly, this record is as good as anything we’ve done,” he

are back in full force, as is the propulsive, flesh-and-blood

in Winnipeg in 2004, totally

continues. “You wouldn’t have gotten me to bet money that we

drumming that virtually disappeared with Berry’s exit. The lyrics are impassioned and pissed, but never preachy. For the

pissed it’s not Wednesday

could’ve done this a year ago. Everything came together—what the record is about, the world we live in right now, the fact

first time in years, R.E.M. sound like a band again.

that we haven’t been superpopular the last few years, and we

For his part, Lee doesn’t believe they had anything to prove. “Their job is not to

make records that might be palatable or well received,” he says while on a break from producing the new Bloc Party album. “It’s important that younger audiences

went from being the greatest band on earth to being old, miserable has-beens to people going, ‘You know what? They’re actually pretty good.’”

Buck is well aware of the paradigms and archetypes at play here—he’s as big an

find R.E.M., rather than R.E.M. find younger audiences. They’re worth looking

authority on popular music as you’d ever hope to find. After chatting at the hotel, we

to for their integrity, politics, songwriting, aesthetic, consistency—even their business model impresses me. I wanted to reenergize them. For left-of-field minds

head uptown to hit a record store in the East Village, where he picks up an armload of stuff by Radio Birdman, Klaus Nomi, and Dusty Springfield, among others.

in music, they’re the North Star; we need them. This is an important record.”

“I know it’s old-fashioned, but I used to go into record stores and figure out how

One other possible source of the album’s fire: R.E.M. were inducted into the

to live my life,” he says. “Some groovy older guy with absurd facial hair would

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year (and played with Berry, with whom they’re still close). The event, capped off by Stipe sharing a stage with Sammy Hagar, might

tell me, ‘Hey, man, you really need to get the Velvet Underground record.’ I don’t find that experience in the download world.”

have had a subtle but powerful impact on the band. “Maybe part of the drive behind

A customer in his 40s approaches Buck: “Hey, Peter, remember me? I loaned you

this record,” Mills says, “is a refusal to let that be a tombstone on our career.”

a Les Paul in New Haven in 1980 when your guitar got stolen!” And of course Buck

With one album left on R.E.M.’s Warner Bros. deal, no one’s expecting Accelerate to outsell Out of Time. (“What does it mean to have a record ‘do well’ in 2008?” asks Stipe. “People downloaded it a lot? As long as it’s out there and people love

remembers, even though this kind of thing must happen to him all the time, with such a long history, and so much of it spent sleeping on floors, borrowing strangers’

guitars. Buck and I find ourselves standing next to each other, flipping through

it.”) Rather, their redemption is less quantifiable.

the racks. I come across a copy of Pet Sounds and joke, “This any good?”

“I’m rich enough, and I’m famous enough,” Buck says. “But I’m also kind of optimistic and think maybe we could be one of those few bands that, when they

“Sucks,” he deadpans. “Doesn’t rock.”

reach their 50s, can do two or three great records in a row and really have a

MORE AT SPIN.COM For exclusive interviews with the band and behind-the-scenes

period where there’s nothing to prove except they’re great artists. You look at