Just when most respectable rock fans would bet their bottom dollar that a new REM album would be filled with clichés and rerouted licks, the band puts this out… Damn, this is a freakin’ great album. This is REM doing REM and not being a low rent parody of themselves. Critics would love this album even if it contained nothing more than Michael Stipe farting in tune as REM are darlings of the ‘serious rock media.’ The rest of the world tended to get tired of the band’s insistent whining and complaining. For all who figured that this was the end of REM as we knew it…listen to this one and you will feel fine.

“Discoverer” opens the show and sets the tone for what follows. “Mine Smell Like Honey” may be the most interesting track the band has created since Murmur. “”Walk It Back” has REM classic written all over at while “Blue” and “Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I” rediscover the quirky genius that brought this band’s attention to the masses in the early 1980’s.

An album that true rockers may want to hate, Collapse Into Now stands up tall and will likely sell multi-platinum and keep REM on the forefront of modern music for some time to come.