REM step up a gear

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WITH their new album Accelerate, amazingly the band's fourteenth studio outing, REM may again be back on track.

After stalling somewhat with their two previous, ponderous offerings, Reveal and Around The Sun, Accelerate heralds a return to form of sorts for the group.

True, nothing on this album stands up next to their glory days - and at times the album sounds like a pastiche of the likes of New Adventures In Hi Fi or Automatic For The People - but who else is producing mainstream alternative rock of that quality these days?

Hopefully this is the sound of a band moving back up through the gears once again.