June 16th, 2008 12:41pm

All Your Sad and Lost Apostles

R.E.M. @ Jones Beach 6/14/2008

Have You Ever Seen The Rain? / So. Central Rain / These Days / Living Well Is The Best Revenge / What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? / Man-Sized Wreath / 1,000,000 / Ignoreland / Hollow Man / Welcome To The Occupation / Houston / Electrolite / Horse To Water / The One I Love / Let Me In / Bad Day / Orange Crush / I’m Gonna DJ // Supernatural Superserious / Losing My Religion / It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) / Fall On Me / Man On The Moon

So, yeah. This was kind of a disaster, but thank goodness, the show went on. I don’t want to get too much into whining about the weather, or gnashing my teeth about how the rain delay forced the band to cut several songs that I desperately wanted to see them play. In spite of everything, this was a pretty amazing show, and Michael Stipe in particular was very on. All of the new songs were exciting, and the performances of “So. Central Rain,” “These Days,” “Ignoreland,” and “Let Me In” were outstanding. That said, I’ll be writing more about the actual concert later on, so for now, let’s talk about Accelerate.

R.E.M. “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” – Accelerate is an album about reclamation. Yes, it’s the most definitely the sound of the band getting back in the game, and casting off the doubt and indecision of its past two albums in favor of a simpler, bolder approach in line with their music from the ’80s. Whether dealing with the narrative of their career in the subtext, or the bigger picture of American politics in the actual lyrics, the general theme of the record is confronting the failures of this horrible, horrible decade and fighting to redeem its remaining years. In other words: Things can’t be undone, but the future is still there, and it is ours for the taking. Far from being mopey and passive, the songs on Accelerate are aggressive and out for blood. Better yet, they are primarily written from a perspective that observes the weaknesses of its opponents and moves in for the kill. It’s an empowering and optimistic set of songs, and ideal for this moment in American history. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

If the links in the setlist above were not enough of a hint for you, I want to make a point of mentioning that I’ve nearly completed my Pop Songs R.E.M. discography project. (I’ve finished about half of the albums now, and I’ve got about nine or ten more entries to go as of this writing.) If you haven’t been reading it, I humbly ask that you look it over, especially since it was designed as an argument for the band’s work directed to lapsed fans, and people who never gave them much of a shot despite their canonization. (I’m looking at you, North Americans Under The Age Of 26.)