# Accelerate: R.E.M.'s Second Reckoning?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/crossed-channels-with-tony-fletcher-and-dan-epstein-6711463/accelerate-r-e-m-s-second-reckoning
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/crossed-channels-with-tony-fletcher-and-dan-epstein-6711463/accelerate-r-e-m-s-second-reckoning.md
Podcast: [Crossed Channels with Tony Fletcher and Dan Epstein](https://stenobird.com/podcast/crossed-channels-with-tony-fletcher-and-dan-epstein-6711463)
Published: 2025-05-08T10:02:27+00:00
Episode link: https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/accelerate-rems-second-reckoning
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/163100419/92dcc00d561b32790d8ef7ee520b8b99.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/crossed-channels-with-tony-fletcher-and-dan-epstein-6711463/episodes/accelerate-r-e-m-s-second-reckoning
Duration seconds: 606

## Resource

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.com Welcome to the 16th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. While most of our previous episodes have covered bands or artists that have been received very differently in the UK than the US, this one focuses on a band that was hugely successful in both countries (and a whole lotta other places as well): Athens, Georgia’s R.E.M. But instead of zooming in on one of R.E.M.’s classic early/mid-eighties albums like Murmur or Reckoning , or delving into one of the releases from their multi-platinum run in the nineties, Dan and Tony fast-forward here to the penultimate studio album of the massively influential alternative rock band’s 31-year career: 2008’s Accelerate . Produced by Jacknife Lee (who had previously worked with Snow Patrol, Editors and The Hives, among others), Accelerate is a 35-minute blast of hard-riffing, tightly-wound tunes, featuring such bracing singles as “Hollow Man” (video below), “Man-Sized Wreath” and “Supernatural Superserious”. Viewed by many — including R.E.M. co-founders Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe — as a significant comeback from their previous outing, 2004’s soggy Around the Sun , the record received rave reviews pretty much across the board, and reached #2 on the Billboard 200 in the US while going all the way to #1 on the UK Albums chart. But despite its commercial and critical success, Accelerate remains something of an overlooked entry in R.E.M.’s extensive discography. Dan, for example, was only dimly aware of its existence; even though R.E.M. was once quite literally his fa…

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