American rock giants R.E.M. are working on new material, set to be gathered on the follow up to last year’s album ‘Accelerate’.
R.E.M. are one of the most respected groups in America. Blending post punk influences with 60s melody the band was stars of the underground scene before becoming one of the first groups to be picked up by a major label.
Albums such as ‘Automatic For The People’ made the group global stars, before a period of experimentation set in. During the ‘Monster’ tour in the mid 90s drummer Bill Berry suffered an aneurysm, and left the group soon after.
In the opinion of many fans R.E.M. lost their way soon after. Sure, subsequent albums such as ‘Reveal’ would have their fair share of high points, but the band seemed lifeless without the chugging energy of Berry.
However last year’s album ‘Accelerate’ saw the band on fighting form. R.E.M. seemed to have recaptured the verve and swagger that made them so irresistible in the first place, playing spectacular British shows including a headline date at Scotland’s T In The Park.
Now it seems that the group have begun working on new material. In a new interview with US magazine Pitchfork guitarist Peter Buck claims that the band are working without enigmatic singer Michael Stipe.
“I’m not even sure you could say we’ve started the record. But Mike (Mills) and I write all the time, and I had a bunch of songs we were going over during soundcheck on the last tour,” Buck told the website.
“There are some really pretty acoustic things, some really total noisy rock, and some kind of poppy stuff” Buck added.
Of course, the new material has yet to be judged by Stipe who will decide which songs are worth continuing with. “To a certain degree, when we are doing this stuff, we are doing this to excite Michael about getting inspired. For him, he really wants to hear something and be inspired to sing something,” Buck concluded.
The band have been busy looking back to their roots of late. R.E.M. released an expanded version of debut album ‘Murmur’ last year, with second album ‘Reckoning’ set to follow with a host of unreleased material.
R.E.M. are set to record their new album with producer Jacknife Lee next year.
