Living Well Is The Best Revenge

The reviews of the new REM album 'Accelerate'* are pretty accurate; it's short and noisy, and thankfully is largely free of drivel like 'Losing My Religion' or 'Everybody Hurts'**.

It is worth buying*** for the opening track alone, 'Living Well Is The Best Revenge' (aka 'Living Well Is The Best Defence'); the guitar intro is a lot like 'Heatseeker' by AC/DC and it just gets better from there. If the bass-line were the fire brigade, it would turn up the minute a fire started, put it out safely, rescue a cat from a nearby tree and have some tea and biscuits without breaking a sweat. And never go on strike. I have no idea what Michael Stipe is singing about, so I shall pencil it in as the libertarian national anthem.

* Rather bizarrely, this is the first album in the alphabet, according to my iTunes, I filed 'Abba Gold' under 'Gold' rather than 'Abba Gold'.

** Two of the worst songs ever inflicted on humanity.

*** Or save yourself a tenner and just download the first track for £1 or whatever it costs.