Collapse into Now
| R.E.M.
Collapse into Now
Collapse into Now is the 15th and final studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on March 7, 2011, on Warner Bros. Produced by Jacknife Lee, who previously worked with the band on Accelerate (2008), the album was preceded by the singles, "It Happened Today," "Mine Smell Like Honey", "Überlin" and "Oh My Heart". -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Pitchfork
Their first LP since the 1997 departure of Bill Berry that sounds unmistakably like themselves, this is also R.E.M.'s best record in that time.
-
Rolling Stone
Who knows if Whitman or Patti Smith is proud — but R.E.M. should be.
-
Consequence of Sound
Collapse Into Now is the band’s best record since New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
-
SPIN
Collapse mostly sounds like a familiar friend — reliable in all the best ways, but still capable of quietly insinuating surprises.
-
The Quietus
A positive start, in every sense of the word.
-
The Guardian
Collapse Into Now isn't groundbreaking, but feeling comfortable in their old skin has produced REM's best effort in years.
-
A.V. Club Music
Collapse Into Now isn’t the from-left-field treat that Accelerate was; it’s better. It’s another very good album from a band that’s getting back into the habit of making them.
-
BBC
As deep as previous R.E.M. classics, and perhaps their best post-Bill Berry LP.
-
Slant Magazine
I’m tired of “not bad” R.E.M. albums.
-
Drowned in Sound
Nobody should be surprised that R.E.M. can still make excellent music, though perhaps great albums now elude them.
-
Soundblab
A solid album with some great tracks.
-
Music Radar
The new LP for 2011, the band's 15th, is a return to form.
-
Pop Matters
After returning to form with their 2008 album Accelerate, the veteran alt-rockers decide the best way to follow it up is to offer more energetic romps with a few ballads mixed in.
-
Sputnik Music
Good.
-
NPR
The band's most rewarding album in 15 years, Collapse Into Now is a beautifully produced collection of intimate and reflective ballads.
-
Paste Magazine
Ultimately, there is something strangely courageous about this album and R.E.M.’s determination to avoid nostalgia act status, even amid so many reissues.
-
American Songwriter
Give Collapse a few listens. The potential is there.
-
All Music
This may impart a lack of urgency to Collapse into Now but it also means that it delivers R.E.M. sounding like R.E.M., something that has been in short supply since the departure of Berry.
-
Telegraph
Smart, sonically rich and emotionally resonant.
-
3 Minute Record
The thundering drums of Bill Rieflin and bass of Mike Mills balance out the guitars and build with Stipe's vocal acting like a rallying cry that the band is back.
-
Los Angeles Times
“Collapse Into Now” could hook new listeners; it offers plenty of the band’s particular umami. But when a band isn’t seeking anything new, a project’s emotional impact weakens. Why be a band? On this album, the answer seems to be, because that’s what you are. Fair enough.
-
Vulture
By the time the band released Collapse Into Now in 2011, they finally sounded comfortable as a trio.
-
The Bridge
Collapse Into Now experiences an occasional collapse in quality from time to time, a ridiculous lyric here, an over-extended track there, but nothing ever destroys the album’s consistency.
-
Pretty Much Amazing
Collapse Into Now is R.E.M.’s best album since Bill Berry hopped on a tractor and left behind a three-legged dog.
-
Express
The boys are still cranking them out after all these years.
-
Independent
With Buck's chiming guitars and Stipe's echo-laden vocals, from the opener's exuberant melodicism to the "Losing My Religion"-like "Uberlin", it's archetypal R.E.M.
-
The Line of Best Fit
It must be quite difficult for R.E.M. to continually be compared to themselves, but it also seems to be pretty easy for them to settle into all-too-familiar territories, struggling to not sound too much like themselves while they try hard to offer their fans something new.
-
Sean is Here
They don't need to do anything else. If they want to keep recording music, well, god bless 'em.
-
The Music Box
R.E.M. has created its most consistent efforts in two decades.
-
Moose Radio
It's a portrait of full-grown artists who reached the top long ago but decided to stick together and ride out the decades.
-
Bohemian.com
Once again, R.E.M.’s renewed spirit is welcome, but its singer needs to hold up his end of the bargain – and fast.
-
The Arts Desk
Unfeasibly good 15th studio album from Georgia combo.
-
RUKUS Magazine
The discovery of a beginning.
-
SFGate
There are guest appearances by Eddie Vedder, Peaches and Patti Smith, but they are mere distractions on this wholehearted comeback effort.
-
Hooks and Harmony
Oh well. So much for hoping.
-
American Noise
Above all, R.E.M. is “dancing with the one that brought them,” going back without going backwards, and offering a refreshing set of R.E.M songs that once again reflect R.E.M.
-
MTV
It's R.E.M.'s many faces, collapsing into now.
-
Writing Prompts
I wonder if it will some day become the ‘forgotten classic’ of R.E.M.’s catalog. It would be worthy of the designation.
-
NZ Herald
They're back... treading water again.
-
R.E.M. HQ
Collapse Into Now, easily one of the band’s most diverse offerings and undeniably one of their finest.
-
The New Millenial
With the quality of Collapse Into Now, R.E.M. has now released a great album in each of four separate decades.
-
Jacobull
The band is falling back on old habits instead of plowing ahead.
-
Music OMH
Collapse Into Now is a fine album, and one that’s far better than any band together for three decades has any right to be.
-
St. Louis Magazine
These days, R.E.M. are anything but simple.
-
There Goes the Fear
I definitely felt like this album was something special from the start, but it is at the end that it really shows its true colours.
-
Meg
It’s by no means a classic REM album. It is simply a collection of good songs, against the odds from a band who many thought were creatively dead.
-
The Week
If there's to be a vital future for R.E.M., the band can’t continue recycling its past.
-
Adrian's Album Reviews
REM, re-invigorated after 'Accelerate'.
-
Spectrum Culture
Something to be proud of, Michael.
-
The Absolute Sound
Everything die-hard fans love is on this disc
-
Icon Fetch
R.E.M. has reached back and plucked many of the strengths of their previous albums to comprise a diverse and enjoyable new record.
-
Remring
While the album does not fall flat on it’s face, it’s simply R.E.M. by numbers and if I wanted to waste my time listening to a Tired Pony I would do so.
-
Metro
On Collapse Into Now, REM actually sound like they’re having fun – particularly on the thrashy, back-to-basics tracks.
-
Deseret News
R.E.M. in fine form on 'Collapse into Now'
-
NOW Toronto
Collapse Into Now feels like a reunion with a dear old friend you lost touch with many years ago.
-
Big Shiny Robot
Look, this is not all-time classic R.E.M. At this point in their career, we’re lucky just to get a solidly enjoyable album. Luckily, most of the musical quibbles here are minor ones.
-
Seattle Pi
The Athens, Georgia alternative rock and roll greats are 30 years into its career and still putting out worthy new music.
-
Washington Examiner
R.E.M. in fine form on 'Collapse into Now'
-
John McFerrin Music Reviews
Very good.
-
Uncut
Sounding more like themselves again.
-
QRO Magazine
If Collapse Into Now doesn’t quite know as much what it wants to be as Accelerate did, that’s because the band can go, and has gone, so many places. And the journey continues.
-
Pop Culture Monster
The result is plain to see – an album that is youthful and energetic, hopeful yet cynical, idealistic and realistic: it is R.E.M. at their very best.
-
Troy Record
R.E.M. proves they aren't past their prime with 'Collapse'
-
Rewind/Fast Forward
REM need to learn that recapturing your former glory relies on a lot more than just trying to sound like you did 20 years ago. It also involves making sure that the songwriting is up to the same standards, if not higher.
-
Press of Atlantic City
R.E.M. in fine form on 'Collapse Into Now'.
-
Under the Radar Mag
R.E.M. aren't a cheap nostalgia act here by any stretch.
-
Courant
R.E.M. balances bombastic guitars with pensive side on 'Collapse Into Now'.
-
Music Scramble
In my view this is the best album R.E.M. have produced since the Monster-era.
-
The Tower Pulse
R.E.M’s “Collapse Into Now” shines with ragged up-tempo rock.
-
Penny Black Music
It ends with an almost Byrds reprise of 'Discoverer', finishing what will be my album of the year.
-
Vulture Hound
They aren’t quite just going through the motions for money just yet, but if this album is any indication, they aren’t far off it.
-
Newsday
For "Collapse Into Now," R.E.M. let go of the idea that each album has to have a singular sound and simply let the songs dictate their approach. The result is more organic and a whole lot of fun.
-
The Current
Collapse Into Now isn't perfect, or groundbreaking, or even a complete return to form, but it proves that this band — in their thirty-first year — is still capable of making satisfying songs.
-
My San Antonio
R.E.M. still has something left in the tank. And for now, that's enough.
-
Rock Turtleneck
With Collapse Into Now, the band resettles in the zone where they do their best work.
-
Time Out
The greatness of R.E.M. albums is proportional to the amount of backing vocals from Mike Mills. Good news: Collapse Into Now drizzles his high, honeyed voice everywhere.
-
Madison
The aptly named “Collapse Into Now” folds a lot of what they’ve done before into a reinvigorated present that celebrates that past rather than repeats it.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments