On April 1, REM is set to release Accelerate, its first album since 2004’s Around the Sun, and the first single off of Supernatural Superserious, is awesome. Music critics from Spin, Paste, and many others are hailing the album as a return to form, and the strongest album since 2001’s Reveal.

The story on REM over the past view years is that they had lost their way, and were now no more than a nostalgia act. While I agree that Around the Sun was a stylistic and musical mess, Reveal was one of the best albums of 2001, and would have been hailed as such if any other band had released it.

With this new album, it seems as if they have returned to form, and I am eagerly awaiting its release; something I haven’t done in a very long time.