New R.E.M Album Is a ‘Return To Form’

R.E.M’s upcoming fifteenth studio album is ‘classic R.E.M’ and a ‘return to form’, according to Ken Stringfellow, singer and guitarist of cult American alternative band The Posies.

In an interview with NME, Stringfellow revealed he met up with R.E.M’s bassist Mike Mills in Paris, and was played a clutch of rough recordings from their sessions, and was immediately blown away by the new material. “It’s sounding really great, very old school,” he said. “The first track had vocals which were mixed super low which I couldn’t understand and I was like, ‘Yes a return to form’. Mike was on about pushing the vocals up and I was like, ‘No, don’t do it’.”

Stringfellow added that the stripped back approach to the album, which was recorded with producer Jacknife Lee, has given the new songs a more traditional R.E.M sound. “What’s cool about classic REM is that you have an electric and acoustic guitar coming along like ,” he explained. “There’s a lot of that in there, there’s some piano songs too but I didn’t hear a lot of crazy, freaky keyboards and vintage drum machines in there like the period when I was with them.

It had a very live feel. It’s really quite beautiful, some of the recordings were a little bit dark and had just the kind of murk that you would hear on an old REM record. I thought that was a great thing to bring back.”

R.E.M are expected to release the new LP next year, while The Posies also have a new album due in September this year.