I feel like an alligator coming up the escalator

Continuing my trip across the output of Athens' finest...

Collapse Into Now (2011)

And here we come to the end of the studio albums - there will undoubtedly be a few more posts on some interesting other bits they've done over the years, but in a lot of ways this can be considered to be The End.  I think I listened to it once and found it to be not all that different from Accelerate, but I could have made that up - the good news is that the sides have gone back to having names

Side 1 - "X-Axis"

1. Discoverer
I didn't mind this one - it feels like it could quite easily have been on Green.

2. All The Best
This is more Monster-ish - it's fine but I can live without it.

3. Überlin
I liked this one - nicely slower with some decent guitarwork on it.

4. Oh My Heart
Whereas this harks back to Out Of Time - are we getting a potted history here?

5. It Happened Today
Yeah, I didn't mind this one either - there's been a good amount of variety so far.

6. Every Day Is Yours To Win
And this is different as well - nice sentiment as well.

Side 2 - "Y-Axis"

1. Mine Smell Like Honey
Yeah - nicely upbeat.

2. Walk It Back
A bit dull.

3. Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
An upbeat number to make up for it - didn't mind this at all.

4. That Someone Is You
A very 60s sound to this - it's quite Monkees.

5. Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I
Fine.  Nothing more than that though.

6. Blue
And here's Patti back, giving us NAIHF vibes.  It's got quite a nice different end to it as well, linking back to the opening track.

And we're done (except that we're not really, but let's not worry about that for the time being).  I didn't mind this album at all - it's not got any absolute dud tracks on it and there's a nice bit of variety across it, so it's easily their best since Reveal.  Having said there are no dud tracks, not many of them stood out on first listen either so picking X tracks isn't the easiest - "Überlin" is the easy choice and I'm also going to go for "Mine Smell Like Honey" for the chorus and "Discoverer" for the nice retro R.E.M. sound to it.

Wikipedia tells me this is their "fifteenth and final studio album" (again produced by Jacknife Lee) and the band knew perfectly well this was the end - as Michael put it "that's the record where we put ourselves on the cover for the first time and I'm waving goodbye, and nobody got it".  It was recorded in Berlin, Nashville, New Orleans and Portland and Mike Mills makes the point that this album is more varied than Accelerate (which I'd certainly agree with) and it's more personal than political (which I'll take his word for).  

There was minimal promotion and no tour - as Peter Buck put it "it seems like less and less people are buying albums, so do what you want".  The critics were nice enough about it but I think Spin got it right with "they discover the glow of middle age, warmly acknowledging the past...while realizing that the present can feel just as comforting" - although I think their acceptance of this being the end may also have played a part.  The album did well commercially - #5 in the UK and the US and #1 in Germany as a goodbye present for the band.

On first listen, this feels like a nice sign-off to me - I'd need to give it a few more goes to be sure but I think they were in the right place mentally to say good-bye to us all after a fine career, with more than a few ups and downs on several fronts.  I'm glad I've finally got round to listening to all their albums though - Accelerate and Collapse Into Now are definitely worth checking out, if maybe not classics of their time.  But they're better than Around The Sun, at least!

So, are we done?!?  Not quite yet - there are five (official, with countless unofficial) live albums which are worth discussing to various degrees, FOURTEEN compilation albums (at least one of which is worth a write-up all by itself), a soundtrack album and six EPs, at least one of which is classic in the canon and deserves some further investigation.  So I reckon we've got at least another five entries to come and I currently have absolutely no idea what criteria I'm going to use to decide how much I write about them...

But in the meantime, I'd just like to say a big thank you to Michael, Bill, Mike and Peter for all their output over the years - I've not loved it all but that's just made them feel a bit more human and real to me.

Accelerate - Their penultimate studio effort
Dead Letter Office/Chronic Town - Quirky and variable