Trivia / Accelerate

• Career Resurrection: While it didn't put them back into the zeitgeist, Accelerate marked a critical and commercial comeback for R.E.M. (following Around the Sun, which flopped on both fronts) that would allow them to end their careers on a high note three years later.
• Creator-Driven Successor: Accelerate acts as the band revisiting the style of Monster, featuring a similarly loud and distorted Punk Rock-influenced sound underscoring introspective lyrics relevant to the band's places in celebrity culture at the time.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Still no stranger to this trope even when Revisiting the Roots, deluxe edition copies of Accelerate came packaged in a translucent white keep case with a unique set of liner notes tied together with string and a bonus DVD featuring both the documentary 6 Days, which offered a behind-the-scenes look into the album's making and a few live performances of its songs, and the B-Sides "Red Head Walking" and "Airliner". The two extra songs are stored as MP3 files on the DVD, and buyers are fully encouraged to copy them over to their computer. Notably, this was the final example of this in R.E.M.'s studio discography, with Collapse into Now only receiving a Vanilla Edition release.
• Multi-Disc Work: Despite the album being short enough to comfortably sit on one LP, the vinyl release splits it across two 45 RPM 12" records, which were being explored at the time as an audiophile-friendly alternative to the long-player thanks to the faster playback speed allowing for wider groove spacing— and thus better sound quality. This configuration remained the sole version of the album available on vinyl until August 2023, when it was reissued as a standard LP (with each side corresponding to one of the two 45 RPM records).
• Refitted for Sequel: An odd twofer with "Until the Day is Done", which originated as a demo during the Monster sessions, where it was titled "Black Sky". R.E.M. previously attempted the song on Around the Sun (which featured another Monster outtake on it — "Final Straw", taken from "Harlan County with Whistling"), but ultimately recorded the fleshed-out version on this album instead.
• What Could Have Been:
  • More like "What Could Have Not Been" — the band went on record stating that they would've broken up immediately if Accelerate turned out to be another personal disappointment like Around the Sun. However, their satisfaction with the album and its strong commercial and critical performance (in addition to fan approval) led them to keep going for a short bit longer, saving their finale for Collapse into Now and the bonus songs on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011.
  • As evidenced on the 2009 live album Live at the Olympia, which chronicled the band's 2007 "live rehearsals" at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland during the making of this album (all songs but "Sing for the Submarine" were performed at the rehearsals), there were two more songs that were ostensibly composed for Accelerate, but ultimately left off for unknown reasons: "Staring Down the Barrel of Middle Distance" and "On the Fly". Both songs would, however, be performed on the Accelerate tour.
  • As another example of "What Could Have Not Been", during the aforementioned "live rehearsals" in Dublin, Ireland, Stipe emphatically stated before the performance of one particular song that it "will not be on the next album". He then backtracks upon hearing the audience's disappointed reaction; cue Peter Buck chiming in to say "I think it's a little early to make that call." The song in question? "Man-Sized Wreath", which would in fact end up as the second track on Accelerate. This can also be witnessed on Live at the Olympia.
• Working Title: "Disguised" for "Supernatural Superserious". It was actually Coldplay frontman Chris Martin who suggested the latter title.

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