History Music / CollapseIntoNow

* GenreRoulette: The album explores the wide variety of sounds the band used over their career, from the ''Accelerate''-adjacent style of "Discoverer" and "All the Best" to the Pat [=McCarthy=]-era electro-jangle sound of "Überlin" to the ''Music/LifesRichPageant'' homage on "Mine Smell Like Honey"; even ''Music/AroundTheSun'' gets a nod with the slow, melancholic-sounding "Oh My Heart" (doubling as a somewhat LighterAndSofter, less-heavy take on the arrangement for ''Accelerate'''s "Houston", to which "Oh My Heart" is a SequelSong). Some songs even combine styles, with the closing track "Blue" mixing the SpokenWordInMusic style of [[Music/OutOfTime "Belong"]] with the Music/PattiSmith duetting on [[Music/NewAdventuresInHiFi "E-Bow the Letter"]].

* GenreRoulette: The album explores the wide variety of sounds the band used over their career, from the ''Accelerate''-adjacent style of "Discoverer" and "All the Best" to the Pat [=McCarthy=]-era electro-jangle sound of "Überlin" to the ''Music/LifesRichPageant'' homage on "Mine Smell Like Honey"; even ''Music/AroundTheSun'' gets a nod with the slow, melancholic-sounding "Oh My Heart" (minus the burnout that plagued that album, of course). Some songs even combine styles, with the closing track "Blue" mixing the SpokenWordInMusic style of [[Music/OutOfTime "Belong"]] with the Music/PattiSmith duetting on [[Music/NewAdventuresInHiFi "E-Bow the Letter"]].

* EndOfAnEra: According to Michael Stipe, "Blue" is a rumination on the end of the 20th century (and by implication the end of R.E.M.), reflecting on the tumultuous past 100 years that humanity has endured and PassingTheTorch to a new generation so that they can take charge of the 21st century. This is reflected in Stipe's final line in the song, "20th century [[AlbumTitleDrop collapse into now]]."

''Collapse into Now'', released in 2011, is the fifteenth and final studio album by American AlternativeRock band Music/{{REM}}. While ''Music/{{Accelerate}}'' was created as a way for the band to bounce back after a period of burnout, the group started to feel during its supporting tour that it was time to close the book for good. In an interview, Peter Buck further explained that the decision came after singer Michael Stipe expressed a desire to step away from R.E.M. for a long while. When Buck replied "how about forever," the trio all agreed that it sounded like a good idea: they realized that they'd done everything they ever wanted to as a band, and now was a perfect time to end things off on a high note instead of waiting for any CreativeDifferences or other discontent to drag them down.

* LongTitle: "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando, and I", and one sure to cause awkward line-breaking situations on computer screens, "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter".

->"I come from a faraway place called the 20th century. And these are the values and these are the mistakes we've made and these are the triumphs. These are the things that we held in the highest esteem. These are the things to learn from."