The skilled animators of Crush are behind this clip from the Athens trio everyone was buzzing about at SXSW. When we asked Matt Fluxblog to prematurely evaluate Accelerate he wrote of the tune:
This one has the best fake-out in the R.E.M. catalog: You think it’s going to be a tinkly piano ballad, but then it bolts off in the opposite direction, and shifts into a jumpy power-pop anthem. The lyrics are a bit on-the-nose, but eh, what can you do?
Along with some shaggy-haired young folks and dancing desktop icons, those on-the-nose lyrics are on display in this vid. Like “Fall On Me.” Except nothing is misspelled. Anyway, we hear the band is pretty Web savvy, so no doubt the heavily pixelated video was strategic (this won’t lose any luster on YouTube). Watch “Hollow Man” at remaccelerate.com. (Psst — You can download our free covers tribute to Automatic For The People here.)
UPDATE: Embed.
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Not bad. I wish it were embeddable.
that’s a cool song – maybe the best on Accelerate (I know most people won’t think that’s saying much, but I like the album). Great video too. REM have pleasantly surprised me this year. Great tits too.
Seriously cool video and song!
This song is actually a good example of what leaves me a little cold about the new album. It’s not bad, but it’s VERY R.E.M.-by-numbers; precisely what we’d expected of them before they went off the deep end into mediocrity, but absolutely nothing more. It seems as white bread as any of the stuff pumped out by bands aping R.E.M. in the 90s (Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra, The Refreshments, etc.). I do like some songs on the new R.E.M. quite a bit but this one just sort of makes me stabby. I wish they’d chosen “Living Well is the Best Revenge” or something a bit more oomphy as the next single.