Personnel: Scott McCaughey (vocals, guitar, accordion, keyboards); Bill Rieflin (guitar, bouzouki, keyboards, drums); Jacknife Lee (guitar, keyboards); Greg Hicks, Craig Klein , Mark Mullins (trombone); The Bonerama Horns.
Audio Mixers: Jacknife Lee; Sam Bell.
Recording information: Blackbird Studios, Nashville; Hansa Tonstudio, Berlin; Jackpot Studio, Portland; The Music Shed, New Orleans.
Photographer: Anton Corbijn.
Co-produced by Jacknife Lee, who also worked on 2008's Accelerate, Collapse into Now picks up where its predecessor left off, featuring several upbeat rock songs while also making room for midtempo numbers and atmospheric ballads. Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder, and Peaches all make guest vocal appearances.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "COLLAPSE INTO NOW touches on all their favorite tricks: punk raves, stately ballads, piano accordion and the most mandolin they've put in one place since 'Losing My Religion.'"
Rolling Stone (p.70) - Ranked #16 in Rolling Stone's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "[A] stately summary of their folk-pop senescence..."
Spin (p.74) - "COLLAPSE mostly sounds like a familiar friend -- reliable in all the best ways, but still capable of quietly insinuating surprises."
Entertainment Weekly (p.75) - "[T]he acoustic lilt of 'It Happened Today' melts into a sweet, wordless coda powered by Mike Mills' epic harmonies..." -- Grade: B
Uncut (p.76) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The closing track, 'Blue', is a sonorous, sprawling and altogether seductive dirge, Stipe's distorted, distracted spoken monologue counterpointed by the backing vocals of Patti Smith."
Magnet (p.43) - Ranked #6 in Magnet's '20 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "[I]f you listen for signs of a band on its last legs, you'll come up empty."
Billboard (p.40) - "As positive as it is poetic, COLLAPSE INTO NOW rolls all of R.E.M.'s varied sonic adventures into a concentrated 41 minutes of mostly short, tight and fat-free songs."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.93) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'Walk It Back' is a beautiful pregnant pause of a track, and 'Uberlin' finds Stipe's stream of consciousness flowing still."
