In a recent interview, Michael Stipe admitted that R.E.M's new single, originally known as Disguised, was retitled Supernatural Superserious on the advice of Coldplay's Chris Martin. It's an anecdote that's likely to make long-term fans of R.E.M. feel a little queasy. Never mind that it's like Jane Austen taking writing tips from Barbara Cartland, it also highlights some of the recent problems with the venerable Georgian band: their damaging ascent to that sterile community of rock statesmen; the lack of conviction; the rather wobbly sense of self.

This explains why Accelerate, the band's fourteenth studio album, is such a vital record in their career: they need to prove that, after the dispiriting Around the Sun (2004), they still want to be R.E.M. One thing is certain: their fans, recalling the wonders of their earlier work, still want them to be, and it's this fervent hope that triggers suspicions of the widespread claims that Accelerate is a glorious rejuvenation.

Happily, it is indeed a return to form. Observing that opening tracks Living Well's the Best Revenge and Man-Sized Wreath sound as if they belong on 1986's tremendous college-rock colossus Life's Rich Pageant is like observing Michael Stipe is called Michael: it's glaringly obvious. It's also a huge relief. Peter Buck sounds as if he's visited a Swiss clinic for a pick-me-up shot of guitar hormones, while Stipe has ditched the everyman wisdom and ironic larkiness for lyrics that again sound both supernatural and superserious. It's hard not to get carried away by the title track, opening with a guitar clang that could have come from the splendidly dour Fables of the Reconstruction (1985), or the wheezy, woodcut folk of Houston (“If the storm doesn't kill me the government will“), an excellent addition to Stipe's atlas of psychic geography and a world away from the anodyne Leaving New York.

For all its abundant strengths and pleasures, though, the pull of the past overwhelms the promise of the future. Loving these songs is like dating people who look enough like your first true love to satisfy your desires, but whose similarities can't quite hide the differences. If R.E.M. are your type, though, Accelerate will make your heartbeat quicken once again.

(Warners, TMS £11.99)

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