Fifteen studio albums into an almost three-decade career, the surprise isn’t that Athens, Georgia’s most popular band is still going, but rather that they still have something to offer. After the relatively limp material on the last three long-players from R.E.M., the reasonably straight-up delivery of Accelerate is a breath of fresh air.

Take the crunchy guitar rock of the band’s Monster era, a dose of seriousness á là Automatic for the People and add the infectious hooks of Life’s Rich Pageant, and you have the best parts of Accelerate. Michael Stipe and company are at their best when they push the tempo and put the focus on big riffs and pop hooks. Case in point: lead single “Supernatural Superserious.” It’s not all gold, though. The album starts strong and ends with a few good tracks, but like the band members themselves, there is some fat around the middle that could be easily shed. Sadly, Accelerate ends with “I’m Gonna DJ,” which could be the band’s worst song ever, lyrically. Even with that clunker’s sour aftertaste, this is still R.E.M.’s best album in a decade.