Accelerate

Yeah it's true that REM is very political but I don't think everything they write is Bush-bashing, as fashionable as that was a few years ago. I think this song is more personal than political, and I think that it's about suicide. The protagonist of the song is climbing to the top floor of a building and "I threw the window open in challenge and despair". He's thinking about throwing himself out of the window and ending whatever pain he has. As he's ready to accelerate downwards, he thinks about what circumstances have brought him to this point "What put me here?". He knows that there's no easy way out of his troubles "Where is the ripcord, the trapdoor, the key?", and so is forced with the decision of ending his life or climbing back down the stairs and trying to change things the hard way. The ending is a little ambiguous as to whether or not he actually jumps. All of the imagery of high places seems to me to fit a lot better with suicide than with a political song. Just my 2 cents.

I think you guys totally missed it. But maybe I did. Anyway, for me this song is about leaving the comforts of a long-term relationship. It spoke to every emotion I had when I went through that. Despair, fear, suffocating from the uncertainty but hopeful, feeling incomplete. I was one of a set and now I'm alone. But I'm not, there are so many others just like me. Everything moving so fast. Amazing how every line spoke to me.

Stipe, if you read this, thank you. Regardless of what everyone else read, this song was practically my anthem when I went through the axiety-ridden decision to leave a formerly good but now unhealthy relationship.

Woo Hoo first comment. This is an awesome song. Like most of R.E.M.'s songs at times when the government is controlled by Republican's, I believe that this song is about escaping and repairing the damage that the Republican party causes to our country. The lines where is the ripcord, the trapdoor the key and where is the cartoon escape hatch for me prove this. They want W. out of the Whitehouse as do I and probably everybody else who listens to and enjoys R.E.M. They're back. :)

This is one of my favourites from the new album, I love it.

well this is my second favorite song by REM. I saw them live on friday and it was awesome, but for some reason they didn't play this, end of the world, or everybody hurts. Ya this song is definitely about being trapped in something (like the republicans) and wanting your ideas to shine through but the opponent's ideas are trapping you in and not letting you "accelerate."

i agree with the republican idea becuz r.e.m is obviously a political band an whatnot but i like 2 think of the songs meaning as when u feel like ur life is like falling apart an u want to stop from keep getting worse what with the ripchord an all that noise

Unlikely that it is directly aimed at W seeing as he is on the way out no matter what anyway. To me this song is more about soldier / war.

"No time to argue with belief I'm not alone, a thousand others dropping Faster than me" Christian or whatever, if you are in the army and they shoot at you.. you shoot back. When the bullet flies past you, the politics goes out the window and you worry about getting the hell out of these. (Standard human nature). Looking around at all the others dyeing in the thousands you wonder why you are stuck there. And etc. You get my train of thought. But that's just me.

Does anyone have any idea about what he means with "Slow down, go!"?

I can't listen to the song without thinking that it's from the point of view of someone at the top of the WTC. For me it was absolutely clear, and jumped out at me from the outset, and years later it still holds. But it's Stipe, that's the beauty of what he does - art is whatever the hell you want it to be.

This song is about dealing with a world that's moving ever more quickly. Singer Michael Stipe told the Daily Telegraph that the sound and speed of the songs on Accelerate, "has to do with something much bigger, which happens to tie in with the album title. It's about ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] and people's attention span and it's millennial. We're eight years into the 21st century and what does that mean? It's just flying by. So who has time for an extra two verses or three choruses?"