Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: R.E.M.

R.E.M. 
All the Best 

From: Collapse Into Now
Released: March 15

It came as kind of a shock when R.E.M. announced in September that they were disbanding after a storied 31-year career.  However, when you look at the events leading up to that announcement, you definitely don't have to look very hard to see the clues.  When Collapse Into Now was released in March, they said they wouldn't be touring for the album; at the time, they cited fear of repetition and ineffectiveness in bolstering album sales, but now it's apparent that they were already set to hang it up.

There are lyrical clues on Collapse as well, none more blatant than on All the Best, which sees Michael Stipe singing such plain as day forfeitures as "it's just like me to overstay my welcome" and "I'll sing and rhyme / I'll give it one more time".  Musically, R.E.M. chose to go out on a bit of a high note; Collapse Into Now is a pretty good microcosm of the band's entire career, actually.  From the college radio throwback Discoverer, to the Everybody Hurts redux Every Day Is Yours to Win, to the Monster-esque crunch of All the Best, it's a good way to go out, a nice summation of all the band's best moments while largely avoiding any painful reminders of the dull, bland decade that immediately followed the exit of original drummer Bill Berry.  All in all, R.E.M. will probably be remembered as a great band that sullied their legacy by overstaying their welcome, as Stipe opined.  But, as Collapse Into Now proves, breaking up 15 years ago would have deprived the world of at least a few more R.E.M. gems.