1-15: Accelerate vs. Cuyahoga

[stip]

Vote

[stip]

This is really tough. Both really good songs, though neither is a personal favorite. I'd rather listen to accelerate these days, but Cuyahoga has one of my favorite bridges in the entire catalog "rewrite the book and rule the pages/saving face, secured in faith/bury, burn the waste behind you'

It gets my vote for that passage though Accelerate is the more exciting song. I've also always though Accelerate is indebted to ghost.

[Kaius]

Cuyahoga

[chewm]

Both songs are fantastic.
Im going with Cuyahoga, but Id vote for Accelerate over in almost every other matchup this round.

[UglyRedHonda]

Both songs are fantastic.
Im going with Cuyahoga, but Id vote for Accelerate over in almost every other matchup this round.

[Mike]

Cuyahoga has one of my favorite bridges in the entire catalog "rewrite the book and rule the pages/saving face, secured in faith/bury, burn the waste behind you'

That bridge really is great. The whole song is. Easy vote for Cuyahoga even though I really like Accelerate. Probably my favorite song of this round.

[Norah]

Sometimes I sing "charlie's my puppy dog!" to the tune of the chorus of Cuyahoga.

[digster]

Cuyahoga is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs.

It's interesting that this and Gardening at Night came up in the same round, as for me, they're the two songs I consider most emblematic of R.E.M.'s 80s work. They're anthemic but insular, and depending on the instrumentation could either be folk ditties or punk ragers. Both songs sound a little bit like a lot of bands and end up sounding like nothing else. I love the dichotomy between the gauntlet thrown in Cuyahoga's opening couple and the wailing chorus that goes in the complete opposite direction of a call to arms.

I love Accelerate, don't get me wrong ("I saw the future turn upside down and hesitate" is one of my favorite later Stipe lyrics), but Cuyahoga has an easy win here.

[vedder316]

No time to question the choices I make

[PHATJ]

Accelerate