What struck me the most about this article, and the experience Andrew Leonard had which inspired this article, was his conversation with his daughter. The insightful observation she had that R.E.M. had "completed the cycle" rings true. It makes me think how many other examples are out there that have undergone a similar cyclical-metamorphosis? Can you think of any?

I was an REM fan from almost the start. I owned Chronic Town and Murmur on vinyl, saw every tour from Reckoning through Green. (When I quit going to their shows, it wasn't because I didn't like the band any longer, I just hate big venue shows and the hassles that go with them).

I can only speak for myself, but I didn't stop buying REM records because, or when, they got big or "sold-out". I LOVED that the band got huge. Automatic For the People remains my favorite record of theirs. I stopped buying REM records because I stopped liking them. UP, was the last one I bought, I think. Whether the change was in me or in them or both, I can't say for sure, but it had nothing to do with how many other people were buying their records.

Album at the top of the charts, tour dates this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, United Center and Madison Square Garden. Not bad for a band that's supposedly fallen into obscurity.

REM was the band that made me get an electric guitar. They were a soulmate through the hard years of teendom. Decades later their albums comforted me through a painful divorce. For me, an important band.

This album makes me happy not because of what radio stations play it, but for a much more important reason. Around the Sun was a steaming hunk of poo, notable for how much Stipe had become a parody of himself and little else. Accelerate is simply a great album, in the mold of their earlier work.

though I am thrilled for them. I started listening to REM when I was, of all things, in the Army. I consider them one of the important, early influences on my personal ideology.

You are so old.

Not that that's a bad thing. As someone else mentioned, they still sell out huge stadiums and are immensely popular in this long tailed market. The new album is pretty good. It does sound like earlier R.E.M., specifically reminiscent of Document, but doesn't quite have that excitement that album had. It feels as if they made a treat for their longtime fans just to show they could have made the album all along, and I must admit that Accelerate does feel effortless. Only R.E.M. and U2 have managed to maintain their status as major rock bands for over two decades.

I'm almost 58 and just got into them a few years ago, largely because of Peter Buck's Rickenbacker/Byrds thing (gotta have that jangle), though back in the day I loved hearing Losing My religion in the car. My young cyberfriend Tim (jazzandblues.blogspot.com) thinks they're the best "Pop" band ever, and he may well be right. I like a lot of their major-label stuff too.

As for Andrew's daughter, she is one wide-awake grasshopper.

Most important American band of the last thirty years for many reasons. Saw them three times in 1983-84 (I'm the same age as Stipe) and it was obvious they were brilliant.

REM is beloved by almost everyone and why not? Not only do they have a magnificent catalog of great songs, but they are the ultimate non-rock stars. Despite their enormous success, they really did not become assholes. Anybody who saw them on Colbert (http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=164877) must have noticed that Stipe is still amazingly shy and humble for a major rock frontman. And now they're going to show us how to age gracefully and still be relevant.

I think they REALLY didn't want to become the Stones, churning out their ancient hits for an increasingly ancient audience and putting out new material nobody wants to hear. Buck's got a couple lifetimes' worth of music already written and Stipe's got notebooks filled with lyrics.

Many artists have aged well, i.e. Springsteen, Bowie, Neil Young, and even "younger" artists like Radiohead and Wilco (they're all about 40). I'm always amazed that people seem to want bands to crawl up and die soon as they're out of their 20s. I wonder if anyone ever told Beethoven his 5th symphony was really not as good as his 3rd and he should have quit after that.

Fourteen albums over 28 years, all but one of them really quite excellent. This new one practically brought tears to my eyes it was so strong. Very well done boys, thank you for everything.

but KALX is playing them because they are the indie gen's classic rock, not because they're "still vital." Stipe's voice inspires fits of nostalgia whether experienced or 2nd-hand - just as, to this day, Motown can inspire oh-what-I-missed fits of longing in people who weren't born until long after Motown's golden age. Nothing against the work R.E.M.'s doing, it's fine, but it's not some miracle of retained vitality; it's aging gracefully into beloved-antique status.

What the heck was supposed to be innovative about REM?!

I was there then and even from the very start it sounded like regular washy pop songs to me; bland, normal, inoffensive.

We'd just had bands like DEVO; I was now listening to the Butthole Surfers (and that classic material from both bands is still as "alternative" as it ever was); pray tell, what was alternative about REM? Is there some reason it couldn't have appeared on radio in 1971?

Though some think the drop in commercial appeal of REM came with the departure of Bill Berry, it really began with the release of Monster which though somewhat commercially successful was a very difficult album for the public and even serious fans to embrace. After that the hit singles waned and the general pubic moved on. That doesn't keep the brilliant New Adventures in Hi Fi and parts of Up and Reveal from being some of their best work.