Collapse Into Now
[Warner Bros]
Their fifteenth album was the last on their contract and their final one overall. And yet for a band wanting to go out with a bang, recording their swan song in a series of recording studios (Berlin, Nashville, New Orleans; demos in Portland, OR) with various guest artists (including Lenny Kaye, Patti Smith and Eddie Vedder), its songs were never performed live. Make of that what you will. (Music videos were filmed for each song for promotional purposes.)
A Top 5 album in both the US and UK it is, along with 2008’s Accelerate [Warner Bros], the best critically received record of their 5-album post-Bill Berry stint. But perhaps more importantly, it neatly ties up, both sonically and chronologically, the 30-year recording career that began with the release of the “Radio Free Europe” single in 1981.
Released March 7, 2011.
