August 4, 2010 9:00

REM recording 'very old school' new album

The Posies' frontman has heard an early version of forthcoming LP

The Posies' frontman Ken Stringfellow has said that REM are recording an "old school"-style album.

The singer,/guitarist who in the past has toured and worked with the Georgia band, recently met up with bassist Mike Mills in his current home city of Paris, where he heard the rough recordings of the proposed follow-up to 2008's 'Accelerate'.

"It's sounding really great, very old school," Stringfellow told NME. "The first track had vocals which were mixed super low which I couldn't understand and I was like, 'Yes, a return to form.' Mike was on about pushing the vocals up and I was like, 'No, don't do it.'"

REM have recorded their 15th as-yet-untitled studio album with producer Jacknife Lee, who also worked on 'Accelerate'.

"What's cool about classic REM is that you have an electric and acoustic guitar coming along like The Byrds," Stringfellow said. "There's a lot of that in there, there's some piano songs too, but I didn't hear a lot of crazy, freaky keyboards and vintage drum machines in there like the period when I was with them."

He added: "It had a very live feel. It's really quite beautiful, some of the recordings were a little bit dark and had just the kind of murk that you would hear on an old REM record. I thought that was a great thing to bring back."

The album is expected to be released next year.