R.E.M have returned to the studio to record their twelfth album, the follow-up to 1998’s ‘UP’.
The remaining three members of the band, Peter Buck, Mike Stipe and Mick Mills, have decamped to Vancouver to work on the record.
It is understood that many of the tracks are already written as the band worked through ideas in their native Athens, Georgia in early February.
The album will be produced by Pat McCarthy, the former Luna associate, who produced ‘Up’.
Long-time R.E.M instrumentalist Scott McCaughey has joined the band in studio, with Ken Stringfellow and drummer Joey Waronker.
No track titles or tentative release date have yet emerged. R.E.M‘s official website [url=]www.remhq.com, is carrying a selection of photographs of the band in studio.
The website also claims that renowned music obsessive Peter Buck is to provide liner notes to a reissued Beach Boys album, pencilled in for an August release. The guitarist will cast his views over ‘Beach Boys Love You’, originally released in April 1977 and viewed by many as the finest Beach Boys record of the decade.
‘Beach Boys Love You’ is set to be released through Brothers Records in the US on August 15.