“Just drive”, says Michael Stipe at the start of one of the take away show videos R.E.M. record with Vincent Moon, who’s Take Away series has seen The National, Andrew Bird, and Sufjan Stevens, among others, take their music out of the studio and venue and into the streets, or to a Cincinnati roof in Sufjan’s case. The members of the famed Athens, Georgia band are packed like sardines into a car all with instruments in tow on a dark night in their hometown.

Moon has been called in to assist in the botox injection that is the latest R.E.M. publicity push. One that includes tour dates with The National & Modest Mouse, a performance at last months SXSW music festival, and a feature or interview in just about every music magazine that matters this spring. As I have ready in several of those mags, the band are giving it one last shot, or at least saying that, after the disappointment that was Around The Sun. And while they timidly stand behind that album still, even Stipe, who seemed the staunchest supporter of the record, admits a lack of focus due to a greatest hits and live DVD being in process simultaneously. Whether it is true or not, all three members of the band have just about come out and said that another crap record could end things, which is why Accelerate is so important.

As a longtime R.E.M. fan, I have personally sat back and rooted for them to make another great album, but in my humble opinion, that has not happened since 1996 on New Adventures In Hi-Fi, which was dismissed by many as the first in a string of “irrelevant” R.E.M. albums. And with Accelerate, they just may have captured what they were after. It is hard to call it a comeback but rather a return to form, a renewed focus on what got this now trio to where they are.

Nothing speaks as loud on the record, as one of the videos from the aforementioned Take Away Show with Vincent Moon. Watch below for yourself as the band seems to be genuinely having fun in the jam packed car performing a new song (6 months ago) acoustic. And although Stipe does point a mini flashlight at his face, the layers of mega rock band are stripped away pretty effectively for this great rendition of “Living Well Is The Best Revenge.”

And for R.E.M., I guess that song title is appropriate as well.

Watch all 5 of the Take Away Show performances here.