Album: REM, Live at the Olympia in Dublin, (Warner Bros)

"This is not a show" we are told before a note is played. And it's true – this "experiment in terror" finds REM "rehearsing" new material and playing old favourites in front of a select audience.

Cue banter, fluffed lyrics and works-in-progess. Cue too the most alive REM album in more than a decade. With no need for "crowd pleasers", the band burst back to life with songs from Accelerate aired alongside material from what they call "the IRS years" and everyone else calls "the good stuff".