CHOOSING WHO, or often as not what, to put on the cover is a rum old business.

Sometimes it’s a long, arduous process of agonising over any number of options before a decision is finally taken. At others, such as the month, say, U2 or Coldplay release a new album, it’s a process that requires no more deliberation than inhaling and exhaling – it just happens. Every so often, though, instinct takes over. Such was the case with R.E.M. and the current cover.

Now, instinctive covers can be dangerous. I am still prone to sobbing like a baby whenever the words ‘Pink’ and ‘Sex Issue’ are mentioned in the same sentence, as probably is anyone who actually purchased the wretched thing (and I know you all by name). I feel safe in saying that this won’t be the case this time, not least because we haven’t shoe-horned Michael Stipe into a PVC swimsuit for the occasion (although we have painted his head gold, as you do). But more specifically, because it was hearing R.E.M.’s new album that lay at the root of this cover.

Regular Q watchers will be aware that R.E.M., as a band, haven’t been on the magazine’s cover for a good seven years. Considering they were almost Q’s de facto house band for much of the’90s, this is a glaring span of time, but then the ’00s have been testing years for the men who could once do no wrong. Does anyone at all instantly reach for Reveal when they fancy listening to an R.E.M. album? No, thought not. As for Around The Sun, well, does anyone still play that at all?

Hopes, therefore, were not high when Q trooped along to posh London members’ club The Hospital last year to hear a preview of Accelerate, R.E.M.’s 14th studio album, at an evening hosted by Stipe and Peter Buck. A whirlwind 30-or-so minutes later, and I’d decided to put them on our third cover of 2008. Back then Accelerate sounded like a genuine return to form, primarily because it found R.E.M. sounding like R.E.M. again (something they seem to have spent much of the last decade studiously trying to avoid doing), locating the mid-point between the Document and Green albums.

Back were Mike Mills’ harmonies. Back was Peter Buck’s guitar (and, oh dear, it took but one glass of red wine for me to bound up to a very gracious Mr Buck, whom I’d never previously met, and bellow, “They’ve let you and your guitar back into the studio!” in the manner of an over-excited gibbon, for which I apologise to the man profusely here and now). Back were the tunes (and just how great is Supernatural Superserious? Precisely…). Back were R.E.M.

Several months on, and having commited to that cover, a copy of Accelerate arrived in the office. Clearly, should the wine and The Hospital’s epic PA system have conspired to over-inflate its merits, I’d have looked more foolish than if I’d said, “So, Sex Issue 2, and what are Katrina And The Waves doing these days.” Happily, joyously, they didn’t, and Accelerate sounds as good now as it did then. Better, in fact, since the couple of songs that appeared to be under-developed have revealed themselves to be ‘keepers’ over the course of several plays. Rejoice, as in fact it says on the cover.

Whether Michael Stipe was as delighted to have his bonce painted gold on our behalf is a moot point, since he’s never struck me as a man given to the lighter side of life, and it did involve several hours in make-up and a good deal of piss-taking from his bandmates. Either way, it’s good to have R.E.M. back, both on the cover and as a creative force. That they do so accompanied by one of the most insightful – and honest – interviews about what it means to spend all of your adult life within the confines of a rock band you’re likely to read makes it doubly so.

The Hospital hosted another equally impressive album preview the other week. All news of this has, however, been embargoed by the record company concerned until a later date on pain of death, or at least a very sniffy email. Suffice to say that this artist – let’s call him Neil Diamond, since that’s his name – has also seemingly hit another career high. One of his new songs in particular is so good it could make one weep, as indeed it did.

And, since it was with weeping that we pretty much came in, I’ll bid you farewell and see you next time…

PAUL REES – Editor, Q

R.E.M. month on q4music.com.