With several months to wait before R.E.M. releases its next album, I have decided to take one simple approach to the release – I can’t change it so why worry?

Mike Mills gave some details to Rolling Stone this week. I have seen a couple of blog posts showing angst about some of the comments, but have given things a lot of thought and realized that nothing I do can change what the band does so it’s not worth my energy.

“Collapse Into Now” will represent the band’s 16th album (I know some people don’t count Chronic Town but I do). That doesn’t even count the live albums, the greatest hit collections, the many B-sides and the countless bootlegs that R.E.M. fans have access to.

So if they release something I don’t like, whining and complaining and pointing out that they were better when they recorded (insert favorite album here) accomplishes absolutely nothing. That’s why I’ll buy it when it comes out, listen to it and listen to the songs I like over and over again and forget the rest.

Some of the angst seems to come from Mills’ comment that “(w)e took most of the rules off this time, picking the best songs regardless of whether they were fast, slow or mid-tempo.” I think some people assumed that the successful return to hard, fast rocking with Accelerate meant that R.E.M. would stick with that formula this time around.

Which begs the question – when has R.E.M. stuck with a formula two albums in a row before? Why the gnashing of teeth about a different direction when that is what they have always done? Oh, I know. Because, for some people, liking R.E.M. is demonstrated by complaining about everything they do.

Hey, I complain about things too, but not everything. I’m not 100 percent psyched about all the guest appearances, but that won’t stop them from happening. I just know that if Collapse Into Now ends up sucking, I can always listen to Life’s Rich Pageant.