Today guest reviewer brings us heartfelt words about indie rock veterans Underlined Passages newest LP 'The Accelerationists' – | Review by Randy Shamowitz
Every year in music ends up with a record that quietly captures the tone of its time, the kind that doesn’t announce itself but stays with you once you hear it. The Accelerationists is that kind of record, a thoughtful, guitar-driven album that carries both weight and grace. It’s aware of the tension in the world right now, but doesn’t collapse under it and does not try to explicitly tell the listener what to think about it. Instead, it keeps moving, tracing a line between clarity and confusion and finding beauty in both.
Endsong opens the album with a spark that feels alive from the first second. The guitars tangle and pulse around an insistent rhythm, building a kind of forward motion that never feels forced. Michael Nestor sings with quiet conviction, his voice steady in the middle of the noise, and the performance pulls you in rather than pushing you back. It’s the sound of a band that trusts their instincts and plays like time is growing short to change.
Heywood Floyd drifts into a wider space, where the guitars shimmer and stretch while the drums and bass hold the ground beneath them. There’s warmth here, a sense of movement that feels natural, like the sound of a late drive when the world has finally gone quiet. But contained within is a sense of longing and tension. It is indicative of the whole record. Like when you are on vacation and everything around you is beautiful, but for a split second you have that intrusive thought, “what if I get sick here and can’t get home,” and then back to the bliss.
Flaxxon follows this theme of "terror contained in the saccrine of existential bliss brought to us through our little screens" with sharper edges, its rhythm taut but melodic, the kind of song that makes complexity sound effortless and existential dread sound so, so sweet.
The middle of the record opens deeper into reflection. Aloof is a spacious but loud track that lets each instrument breathe, and it shows how well this band understands restraint until it explodes into a chorus of release.
Their version of La Dolly Vita (Cresyl Mx) could have been a nostalgia trip, but it isn’t. They approach it with a clear sense of purpose, turning an older song into something that fits right now, one that is still yearning, still full of hope, but aware of how fragile those feelings have become.
Tyrannique is the record’s center of gravity. The rhythm grinds in slow motion while the guitars cut through with texture and force. It’s intense without being overblown, the kind of song that grows more powerful the longer you sit with it. There’s a low, steady fire in the way it builds, suggesting politics and resistance without ever turning didactic.
By the time Somelin begins, the album has found its emotional core. “They will come for us, you choose silence instead” lands with quiet force, and the delivery makes it feel more human than heavy.
Remainder closes everything with care, fading out slowly, leaving a sense of calm rather than finality. It’s the kind of ending that invites you back for another listen, mostly because you realized you just listened to a body of work you need to revisit, just like when you re-read lines in a book because you know they have many meanings and you want to extract each one. This is one of those records that is not made for people who want background music, that’s for sure.
The Accelerationists is an album made by musicians who know how to *listen*…to each other, to the times they live in, and to the space inside a song where meaning starts to form. It doesn’t chase trends or try to reinvent anything. It builds something honest and quietly luminous from what’s already here. Underlined Passages have made a record that looks straight at the present and still finds room for hope, and one that will quietly be a best of 2025 to fans of real music, even if they might never make the front page of Pitchfork.
I have not heard their music in years, and The Accelerationists just reminded me what a travesty that really is. I need, like the band, to listen, and listen to Underlined Passages I will.
Bravo, guys, bravo.