NEWS: REM's Album To Feature Eddie Vedder, Peaches & Patti Smith

REM have revealed that their new album will feature collaborations with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith and Peaches.

Due for release in early 2011, 'Collapse Into Now' is set to be more "expansive" than 2008's 'Accelerate'.

"With 'Accelerate' we were trying to make a point by making the songs as short and as fast as possible," multi-instrumentalist Mike Mills told Spin.com. "So we wanted this new one to be more expansive." 

"We wanted to put more variety into it and not limit ourselves to any one type of song," he continued. "There are some really slow, beautiful songs, there are some nice, mid-tempo ones and then there are three or four rockers." 

Although the band have yet to announce a tracklisting, Mills did reveal that a song called 'Blue' will feature Patti Smith, Peaches is on a track with the word "alligator" in its title and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder will appear on 'It Happened Today'.

The band worked on their 15th studio effort in Berlin, Nashville and New Orleans, sampling the local food and drink of each city while they were there.

"It's fun for us to go to the cities we really love and spend some time," admitted Mills. "After a day's work in the studio, the band would go out to dinner. It's really important to go out, get great food, shrug off the debris of the day and just be friends and have a good time." 

He added: "In Berlin you drink beer and eat wurst. In New Orleans you eat Cajun food and drink sazerac. In Nashville we ate a lot of fried chicken." 

- Sourced from NME.com