R.E.M. have announced that Warner Bros. Records will release their upcoming new album, ‘Collapse Into Now’, on March 7th, 2011.

For Collapse Into Now, R.E.M. re-teamed with Grammy Award-winning producer Jacknife Lee, who produced the band’s acclaimed previous album Accelerate. Lee is also noted for his work on albums by U2, Snow Patrol, The Hives, and indie stalwarts Kasabian, Editors, Aqualung, and Bloc Party. R.E.M. and Lee recorded the album in New Orleans at the Music Shed and in Berlin at the famed Hansa Studios, where several legendary albums, including David Bowie’s Heroes, U2’s Achtung Baby, and Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, were made. Additional recording and mixing was done at the venerable Blackbird Studio in Nashville.

Collapse Into Now also features some very special guests: Patti Smith, guitarist Lenny Kaye, Peaches, Eddie Vedder & The Hidden Cameras frontman Joel Gibb.

Collapse Into Now is the follow-up to 2008’s Accelerate, which debuted at No. 1 in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. It spawned three hit singles ‘Supernatural Superserious’, ‘Hollow Man’, and ‘Man-Sized Wreath’. The band also released a two-CD live set, entitled R.E.M. Live At The Olympia, last October.