With the proverbial visions of sugarplums soon dancing in children’s heads, R.E.M.is taking the last few days before Christmas to claim some space in adult noggins.

Last week, the veteran Athens, Georgia band previewed its new album, Collapse Into Now, with a free download of “Discoverer,” the set’s lead track. Yesterday, R.E.M. pulled the curtain back further on its March 8th release, posting a performance trailer with snippets of seven songs from Collapse Into Now (including “Discoverer”):

Today Collapse Into Now was made available for pre-order on iTunes, which comes with an immediate download of album track, “It Happened Today.” Also sold as a single, the song features backing vocals from guests Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) and Joel Gibb (The Hidden Cameras) and guitar that hearkens back to “Texarkana.” That Out Of Time tune happens to be one of my all-time favorite R.E.M. songs (one of few sung by bassist Mike Mills, not Michael Stipe).

But if you’re just too distracted by Christmas to commit to R.E.M.’s new material right now, you can still hear all of “It Happened Today.” The band has put together a handy lyrics video so you can even sing along with Stipe, if you’d like. One or two times through, however, and you might find yourself hoping Collapse Into Now soon would be there:

Purchase R.E.M. – “It Happened Today” (and pre-order Collapse Into Now) via iTunes.