Annotated For the People: A Track By Track Look at the New R.E.M. Retrospective

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30. “IMITATION OF LIFE” (Reveal, 2001)

What is it? Musically, a middle-aged amalgam of “Driver 8” and “The One I Love”; lyrically, it includes the lines “That sugarcane / That tasted good / That cinnamon / That’s Hollywood!”

Does it deserve a spot here? “You want the greatest thing / The greatest thing since bread came sliced.”

What’s the alternative? Reveal is a gauzy, sometimes haunting summer dream, with layers of warm watercolor textures and spiked-lemonade wistfulness. If it comes down to one song, we’ll take the lush, eerie “Disappear” — which, admittedly, sounds like a song left off Out of Time.

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? No. Fun fact: this song was huge in Japan.

31. “BAD DAY” (In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003)

What is it? The first draft of “End of the World,” with updated lyrics for the Bush 43 era.

Does it deserve a spot here? It’s for completists.

What’s the alternative? “Daysleeper” was on In Time.

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? No.

32. “LEAVING NEW YORK” (Around the Sun, 2004)

What is it? R.E.M.’s 9/11 song.

Does it deserve a spot here? It’s the best song on their worst album.

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? No.

33. “LIVING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE” (Accelerate, 2008)

What is it? A studiously raucous declamation from the band’s return-to-the-return-to-the-Rock album. 

Does it deserve a spot here? “Angry Rich Celebrity” is not Stipe’s most flattering look.

What’s the alternative? One song off Accelerate will suffice.

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? “I tore into this vocal because someone I really really admired forever kind of publicly bad-mouthed R.E.M., and I was like, ‘F— you! Sing like this, you talented f—.’ It felt so good and sounded so great…”

34. “SUPERNATURAL SUPERSERIOUS” (Accelerate)

What is it? “A teen séance gone horribly wrong,” according to Stipe. Sign us up!

Does it deserve a spot here? It’s exemplary of the Accelerate project to create fast, simple, electric-guitar-driven songs that you’d imagine appearing on a band’s first album, not their fourteenth.

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? No.

35. “ÜBERLIN” (Collapse Into Now, 2011)

What is it? It’s something out of a fan’s wildest imagination: after more than a decade of patchy, desultory or downright dispiriting records comes Collapse Into Now — not a perfect album by any means, but one with a handful of canonical R.E.M. songs, including this bittersweet acoustic sprint toward a beckoning, backtracking horizon (“I know, I know, I know what I am chasing”).

Does it deserve a spot here? Like the best early R.E.M. songs, it creates a specific mood — of hope, nostalgia, time slipping through your fingers — out of mysterious means and high-lonesome harmonies. (It also inspired R.E.M.’s best video, wherein Aaron Johnson enacts youthful urban discovery through a modern-dance-meets-Parkour-101 performance that twins the ridiculous and the sublime.)

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? No.

36. “OH MY HEART” (Collapse Into Now)

What is it? An accordion-laced paean to post-Katrina New Orleans (“We were looking for a Civil War, marching-band kind of feel,” writes Buck in the liner notes).

Does it deserve a spot here? The song earns its title. It’s an oxytocin trigger.

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? No.

37. “ALLIGATOR_AVIATOR_AUTOPILOT_ANTIMATTER” (Collapse Into Now)

What is it? A catchy speed demon in the Accelerate mode, but lighter and more mischievous on its feet, thanks in part to the vocal presence of the provocative electro-performance artist Peaches.

Does it deserve a spot here? The name alone would carve out a niche. Another fantastic video, too.

Does Michael Stipe say anything immodest in the liner notes? No.

38. “A MONTH OF SATURDAYS”

What is it? It’s a — forget it, it doesn’t even matter.

Does it deserve a spot here? Let’s not even talk about it.

What’s the alternative? Rebecca Black’s “Friday”?

No, seriously. […]

Does Michael Stipe say anything—STOP. Let’s move on. Actually, let’s not.

We still have two songs to go. Yeah, but you know, Collapse Into Now was a terrific album and there’s no reason not to wrap up with that one. Thanks for everything, R.E.M.!

(MORE: The All-TIME 100 Albums)

(MORE: The All-TIME 100 Songs)

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