Overlooked Songs

Volume 28, Track 14

“Stumble” by R.E.M. (1982) “Stumble” is the track that ends the Chronic Town EP and of the five tracks on the EP it is the most indicative of a band’s first recording, as its inconsistencies are both mildly maddening and weirdly charming. The track starts off with Michael Stipe laughing and what sounds like a [...]

Volume 28, Track 13

“Toys in the Attic” by R.E.M. (1987) Monster took many people by surprise when it was released in 1994, what with its loud guitars and its overall let’s-be-rock-stars-now sound. And while it was easy to think that R.E.M. had embraced a new sound from out of nowhere (the previous albums Automatic for the People, Out [...]

Volume 28, Track 12

“New Orleans Instrumental No. 1″ by R.E.M. (1992) When I was in high school I had a t-shirt that had the front cover of Automatic for the People on the front of the shirt and the back cover on the back. I got a lot of mileage out of the shirt; it was a black [...]

Volume 28, Track 11

“Second Guessing” by R.E.M. (1984) Here are the lyrics to “Second Guessing,” the song that opens side two (Right) on Reckoning: “Why’re you trying to second guess me? I am tired of second guessing What will be your look this season? Who will be your book this season? (chorus) Here we are, here we are, [...]

Volume 28, Track 10

“Exhuming McCarthy” by R.E.M. (1987) “You’re beautiful, more beautiful than me/You’re honorable, more honorable than me/Loyal to the Bank of America” are the opening lyrics of “Exhuming McCarthy.” The intro of the song involves a typewriter, the solo includes the audio from when Joseph Welch confronted Joseph McCarthy during the Army hearings, and in between [...]

Volume 28, Track 9

“What If We Give It Away?” by R.E.M. (1986) Back when vinyl and cassettes were the only music formats—back when there were two sides to an album—R.E.M. had a habit of naming each side, especially during their I.R.S. years. On Lifes Rich Pageant, the band’s environmentally conscious breakthrough album, side one was called “Dinner side” [...]

Volume 28, Track 8

“White Tornado” by R.E.M. (1987) The B-side to “Superman,” “White Tornado” was recorded on the same day that “Radio Free Europe” was back in 1981 (and I’m pretty sure it was the original Hib-Tone version of “Radio Free Europe” and not the I.R.S. version, if I’m not mistaken). “White Tornado” clocks in at just under [...]

Volume 28, Track 7

“Tongue” by R.E.M. (1994) “Anybody can get laid” The above lyric always taunted me when I listened to this song when I was sixteen years old and was still a virgin. The context of the song didn’t matter; it felt like Michael Stipe was personally fucking with me. Anybody can get laid—except for me. The [...]

Volume 28, Track 6

“Binky the Doormat” by R.E.M. (1996) New Adventures in Hi-Fi is the album I consider to be R.E.M.’s swan song, and I imagine that I am not alone in this regard. This is the last album that drummer Bill Berry would appear on and, while I love Stipe, Buck, and Mills, it just never felt [...]

Volume 28, Track 5

“Shaking Through” by R.E.M. (1983) If I were in high school or college listening to Murmur for the first time when it was released in 1983, I imagine that I would be blown away by the first side. Then I would flip the album over to side two and be impressed with “Catapult” and “Sitting [...]

Volume 28, Track 4

“King of Birds” by R.E.M. (1987) The penultimate song on Document, “King of Birds” starts with a quasi-Middle Eastern feel, followed by a nice marching beat by Bill Berry. It grows into a mellow number that finds Michael Stipe’s vocals layered on top of one another during the chorus. When the song reaches its climax [...]

Volume 28, Track 3

“Voice of Harold” by R.E.M. (1987) Dead Letter Office is a collection of B-sides that never saw the day of light on the radio, or on MTV. (The album’s title is named after the USPS office that holds undeliverable mail.) “Voice of Harold,” the B-side of “So. Central Rain,” is the most interesting track on [...]

Volume 28, Track 2

“Half a World Away” by R.E.M. (1991) Out of Time is the album that propelled R.E.M. into another stratosphere—mostly due to “Losing My Religion,” the seminal from-out-of-nowhere, ubiquitous hit single of the first half of the ’90s. The other reason that Out of Time hit such a mainstream nerve was that it was quite a [...]

Volume 28, Track 1

“Gardening at Night” by R.E.M. (1982) With all due respect to “Wolves, Lower,” the opening track on R.E.M.’s first EP Chronic Town and by proxy the very first song in R.E.M.’s catalog, “Gardening at Night” should have been the first song on the EP, the first song in their catalog. I love “Wolves, Lower”; I [...]

Volume 25, Track 3

“Time After Time (AnnElise)” by R.E.M. (1984) “Time After Time (AnnElise)” is the track that ends side one and it starts off immediately with a Middle Eastern-ish wave of a guitar riff and while this sound reappears throughout the track, “Time After Time (AnnElise)” is a pretty standard rock song. What makes this song interesting, [...]

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