Medialoper

Certain Songs #1733: R.E.M. – “Me in Honey”

January 22, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Out of Time
Year: 1991

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File Under Baby

“Me in Honey” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.

Some of you might be worried that I skipped “Country Feedback.” Don’t worry, there is a live version from 1998 coming up soon enough where Michael Stipe makes like Van Morrison and Peter Buck channels Neil Young.

The spring of 1991 was a weird time.

Not only was my band falling apart — the greatest band I was ever going to play in (or at least until last year) — I was dealing with the sputtering ending of the longest relationship I’d ever had, as well as looking for a new place to live that was closer to the Tower District. All of this was in the shadow of the pointless Gulf War 1.0.

Certain Songs #1732: R.E.M. – “Belong”

January 21, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Out of Time
Year: 1991

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File Under Barricades

After the straight-forward uplift pop of “Shiny Happy People,” Out of Time took a lyrical turn towards darkness that lasted the rest of the album, starting with the spoken word opening verse of “Belong.”

Certain Songs #1731: R.E.M. – “Shiny Happy People”

January 20, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Out of Time
Year: 1991

File Under Shine

I know, I know: many of you hate this song. Hell, R.E.M. hates this song: not only did they never play it in concert, Michael Stipe once uttered the immortal phrase “I hate that song, Space Ghost” on a very popular late-night TV show.

It often shows up on lists of “worst songs by great bands,” (which is insane while Around The Sun exists), but you know what? Y’all need to calm down. Because “Shiny Happy People” is a fucking great song. Don’t @ me.

Certain Songs #1730: R.E.M – “Losing My Religion”

January 19, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Out of Time
Year: 1991

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File Under Spotlight

So let’s dispel a couple of myths surrounding Out of Time up front. It is neither R.E.M.’s “mandolin album,” nor is it their “switching instruments album.” Are there a couple of songs where Peter Buck plays mandolin? Yes, but there were more on Green. Are there songs where Bill Berry plays bass and doesn’t play drums? Yes, but those are drumless tracks. Does Mike Mills play a lot of keyboards on the record? Yes, but same goes for Lifes Rich Pageant.

That said, Out of Time does feature fewer uptempo straight-up electric guitar-based rock songs than any R.E.M. album previously released, and the arrangements are lusher, fuller and more experimental as well.

Certain Songs #1729: R.E.M. – “Perfect Circle (Greensboro 11-10-1989)”

January 17, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green (25th Anniversary)
Year: 1989

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File Under Friends

This is somewhat convoluted. This version of this song was originally on the VHS of Tourfilm — a concert film from their 1989 tour — but when R.E.M. put out the 25th anniversary edition of Green back in 2014, the bonus disc was basically the audio they used for Tourfilm: a concert that was recorded in Greensboro, North Carolina on November 10, 1989.

Certain Songs #1728: R.E.M. – “(Untitled)”

January 16, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under ” “

There was a lot of change in the air when Green came out on Election Day, 1988.

While it was, sadly, a foregone conclusion as to who our next President would be, it was going to be the end of the Reagan years, which had to be a good thing. The awful summer of 1988 finally ended, which was also a good thing. Even better, I started playing music with some of the people who I’m still playing music with, and — of course, because there was a new R.E.M. album — started a relationship that lasted until just before Out of Time came out, my longest one yet!

Certain Songs #1727: R.E.M. – “I Remember California”

January 15, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under History

Some of you might have noticed that I skipped “Stand,” the massive hit single from Green with the silly lyrics and sillier video, and which proved that the success of “The One I Love” wasn’t a fluke: “Stand” is fine. “Stand” is fun. Yay, “Stand!”

OK. Good. Glad to get that out of the way.

Certain Songs #1726: R.E.M. – “World Leader Pretend”

January 14, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under Freedom

While it was never released as a single, “World Leader Pretend” is a very important song in the R.E.M. canon for a couple of different reasons. For one thing, it’s the first set of lyrics that Michael Stipe was comfortable with printing on an album sleeve. This felt like a huge deal at the time, putting the spotlight on “World Leader Pretend” in the same way that Led Zeppelin had put the spotlight on “Stairway To Heaven” 17 years previously.

Certain Songs #1725: R.E.M. – “Get Up”

January 13, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under Dreams

And then, as their final act of a decade where they made more great music than any other artist, R.E.M. released their major label debut on Election Day, 1988. And it was kind of a disappointment.

Not in a major-label sellout kind of way — not with R.E.M. — but rather in a somewhat failed transition album sort of way. Green started strong and it ended strong, but in the middle — from “The Wrong Child” through “Hairshirt” — it failed to connect to me. And as you can imagine, I tried.

Certain Songs #1724: R.E.M. – “The One I Love”

January 12, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Document
Year: 1987

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File Under Fire

“The One I Love” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.

At the very least, it’s one of their most important songs, a big-riffed mean as fuck rock ‘n’ roll song that somehow stormed the radio and broke into the top ten, pretty much changing everything for R.E.M.