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Song of the Day #1,182: ‘Find the River’ – R.E.M.

Out of Time was an unlikely hit album, but its follow-up was even more of a surprise. 1992’s Automatic For the People is a somber, murky meditation on death that happened to go quadruple platinum.

It’s a testament to R.E.M.’s integrity that their two most commercially popular albums were also two of their more experimental.

Automatic For the People is a particularly gorgeous record, all cellos and distorted bass lines, Stipe’s mumbled vocals processed into a low grumble on some tracks and allowed to soar on others. I rank this album just below Fables of the Reconstruction as the band’s best work.

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Song of the Day #1,181: ‘Half a World Away’ – R.E.M.

R.E.M.’s Out of Time was released in 1991, and marked the band’s giant leap into the mainstream. First single ‘Losing My Religion’ became an unlikely smash, perhaps the first song featuring lead mandolin to reach Billboard’s top five. Guitarist Peter Buck was learning to play the mandolin for the first time when he stumbled upon the riff that would become ‘Losing My Religion.’

Out of Time is an odd mix of some of the best music the band ever recorded (‘Country Feedback,’ ‘Losing My Religion,’ today’s SOTD) and some of the worst (‘Radio Song,’ ‘Shiny Happy People‘).

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Song of the Day #1,180: ‘You Are the Everything’ – R.E.M.

Stop two on the R.E.M. nostalgia tour brings us to 1988’s Green, the band’s first album with Warner Bros. This record went double platinum and marks the beginning of R.E.M.’s commercial breakthrough.

Unfortunately, that breakthrough came courtesy of ‘Stand,’ one of the lamest R.E.M. songs. Sad that we live in a world where nobody is familiar with ‘(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville‘ but everybody can sing along to ‘Stand.’

But Green features some quality material, including the sublime ‘World Leader Pretend‘ and today’s beautifully melancholy track.

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Song of the Day #1,179: ‘Feeling Gravity’s Pull’ – R.E.M.

I was out of town when R.E.M. announced their break-up, so the news didn’t reach me right away. I saw a couple of Facebook friends post R.E.M. songs without any context and thought it an odd coincidence, but I didn’t assume it was pegged to news about the band.

A day later I read a short story about the announcement in USA Today, a rare case (these days) of learning about something for the first time in a newspaper.

My response was not sadness, but a mixture of relief and nostalgia. I imagine most long-term R.E.M. fans had a similar reaction.

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Song of the Day #1,178: ‘Kathy’s Song’ – Simon & Garfunkel

Sounds of Silence is best known for the classic song that inspired its name, but it contains a few Paul Simon gems.

Among them is ‘April Come She Will,’ the haunting track that, like ‘The Sound of Silence,’ was featured prominently in the film The Graduate. Another is ‘I Am a Rock,’ Simon’s ode to detachment that English teachers the world over have used to demonstrate metaphor.

Both of those songs appeared as solo compositions on The Paul Simon Songbook, as did ‘A Most Peculiar Man’ and ‘The Leaves That Are Green.’ Essentially, Sounds of Silence was a collection of previously released material rerecorded to capitalize on the duo’s newfound success.

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