Of these few, select R.E.M. beloved slow tunes

[FitzChivalry]

I've never made a poll before and I've been listening to a lot of R.E.M. this past weekend, so I figured why the hell not.

I hear these songs talked a lot about . . . in B&C, among critics, among fans. This is by no means an all-inclusive list (as it doesn't even cover several albums), but I was just wondering which among these is your favorite and why.

My vote goes to Nightswimming Why? I can't really say other than it just stirs something in me that only E-Bow The Letter, Falls to Climb and Let Me In come close to doing also. Maybe it's because I can see myself in the "this one laughing quietly, underneath my breath".

I guess the entirety of the lyrics, I can really relate to. And the music is gorgeous. Grand, perhaps a tad melodramatic, but it all fits and works together beautifully.

Nightswimming will always be an R.E.M. highlight for me.



What's yours?

 

[SeattleVertigo]

Find The River -- it's always been one of my all-time favorite songs by anybody. Hauntingly beautiful.

Then probably Electrolite -- I think it's a really fun song; Nightswimming; E-Bow The Letter and Country Feedback.

 

[Zoots]

Impossible to vote for just one. I'm tempted to vote for Nightswimming, Find The River or Electrolite but then I would be denying the amazing majestic closer Falls To Climb a vote.

 

[corianderstem]

I find Falls To Climb far inferior to everything else on the list. It's not BAD, not at all. It's just not THAT good, you know?

I voted for Find the River because it's just beautiful. The lyrics touch me, the melody is beautiful, it's just beautiful.

I love other songs in this poll for different reasons, but Find the River remains my favorite REM song.

And you know, I like Nightswimming less and less these days. It's lovely, yeah, and it evokes a great mood, but it feels so repetitive to me that it becomes a little ... well ... boring.

(Thank you for not including Everybody Hurts on this list. )

 

[Zoots]

 

[corianderstem]

Hey, if there's going to be anything off Up on this poll, it should be Daysleeper.

 

[Zoots]

You're so mainstream, Cori.

 

[SeattleVertigo]

Parakeet's the ballad from Up that always grabbed me.

 

[FitzChivalry]

I thought about "Daysleeper", but it seemed a bit too mainstream for the list.

Like I said, it's not an all-inclusive list by any stretch of the imagination.

Damn, now I wish I'd included "Half a World Away"!

I also thought about "Sad Professor" from Up. That's another of my favorites from that album.

 

[LemonMelon]

Where's Suspicion?

Anyway, it's all about Nightswimming. That song is greatness.

 

[Zoots]

Where's Perfect Circle?

 

[LemonMelon]

Where's Perfect Circle?

Camera would be nice too.

 

[corianderstem]

You're so mainstream, Cori.

No, I just like the songs that are good.

 

[LemonMelon]

No, I just like the songs that are good.

If it makes you feel better, Cori, I agree with you 100%...Daysleeper is fantastic.

 

[Zoots]

my bed is pulling me, gravity, dayyyysleeper

 

[FitzChivalry]

I love the lyrics to Daysleeper, but the music feels a bit too been-there-done-that for R.E.M. Kind of like Man On The Moon Part 2, or something like that.


Anyway, no Daysleeper on my list!

 

[SeattleVertigo]

I love the lyrics to Daysleeper, but the music feels a bit too been-there-done-that for R.E.M. Kind of like Man On The Moon Part 2, or something like that.


Anyway, no Daysleeper on my list!

See, I think musically it's good, but the lyrics are odd!

 

[corianderstem]

I'll assume you just mean "REM by numbers," because Daysleeper sounds absolutely nothing like Man On the Moon!

 

[Zoots]

fluorescent flat caffeine lights
it's furious balancing...



The lyrics are indeed odd.

 

[Lancemc]

Those are 8 god damn perfect songs on that list there, and if I were sane it would be impossible to pick one out of that bunch.

But I have been known to frequently name Country Feedback as my favorite song of all time, so that gets my vote.

 

[FitzChivalry]

Hey, Michael Stipe taught me about "circadian rhythm" through Daysleeper!

It's a good song, it just doesn't lift my soul like some of the other ones.

 

[corianderstem]

Stipe said somewhere the lyrics built off a hand-written note he saw on someone's apartment door: "Daysleeper." As in, shut up buffoons, I'm sleeping during the day.

I like the lyrics. He works during the night, sleeps in the day, and the lyrics reflect the jumble of images from his job - the work itself and his experiences there, working at night. Flat, fluorescent lights, caffeine, seeing the world through a haze because he doesn't see natural sunlight very often.

Plus, it's got that always-wonderful 3/4 time waltz-feel. Big thumbs up from me.

 

[LemonMelon]

I really like Daysleeper's lyrics, because I can relate to them.

 

[angelordevil]

fluorescent flat caffeine lights
it's furious balancing...



The lyrics are indeed odd.

Alex, I'll take "Odd Lyrics With Mentions of the Word "Fluorescent" for $1000.

Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise

 

[intedomine]

E-Bow, absolutely amazing vocal duet with Smith. Ripper of a tune.

Where's Ascent of Man?

 

[phanan]

Impossible to pick just one.

 

[zoetrope]

I went with Nightswimming even though I could've picked any of them and been happy with my choice.