Michael Stipe’s favourite REM songs: “Quite interesting”
REM has cultivated a devout following over the past 45 years, one that includes all four members of the band themselves.
The group’s fan base is no joke, because they take their love for Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry very, very seriously, like, for instance, a Hollywood A-lister like Adam Scott, who co-hosted a podcast with comedy writer Scott Aukerman about the band and their history, R U Talkin’ REM Re: Me?, which ran from 2018 to 2020, and even hosted Mills on one episode.
The point is that it has always been about more than just music, although the music is still the most important part, and when the group got together to share their favourite REM songs in 2023, it was a huge deal to those who care, because those who care tend to care a lot.
“Just for fun, Bill, Peter, Mike & Michael put together a great playlist of their 40 favourite REM songs,” the band shared on social media, along with a Spotify page that they built together. “Each guy picked ten songs, and the results are quite interesting — Michael’s are 1-10, Peter’s 11-20, Mike’s 21-30, & Bill’s 31-40.”
This must’ve been an absolute treat for REM fanatics, because each contributor’s picks had these minor details that illustrated just how differently each of them viewed their own music. Berry, for instance, actually chose some songs from when he wasn’t a part of the band, whereas Buck had some lesser-known tunes on there, such as ‘You’re In The Air’ and ‘All The Way To Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)’.
Of course, Stipe’s picks ended up being the main attraction of the list, where the first detail that stuck out from his selections was the fact that not a single song from the group’s first three records made it on his shortlist, and with 1983–85 missing entirely from his section of the playlist, ‘The Flowers of Guatemala’ from Lifes Rich Pageant was the oldest REM song he chose.
Another unique trait of his top ten is that he didn’t pick more than one song from any album except ‘Country Feedback’ and ‘Half a World Away’, both of which were released as part of 1991’s Out of Time. The songs he lists cover REM’s material all the way up to their farewell compilation album, Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011. The group’s final single, ‘We All Go Back to Where We Belong’, was included on the greatest hits package and was also one of Stipe’s picks.
Additionally, he also chose ‘World Leader Pretend’ from Green, ‘Strange Currencies’ from Monster, ‘The Lifting’ from Reveal, ‘Electron Blue’ from Around the Sun, ‘Supernatural Superserious’ from Accelerate, and ‘Oh My Heart’ from Collapse Into Now.
This, of course, must differ greatly from the top ten of the average REM fan, because it places equal emphasis on the group’s later years as it does their prime. This is only natural, keeping in mind how artists tend to refer to every new project as their ‘greatest work yet’, even when their best years are far behind them.
Stipe’s picks covered his band’s entire timeline after 1985, and so it functions more like a ‘best of’ from each record after a certain point in their career.
