I Could Live A Million

I've been listening to a fair bit of early R.E.M. recently, in the car mainly. Their records on IRS and when Stipe had hair struck me deeply at an impressionable age. It's easy to break the constituent parts down- Michael Stipe's incoherent vocals and delivery, Peter Buck's Rickenbackers, Bill Berry's insistent drumming, Mike Mills' melodic bass playing and his backing vocals- but it doesn't explain the magic. A commenter on Youtube reckons it's their ability to do both melancholy and extreme joy and hope at the same time, which sounds about right. I had a cassette of Chronic Town, never shelling out for the vinyl second hand and all these years later it's still upwards of twentyfive quid for the five song e.p. but what a great set of songs- Stumble, Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars), Wolves Lower, Gardening At Night and the song here- 1,000,000, which is a stunner. It's an m4a file I've just noticed, which I hope doesn't cause anyone any problems.

04 1,000,000.m4a