R.E.M.

Capturing the heat of the band's first show in 1980, the song was released as an independent single the following year and later re-recorded for Murmur.

• From the opening bars, the short, clipped chords of Peter Buck's Rickenbacker 12-string guitar (jangle guitar) envelop the whole song.
• Michael Stipe's voice, rather than delivering the lyrics clearly, blends in like another instrument in a kind of murmur, the signature manner of early R.E.M.
• The vocals sit further back in the mix than the other instruments, so each repeated listen brings the pleasure of catching new words.
• In the chorus, Mills's backing vocals contrast with Stipe's lower register, lending the song a sense of space.

The debut that beat Thriller to album of the year in that year's Rolling Stone critics' poll and made the band college-radio stars.

• On the track “Talk About the Passion,” a cello rides atop acoustic guitar, bringing a chamber-music warmth rare for a rock band.
• Producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon recorded the album at Reflection Sound, a professional studio in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a dreamy, mist-veiled resonance envelops the whole record.
• Bill Berry's drumming supports the songs with simple, steady beats instead of flashy fills, leaving room for the other instruments to intertwine freely.
• Throughout the album you can hear a mix designed so that the texture of the sound reaches you before the lyrics do.

The album that gave the band its first national hit and lifted it from an indie-label act onto the mainstream stage.

• Heard only through its simple opening guitar riff, the signature track “The One I Love” sounds like an upbeat love song, but Buck's guitar tone, growing ever rougher, reveals the song's cynical temperature.
• The single word Stipe cries out in the chorus is the moment that erupts loudest when audiences sing along at live shows.
• Scott Litt's production separates each instrument more clearly and drily than on earlier albums, creating a vivid texture well suited to radio play.
• As the song moves into its latter half, the distortion on the guitar thickens little by little, building tension.

The fruit of Buck's experiment with a new instrument, which turned a single mandolin into the band's biggest hit.

• Its defining feature is that, instead of a traditional guitar riff, Peter Buck's self-taught mandolin leads the whole song.
• The string parts arranged by Mark Bingham lend the song classical weight behind the chorus.
• A rare case of a hit without a guitar solo, in which a brief exchange between mandolin and strings in the bridge effectively stands in for one.
• Stipe's voice takes on an earnestly pleading tone, a far clearer delivery than the mumbling of earlier albums.

A tribute to comedian Andy Kaufman, famed for his bizarre humor, the song later lent its title to a film about Kaufman's life.

• The gliding slide guitar of the intro lays a wistful mood over the whole song.
• The soft crooning Stipe offers just before the chorus is said to be a playful imitation of Elvis Presley's signature vocal style.
• The passage midway through, where the voice suddenly drops as if addressing the audience, is an homage to comedian Andy Kaufman's stage manner.
• Berry's drums swell little by little toward the end, building a quiet climax in an otherwise calm song.

Though released without a tour, it was the album that lifted the band to its commercial and critical peak, and “Man on the Moon” appeared on it as well.

• The signature song, “Everybody Hurts,” is a slow ballad in which Berry’s drums mark only a restrained beat, almost like a metronome.
• In the song’s second half, a string arrangement builds little by little toward a climax, letting listeners feel in sound itself the song’s message: that we can endure hard moments together.
• Across the album, acoustic guitars and strings often step to the front, offering a calm texture quite unlike the rough guitar rock of the earlier records.
• Song after song takes up aging, death and feelings about times gone by, yet the melodies flow on, plain and warm.

Written in the thick of the grunge craze epitomized by Nirvana, it is a song in which R.E.M. seems to answer once more the movement it had itself set in motion.

• From the opening bars, guitars deliberately roughened and crushed (distortion) give an aggressive impression unlike the earlier albums.
• The title comes from a real incident in which a television newsman was assaulted on the street by an attacker asking him a baffling question; the band lifted the phrase straight from a news report they happened upon.
• Its faster tempo and simpler chord progression than the band’s other songs sound like an answer to the raw energy of the alternative rock then sweeping the rock world.
• In the chorus, Mills’s backing vocals overlap with Stipe’s cries, giving the song a choral thickness.

It is the signature song of late R.E.M., showing that even as a trio without Berry, the band could still write a fine pop song.

• Though it came from a period when the band, after Berry’s departure, leaned heavily on drum machines and synthesizers, this song returned to easygoing pop rock built on real drums and guitars.
• The chorus is filled out thickly by overdubbing, with many voices layered on top of one another.
• The music video drew attention for its structure, which briefly rewinds and replays the same backyard party scene over and over.
• Throughout the song, in contrast to the bright melody, the lyrics calmly regard the distance between appearances and real life.