Stipe’s weirdo stalker ballad fails to keep Junior on the rug. She’s halfway to the plug sockets before she can hear what he leaves on his beloved’s answer phone.
This is a gorgeous little tune, with sparing use of strings and Beach Boysesque “doo-doo”s. It even made the Top 10, but who remembers it? R.E.M. still have an impressive hardcore of fans, despite no one being excited about them since Automatic For The People, and they can usually clock up a solid hit per album. They just don’t seem to matter much these days. To think, there was a time when half the population was up in arms about ‘Shiny Happy People’.
I’m sure their cash keeps them happy, when they’re not flinging yoghurt around on aeroplanes.
Jukebox Junior 
Glad to find this in here. One of a long line of fab R.E.M. ballads, from You Are The Everything to Leaving New York. My sister had At My Most Beautiful at her first wedding despite her husband’s R.E.M. knowledge extending only to “the one about the moon”. There’s more ace stuff on Up, too – Sad Professor, for one.