the dap killed me here

your fault for opening it

why did my phone correct "Luther" to Harlem and why did I never notice it lol .

Great: 2
Good: 4
Mid: 4
Bad: 10

Plenty of aging bands prove their longevity by returning to form and smashing shit up, R.E.M. aren't even strangers to this, hello Accelerate, but rarely does a band exude such creative confidence that they do this by defying the expectation. I just wish there was more of it, an entire R.E.M. Kid A!

Easily one of the boldest and most confident moves in music history, and it really makes no sense how well they pull it off, as if they'd been secretly making icy, fluttering meditation soundscapes in their spare time, every drum machine tip tap and delicate sear of (I think) guitar, pitch perfect.

It's a song that sounds like burning the entire building down with yourself inside it, swaying until you become the flames, a blazing orange dress flickering in a smoldering dance hall, a lover's soul pirouettes into the ether, doomed to haunt the premises for all eternity. A personal all timer.

Ballads are so often soupy and formless, but here the undercurrent is full of groove, such melodrama usually feels unearned and overwrought and yet the drama here feels like war, this song isn't carrying the torch for a lost flame, it's swinging the flame recklessly into every corner of the room.