Hope

Listen to the last.fm sample track here.

Many of you know I have an abiding love for R.E.M., but I actually never really liked this song. I enjoy the album Up as a whole, though a lot of fans divide over it. Many "old stuff" purists gave up after this first attempt sans Bill Berry. But among fans who stuck with them through this transition, I might be in the minority in my opinion of this song. When I initially heard it, the similarity in melody and lyric structure to Leonard Cohen's Suzanne really irritated me. They gave a writing credit to Cohen on the album, but the story goes that they had no idea they were so closely mimicking him, which I find impossible to believe, given that "Suzanne" is pretty much Cohen's most recognizable song, and that the band had appeared on a Cohen tribute album in 1991. I also never cared for the lyrics, which I found to be a compilation of popculture clichés.

I will admit now though, eleven years on, that the lyrics and the imagery in the song have really stuck with me, in a good way. So I guess in my experience, this song has aged well like a fine cheese, as we cliché-lovers would say. These words particularly stick with me:

You want to trust religion
And you know it's allegory
But the people who are followers
Have written their own story
So you look up to the heavens
And you hope that it's a spaceship
And it's something from your childhood
You're thinking don't be frightened

I wouldn't have a hard time now giving the song a better rating. The sheer amount of nerdy pop philosophy here makes me grin.

For another take, which is more detailed and thoughtful, see Matthew Perpetua's review at his sprawling Pop Songs blog, in which he writes about *every* R.E.M. song.

Artist: R.E.M.
Year: 1998
Rating: Lukewarm (historical) Warm (Current)