One of R.E.M.'s saddest recorded moments and one of the very few things that made Monster worthwhile. It's the last of two on this rundown. I probably could have chosen Crush With Eyeliner at a push. But this is surely the best thing on this album. It's incredibly moving.
Inspired by the death of two of Michael Stipe's close friends, Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix, it's an outpouring of the deepest grief that only occurs in life when you lose someone you truly love. Michael puts in one of his greatest performances of utter emotional engagement. Then there are the brief pauses and the frenzied Peter Buck guitar bursts in, raging against the dying of the light. Not like many moments in the R.E.M. back catalogue this one. Generally they find moments of light, joy and redemption in pretty much everything they did. Here there's so much pain. Great beauty too. This could easily have been much higher.
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