Thoughts on this song two years shy of it being TWENTY (!) years old:
- Is “Call me when you try to wake her” the weirdest chorus ever found on a hit record? It’s strange, funny, catchy but just the right side of precious. Is this song the Shiny Happy People that it’s actually ok to like?
- Me and B have been musing lately on how Michael Stipe acts songs rather than sings them, and this track is a great example. The “ooooOOOoooOOooh oooh oooh oOOooooh” parts of the vocal really tug on the heartstrings, and is there a more human moment on any of R.E.M.’s songs than the little giggle after “Dr Seuss”?
- The line describing a payphone having “…scratches all around the coin slot/Like a heartbeat, baby trying to wake up” is utterly wonderful.
- From their debut Murmur onwards, it was clear R.E.M. could play, but this song’s instrumental parts are a prime example of why they became massive in the early 90s: they stay out of the way. Mike Mill’s weaves a gentle organ countermelody around the vocal, Peter Buck resists his trademark jangle to lock in tight with Bill Berry’s snapping drums and the only thing making fancy musical shapes is John Paul Jones delicious string arrangement. This gives masses of room for Stipe to drop the veiled shyness that marked the band’s early output and step fully into the limelight.
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