New Test Leper

Having fallen in love with the acoustic version of this song, which was issued as a B-side of the Bittersweet Me single, I recall being a bit disappointed with how different the album version was when it came out. But I can see why the band did it that way. I often prefer stripped down versions of songs, I was the same with The Lifting and Beat A Drum, but for New Test Leper to appear on New Adventures In Hi Fi in its acoustic format would have left the song feeling out of place on a mostly electric album. Plus, if the album version had never seen the light of day no one would ever have heard Mike Mills’s bass line! I often praise Mike Mills for his bass lines but often it’s not until you really start to study the songs that you learn how impressive some of the more subtle aspects of the songs are. The bass parts on this, in particular the verse, dance all over the place, it’s like he’s playing a different song to what Peter is playing on rhythm guitar. It was real fun to work out and to play.

Despite my love for the acoustic version, my cover is pretty much a direct reproduction of the album version, mainly because this made it more of an interesting project. I suppose the only outside influence is the way I treat the guitars is more inspired by the way they tended to play this live. On the album the electric guitar is really distorted and yet live it’s a lot more jangly.

Incidentally the chorus riff I play on guitar, even though I have my suspicions that it’s actually played on an organ. I may be wrong but I just don’t know how you’d get a guitar to sound like that.

Near Wild Heaven

If Near Wild Heaven is to be thrown in with Stand and Shiny Happy People as one of the band's bubblegum pop songs then it may be my favourite in the category, certainly at the moment. No song makes me smile when it comes on the radio more than Near Wild Heaven, it’s instantly recognised as an R.E.M. song with its double tracked Rickenbacker guitar riff that weaves in and around the beat in Peter Buck’s signature style and gorgeous Beach Boys-style vocal harmonies.

One of two Mike Mills solo vocals on Out Of Time. But where Texarkana is purely Mike Mills for the most part Near Wild Heaven is predominantly a duel vocal between Mills and Stipe. This I think helps rescue the vocal as, let’s be honest, one gets the impression Mike Mills isn’t a naturally gifted singer. I remember watching Mike sing a piano rendition of Don’t Go Back To Rockville on VH1 Storytellers and it really wasn’t great!

My incentive to cover the song was my love for the guitar riff and determination to learn it and play it just right. In covering the song I discovered the bass parts are really interesting too. I added an acoustic guitar doing the same as the electric just to bring out the definition of the notes.

Mr Richards

I remember being a bit disappointed when I first heard the album version of Mr Richards. It was always one of my favourites from the Dublin rehearsals but when it appeared on the album I felt it was a little too glossy and had lost its charm somewhat. I wasn't a fan of the treatment of Stipes vocals and felt some of the overdubs were unnecessary. So I guess my aim in covering the song was to create a studio version of what the song could have turned out like.