Staring Down The Barrel At The Middle Distance

One of two songs written for Accelerate and played at the Dublin rehearsals that never made the album and have consequently never seen the light of day, the other being the beautiful On The Fly, presumably rejected because it didn't match the pace of Accelerate and was the type of R.E.M. song they were maybe trying to get away from.

But Staring Down The Barrel At The Middle Distance would by no means have been out of place on Accelerate, so I guess it was just an issue of quality. I can sort of understand the reason for leaving it off. Though I like it and it sounds fresh now when I go back and listen to it on the Live At The Olympia live album, it is a fairly uninspiring song and a little 'R.E.M. by numbers' with even a hint of recycling old guitar riffs - the end of the chorus makes me think of Animal, So Fast So Numb and Crush With Eyeliner.

I'm pleased with the cover though. I always find covers easier when there is very little to go on, with this there is just the one live performance which is just Peter, Mike, Michael, Bill Rieflin and Scott McCaughey playing additional electric guitar. Nice drumming from Bill Rieflin on this one too...