Stop Time

For those of you wondering what this is - a bunch of Reveal demos recently leaked on the Internet, the majority of which are earlier, more primitive, versions of the album songs we know, but there were also some other unreleased instrumentals. Only some showed any real potential, one of which was a song called Stop Time which was a bit of an old school R.E.M. style song.

Having altered the structure of the song and added some subtle additions instrumentally I'd say this cover is 25% improvised and 75% as the original.

I spent a lot more time on this and consequently it's the most layered R.E.M. song I've ever done. Lucky I upgraded my computer RAM recently!

The Flowers Of Guatemala

This cover is based on the Athens demo that was released with the Lifes Rich Pageant re-issue. Therefore it lacks any of the over-production that the album version has and strips the song down to a more edgy R.E.M. sound. The only thing I take from the album version is the correct chord changes during the end of the guitar solo part.

I have a growing dissatisfaction with how "computer-generated" my backing tracks sound so this one was a conscious effort to combat this. To do this I've done something I never knew Garageband could do and that is to adjust the tempo throughout the song, for example, the chorus speeds up considerably and the verses, especially the last, are really slow. I've thrown some drum beats off the alignment grid slightly to try and bring in an element of human error rather than have everything aligned robotically to a set tempo. Finally I've applied a slight distortion to the snare which I've read also helps make it sound less synthesized. Obviously I'm not saying it now sounds like a professional drummer but every little helps.

As a cover this is not particularly exciting as it's a sub standard version of an instrumental R.E.M. have recently made available anyway but I decided to do it purely out of love for this version of the song.