Make It All Okay

Here's a song I've never heard anyone say a good word about. The band have never mentioned it and, to my knowledge, have never played it live either. I'm aware lyrically it's rather bland, it doesn't push any boundaries musically and it's tempo is really really slow but I've always found it really pleasing to my ears.

The first time I heard Make It All Okay was a really poor quality recording of them practicing it in soundcheck on the 2003 tour. Straight away I really liked the chords and the sadness of the piano. I do like the album version but, and this is something I find myself saying a lot, was disappointed by the over-production and all the overdubs. My cover was an attempt at stripping it down a bit to how I originally heard the song.

One thing this song can claim is, in my opinion, the nicest closing chord of any R.E.M. song. When the piano and guitars play that F add 9 chord after Stipe sings "didn't you" the organs kick in and it's one of the loveliest ways in which they've ever ended a song.

Unfortunately thought it's emotion-laden, slow-tempo ballads like this that give R.E.M. a bad name. It's not really what they're about but it's a label that gets pinned on them a lot. If I wanted to play someone an album to say "see, R.E.M. are really cool" Around The Sun is the last thing I'd play them and yet I actually really enjoy listening to the album. It's like the band have created a guilty pleasure record just for their hardcore fans!