Aftermath

Aftermath may well be the most boring song R.E.M. have ever wrote, with lyrics that fall into Stipe's "pep-talk" category and a video that the band should be ashamed of! Instrumentally, the drums are so uninspiring, it would be interesting to know what Bill Berry might have done differently to give the song more life, that's assuming Bill would have allowed the song to make it on to an album in the first place. Even Mike Mills can't come to the rescue this time with an interesting bass line.

I was as bored covering this as I am listening to it so I wanted to make it a bit more guitar-orientated than the piano/organ dirge on Around The Sun. I also brought in the mandolin, mainly just for the hell of it. The result isn't that bad, I think, considering what I was given to work with...