Ignoreland

Ignoreland is a song from 1992's Automatic For The People, often considered one of the weaker tracks on the album and not a favourite of the bands. It was never performed live until 2008 when it secured a frequent place on their set list.

I'm never sure whether the reason the band disliked the song was because of the song itself or whether they felt self-conscious about the blatant political rant featured in the lyrics. Maybe Stipe's contribution to the song was motivated by a moment of anger or resentment in which he felt a little embarassed about in years to come, that's always been my take on the song.

It is one of those songs where you couldn't sit down and play any one of the instrumental parts and have someone recognise what song you are playing. It is what it is because of the sum of its parts.

Usually when I approach a cover I'm familiar with the music, I've been playing the song on guitar for years, but Ignoreland is a song I didn't even know the chords to. But I managed to get a rough approximation of what the guitar parts are although it's hard to know exactly because there is so much going on in this song.

I'm really pleased with the results given my knowledge limitations of the song, it may not be note perfect but I feel I've re-produced the sense of urgency that comes with the song pretty well.

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.

September Sang

For those of you unaware, September Sang is a newly discovered R.E.M. original that was played live once in 1982. It is not one of R.E.M.'s better unreleased songs. It's original form is so fragmented and loose that my attempts to bring it together as a more solid, complete song have stripped it of any character it may have once had. It's one of those cases where half way through the song I wonder why I started it and strive to finish it purely to make the time spent on it so far seem justified!

All that said, it's another rarity for the collection and that is, after all, the idea of this project.

Man On The Moon

This was always going to be the big one as far as I was concerned and it's not one I was originally going to cover, mainly because I was targeting the less known R.E.M. songs and avoiding the big hits. But, I decided to take this on (for a second time, I might add) simply through my love and appreciation for the song.

Man On The Moon is, in my opinion, the best song that R.E.M. have released as a single in their career. It it perfect for the radio without compromising their integrity in the way Shiny Happy People or Stand may have done.

I knew if I was going to take this on it had to be good. That's the danger of taking on the popular songs is everyone's heard them so many times that the inconsistencies with the original aren't missed so easily. I'll let you be the judge of whether this is as good as I'm making out!

The song basically consists of drums, bass, acoustic and electric guitar but over the top of that are the instruments that add to the song's character - the mandolin, the slide guitar and the piano parts during the verses.

And all I'm talking about here is the backing track - the vocals take this song to a new level, especially during the chorus where, by the end of the song, the vocal parts by Michael Stipe and Mike Mills help bring this song to a soaring climax.

I don't think I'll be taking on any more hit singles, this was definitely one I just had to get out of my system and I enjoyed every minute of dissecting every second of this classic song.