The last truly brilliant album they did, IMO, though there were still a couple more great ones to come, and among the best albums of the 90s. The only real weak spot for me is “Everybody Hurts” - musically I don’t mind it, but the lyrics are so soggy and teen-angsty I can’t take it seriously. I voted for “Nightswimming”, because I think it’s one of the most beautiful pop songs ever, but “Drive”, “Try Not To Breathe”, “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite”, “Man on the Moon”, “Find the River” - I can’t really argue with anyone’s pick.
I’ve been waiting for this poll, because I feel that “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite” is the most underrated song in the entire R.E.M. discography.
Nightswimming is one of my favorite songs.
As I know that “Nightswimming” will (deservedly) walk away with this one, I decided to go with the other song that I adore equally from this excellent, excellent album: “Find the River”.
It almost as easily could’ve been “Try Not to Breathe”, “Sweetness Follows”, “Monty Got a Raw Deal”, or “Man on the Moon”.
Lots of good choices here. I think this is their best album. I picked “Man on the Moon” because it has so much going for it; original topic, great melody, interesting imagry, etc. I think “The Sidewinder Sleeps”, “Drive”, “Nightswimming” and “Find the River” are all contenders as well. The maudlin side of me wants to put “Everybody Hurts” in there as well, but it is just a bit trite for my liking.
Nightswimming is probably in my top 5 songs of all time, so this one was easy for me.
This was REM’s best album. It says a lot when Man On The Moon was the WORST song on the album, but I still enjoy it. I went with Sidewinder, mainly because I can’t listen to that song and NOT feel totally cheered up, but any song on that album (even Moon was pretty popular, especially after the Jim Carrey movie came out) is worthy of the title.
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite is in fact a great song. But Nightswimming is absolutely brilliant on a whole other level, and gets my vote.
I have particularly fond memories of this album. I was in junior high when it came out, and it was one of the first CDs I ever bought. It’s probably the oldest album I bought that I still listen to. (Meaning, I have oldies that predate it, but I consider them music that predates my own adolescence.) I must have listened to this a trillion times.
I really do love the entire album, as much for the music as the nostalgia factor, but Nightswimming has always been my favorite. It is an absolutely beautiful pop song.
I voted for Sidewinder because it means a lot to me personally. It doesn’t have the complexity or emotion of some of the other songs, but it’s evocative and Stipe evidently had fun writing and singing it. If it’s fluff, it’s joyful fluff, and that makes it an important piece of a very serious album. And it’s not without some emotional power of its own. I see it as a very romatic and playful song.
Wow, I love this album. It’s also one of those fantastic things where listening to it takes me back to a very specific, positive time in my life. There aren’t any songs I don’t like … Man in the Moon got a bit overplayed so that’s the only one I skip occasionally. It was a tough call for me between Nightswimming and Sidewinder for best.
I voted ‘Drive’ because of the memories I have associated with that song.
‘Nightswimming’ is one of the greatest songs ever written.
Nightswimming is unbeatable.
However, I have a soft spot for Try Not to Breathe because I was dealing with the death of a parent the year this album came out, and that song really spoke to me.
YOU’RE ALL CRAZY!!!
Monty. Or Drive. Or Try not to Breathe. Nightswimming?! Sidewinder? Bahhhhhh!
(I’m surprised by my violent reaction to this)
Wow. I voted Nightswimming, but I thought I’d be well in the minority. I guess it’s a hell of a lot more popular than I thought. Everybody Hurts certainly got a lot more exposure.
It had to be Monty for me, my band used to play it. Other candidates were Man on the Moon (some silly lyrics though), Ignoreland, Drive, and Sidewinder. Nightswimming, Everybody Hurts and Find the River are undoubtedly beautiful but just don’t grab me, they come across as a little studied.
I think this is the first one of these polls that a radio single isn’t winning.
I voted for Nightswimming too, but Try Not to Breathe is a favorite as well.
Everybody Hurts had a great video but I also voted for Nightswimming.
Every single time I hear that song I’m transported back to the hot, happy summer nights in my late teens/early twenties. We went night swimming all the time, sneaking in to the little lake in the town park. There was the fear of getting caught and everyone was always naked. For recklessness, we’d swim the giant lifeguard chair out to a floating dock and dive off it. I don’t remember having a photograph on the dashboard, but when I hear the song I swear there had to be one.
Maybe the best REM album overall…the only song I’m not crazy about is Ignoreland. When lyrics became easy to find on the web, the first thing I looked up was The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight. Hmmm, nothing at all about Jamaica.
Nightswimming is such a beautiful, elegiac song, it saddens me that in the half a dozen times that I’ve seen REM live they’ve never played it.