R.E.M. - Überlin

After letting the world sneak peak their upcoming opus Collapse Into Now, R.E.M. has now premiered their slowed down European single “Überlin” via Huffington Post. Along with the video, producer Jacknife Lee shared a few words about the song which you can stream below.

“I love this song. There’s a melancholy in it that only R.E.M. (can) articulate. The demo of the song was very simple and beautiful, and we decided to keep it that way. We tracked this in New Orleans. The vocals and some percussion we did in Nashville. Michael had a lyrical idea that was so complex that I didn’t understand what he was getting at even after he explained it to me. He has pages and pages of lyrics and ideas with backstories for characters that don’t figure in the song. Everything has to make sense to him. Nothing is (a) throwaway or flippant. This song took some beating into shape. The bridge had a vocal at one stage, but the music conveyed what he was saying anyway, so we deleted it. I bought some little analog synths (Microtrons) for my kids and these were amusing us all. The middle section of the song needed to feel less grounded, so I had Peter, Michael, and Mike do the middle section with the synths. It was really good fun.”