1-6: Until the Day is Done vs. I've Been High

[stip]

Vote

[stip]

I like I've Been High fine, but REM has so many achingly beautiful songs, and I've Been High is reaching for heights it has never quite earned. The music is a little too electronic and processed (and lacks some of the lushness of the other songs on the album--like the glorious song that precedes it), Stipe's lyrics are nothing to really write home about, and the performance is not one of his best. It's a perfectly decent song, but they were clearly aiming for greatness.


Until the Day is Done is amazing. I adore the lyrics, and I'm not sure I've heard another song that so beautifully captures the exhausted hollow sadness of a country suffering through a self-inflicted wound.


Until the Day is Done.

[chewm]

Until the Day is Done is good proof of how consistently good the band remained through the years. Killer song.

[Chris_H_2]

This is a tough one. I've always had a soft spot I've Been High -- it's definitely a stand out on the album.

I think I remember reading awhile back that Until the Day is Done was actually written in the late 80's, and just debuted in 2008. I like it, but it's not terribly unique in this genre of REM songs.

I've Been High

[Kaius]

I've Been High

For the past two days


Yay codeine

[Kevin Davis]

"Until the Day is Done" is good but "I've Been High" is transcendent for me -- one of Stipe's all-time great vocals.

[stip]

really? i find the vocals to be a tad disappointing. he struggles and cant quite find the transcendent beauty he is singing about

[Norah]

I've Been High

[digster]

really? i find the vocals to be a tad disappointing. he struggles and cant quite find the transcendent beauty he is singing about

I'm 100 percent in the opposite direction on this one, though I liked his live vocals for the song even better. It's such this broken, tentative moment for him.

I feel like it's going to be harder to be descriptive in a lot of these REM tournaments. It's going to be a great, great song against a great, great song so often.