'Collapse Into Now'

R.E.M. have just released their fifteenth album and Michael Stipe is back to writing poetry like he used to. Much more of a personal album than a political one this time around, it doesn't quite have the grip of Automatic for the People or New Adventures in Hi-Fi, but amongst the lulls in pace are some stand-out tracks.

Here's an excerpt from the closing track, 'Blue', that I think still represents his mind at his best.

"I am made by my times

I am a creation of now
Shaken with the cracks and crevices
I'm not giving up easy
I will not fold
I don't have much
But what I have is gold

I sing in platinum
I dress in brass
I eat in zinc
Let it pass

I like you, love you, every coast of you.
I've seen your eddies and tides and hurricanes and cyclones.
Low ebb tide and high, full moon.
Up close and distant.
I read you.
Look, the sky, the sea, the ocean, the sun, the moon.
Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue blue, blue, blue, blue, blue.
Naked and blue.

Breathing with you. Touch. Change. Shift. Allow air. Window open. Drift. Drift away. Into now.

I want Whitman proud. Patti Lee proud. My brothers proud. My sisters proud. I want me. I want it all. I want sensational. Irresistible.

This is my time and I am thrilled to be alive.

Living. Blessed. I understand.

Twentieth century:
Collapse Into Now"