Opening with one of the most -- that is, probably only -- famous mandolin riffs in pop music, "Losing My Religion" is the one of the songs R.E.M. is best known for, and rightly so. Its lyrics wind their way around a tale of betrayal and hurt, obscuring feeling and worrying about showing your own self. How very poetic, that phrase, "Losing your religion," Michael Stipe once explained, is a southern expression meaning losing temper or composure. It's not as much a loss of faith as it is a loss in appearance. And we all put up fronts, don't we?
For a band that had previously made its bread with incoherent mumbling, it's incredibly articulate and incredibly effective. And catchy as all hell, which is when alt rock just becomes rock. An alternative way of rocking to be sure, but here we get into those heady waters of what's mainstream and is it even important to make distinctions (for my money, no.) And there's that mandolin, distinctive and holy spiritual in its own way.
It's maybe not exactly my most favourite REM song, but there's a lot more to say about it than "Stand" or even "Orange Crush" and I'm fairly certain I'm the only person who enjoys "Shiny Happy People" totally unironically. Well, that's life.
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