With Harvey and Irma wreaking havoc in the south and an 8.1 earthquake rattling Mexico off its foundation, one could hardly blame a person caught in Mother Nature's cross hairs for thinking, even for a second, that the whole bleeping world is coming apart at the seams.
Faced with such a reality at this late juncture, one can either
a) Go full-MacGyver by making a life raft out of safety pins, a paper cup, and a boat (!), or
b) Just buckle up in the man cave with a season or two of GoT and let the winds of change blow through your luscious hair as you order a tall, cool Margarita from the Devil himself.
Either way, you're gonna need some music and no better tune fits the occasion than the song where R.E.M. officially jumped the shark.
Oh, we longtime fans like to admit that "Shiny Happy People" was a total surprise, but the warning signs had been there all along, beginning with this misguided, hokey chestnut from the otherwise solid Document album.
In hindsight, Document, itself, seems cut from the same sonic palette as 1985's Lifes Rich Pageant despite being the first R.E.M. record produced by Scott Litt. The only noticeable difference is in the songwriting department, where not only can we now understand what Michael Stipe is singing, but also not understand it one bit.
Case in point:
"Feed it off an aux speak, grunt, no Strength the ladder starts to clatter
While we'll stop short of calling the song R.E.M.'s "We Didn't Start The Fire", it did set the band down the slippery slope that eventually led to the aforementioned "Shiny Happy People". Maybe not the worst thing in the world, but a loooong way from "Sitting Still" or "Harborcoat".
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hurricane irma edition