When I started riding a bicycle again in 2020 after an absence of many years, I found that three songs wormed their way into my ears to become my bike riding songs. It's not that I pedaled down the streets and paths donning headphones, but rather these songs consistently popped into my head as I cruised around town and down country roads. I cannot recall in what order these songs assumed their places in the riding soundtrack but I am writing about this one because I've been listening to late period REM lately.
In addition to hopping on a two-wheeler again in 2020, I also did a podcast with a friend of mine that focused on music. For one show, we discussed REM's 1998 album Up. I lost track of the band after New Adventures in Hi-Fi from 1996 and thought it would be fun to pick up where I had left off. I discovered a great album that left me feeling stupid for not having paid attention to it when it was released.
It sounded different to their previous albums with lots of retro-sounding keyboards, drum machines, and no Bill Berry.
I really love "Walk Unafraid". It starts slow with fuzzy, sustained guitar notes underneath Michael Stipe's vocals. Then it picks up the pace with Peter Buck's guitar tone losing the fuzziness and sounding very Fripp-like. The bass begins rumbling a bit in the background before a drum machine starts up and skips along as the chorus begins. Stipe's voice alternates between defiance and vulnerability - "Walk unafraid/ I'll be clumsy instead". Synth finds its space in the soundscape and real drums enter the scene. I adore how each verse is filled out just a little more than the preceding one. And that chugging bass running headlong to those choruses that are at once uplifting and slightly melancholic is just great.
This is a truly beautiful song and there's something wonderful about cruising down the street on a sunny day with that bass line chugging along in my head as the wind blows across my face.
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