REM

R.E.M. were exhausted when they started writing the follow-up to 1989’s Green. By the time they’d finished, they had their first No. 1 record – and a pair of unforgettable hit singles – on their hands. 

REM’s eighth album may not have been the strident mainstream rock record many expected as a follow-up to 1991’s breakthrough Out Of Time, but it’s a refined, multifaceted masterwork that pointed the way for a generation of alternative guitar bands.

David Crosby and R.E.M.’s Mike Mills both gave strongly-worded rebuttals to Ek’s comments.

“I felt triumphant every time we played Glastonbury,” said Michael Stipe.

The R.E.M. man talks guitar chemistry, raw riffs and Emerald Valley, his latest album with Filthy Friends, which also features Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker.

The track will feature in REM’s sprawling BBC sessions box set.