R.E.M. sure knows how to make the most of calling it quits.
Today, the veteran alt-rock group, which announced its retirement in September, premiered two short films for “We All Go Back To Where We Belong,” their final single and one of three new songs appended to Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011, out November 15. That double-disc collection is the first to span the band’s catalogue on I.R.S. Records and Warner Bros. Records. The other two new songs are “A Month Of Saturdays” and “Hallelujah,” the latter thankfully not another cover of the Leonard Cohen classic, but a Buck-Mills-Stipe original.
“We All Go Back To Where We Belong,” which, appropriately enough, sounds like the exit music for a film, marries a Burt Bacharach-esque trumpet to the R.E.M. sound from Out Of Time and Automatic For The People. “Is this really want you want?” Michael Stipe asks in the song. No, sir. Not at all.
Both visual takes on “We All Go Back To Where We Belong” are similar in construction, shot in black and white with the camera trained on a single subject. In the first, it’s actress Kirsten Dunst, whose sleepy visage and similarly sedative acting style was the worst part of the last decade’s Spider-Man trilogy. In the second, poet/performance artist John Giorno is given the honors of helping R.E.M. go gently into that good night.
If, like me, you’re in mourning over R.E.M.’s disbanding, this fun fact might bring a brief smile to your face: The title Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage is credited to a quote guitarist Peter Buck gave about the band in a 1988 interview.
Purchase R.E.M. – “We All Go Back To Where We Belong” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.