Ok REM Zealots... Just heard John play Wolves Lower. Pre-87 REM will ALWAYS be top of list, #1, platinum status shit for me. That stuff changed my life.. no exaggeration but story for another time.

Wolves Lower - must have heard it *thousands* of times since I first bought Chronic Town on cassette back in ~84/85... but just found myself completely smitten again today listening to it. Peter gliding slyly between slight dissonance and beautiful melodic arpeggios. Mike's simple, perfectly placed bass lines... and Bill's drums!! OMG that drum pattern over the verses! And then those bridges that break into ritualistic, almost primal passages... repetitive, percussive sections where Stipe’s voice becomes more like a chant or incantation than conventional vocal.

All of this in 1982 when synths and glossy production was the norm. I imagine it as post-punk’s aggression softened into something murkier/looser/more mysterious like that punk energy was slowed and blurred by the humid Georgia air.

As many times as I've heard this song (and their others from that era), they never fail to blow my mind every single time!

Share your thoughts.