Got a memory of listening to New Adventures in Hi-Fi for the first time. It’s a bit vague, but I remember where I was and when, all the essential things. Was in January 2018, and I was on a bit of an R.E.M. trip after revisiting Murmur after a few years and falling head over heels for it. The first two weeks of that month, I went into the office at my then new job, went onto Spotify and went through the band’s discography an album per day. I was the only one in there pretty much all the time, so I could play them all out of the loudspeakers while I was doing my duties or whatever. As a result, the lyrics usually went over my head, but the music always stuck out at some parts. ‘New Test Leper’ was one of the tracks from the album where these little moments piqued my ears quite a few times.

Always appreciated the overall tone of this track. It’s a swaying 6/8 time number with these layered acoustic guitars and a great melodic bassline from Mike Mills. Those times when the bass ascends during the chorus followed by Michael Stipe’s descending “hey, hey, hey” feel so satisfying. Stipe’s hushed and restrained vocal performance suits the track perfectly, can’t think of another R.E.M. track where he takes that sort of a approach. It’s quite a unique track. And you’d never think it was five and a half minutes long, despite what it might say on the CD or Wikipedia.

The track’s first line caused a bit of controversy among some Christians back in the day, where it seems that Michael Stipe is just disowning Jesus Christ. But listening on, the track reveals itself as a first-person account of a not-so-very religious person who finds themselves as the subject in front of a studio audience on a talk show. The narrator’s trying to get the audience and host to understand their point of view, but to no avail. The network cut to commercial, the host has no personality, the audience won’t listen, and overall the whole experience is a bit of a farce. I can’t think of another track that tried to merge religion with a cultural situation such as a talk show, and for that reason I think ‘New Test’ deserves some props. But on the whole, good music, great lyrics, brilliant performance all round. It’s a stellar track.