Exclusive Stream: R.E.M.'s Final Single, 'We All Go Back to Where We Belong'

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Click to listen to R.E.M.'s 'We All Go Back To Where We Belong'

When recently-disbanded alt-rock icons R.E.M. hit the studio back in July, Rolling Stone optimistically speculated that the group was beginning work on their 16th album. As it turns out, they were actually putting the finishing touches on "We All Go Back to Where We Belong," the final single of their astonishing three-decade career.  (The track will appear with two other unreleased tracks on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, a career-spanning retrospective due out November 15th.)

The song, a wistful ballad with a lush Burt Bacharach-esque arrangement, recalls the trio's experimentations with easy-listening pop on their 2001 album Reveal, but the mood is even more placid and relaxed. It sounds a bit like the closing credits of a movie, a happy ending where the heroes head off into the sunset. As the tune winds down, Michael Stipe sings "Is this really what you want?" As much as we'd all love for the answer to be "no," you can hear in his voice that he's finally ready to move on, even though he's overwhelmed by sentiment.

Related
• Rob Sheffield Says Goodbye to R.E.M.
• From Art School to Hall of Fame: R.E.M. Tours Through Their Discography
• R.E.M. in the Real World – Rolling Stone's 1987 Cover Story
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Song Stories

“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”

The Joy Formidable | 2011

The opener off the Welsh group’s The Big Roar album was an epic one, but the band was worried that track had polarized fans. “The first song is eight minutes long,” Rhydian Dafydd, the Joy Formidable bassist, said. “If you did that in the Seventies people would be, ‘Whatever.’ You do it now, people think, ‘Holy s---!’ Some people think it’s the f---ing greatest track on the entire album, and some people think it’s f---ing boring. It’s that element of needing to challenge people.” The band concluded through the song’s lyrics that love was the “everchanging spectrum of a lie.”

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