Well well. Just as we thought REM were settling into their dotage and leaving their ground-breaking days behind them, they come back with a single with more energy and vitality that most bands half their age could muster up.
Bad Day is a return to the sound of Document or Green and comes across as a slightly less manic cousin of It's The End Of The World. Peter Buck's guitar chimes and soars over Michael Stipe proclaiming "we're sick of being jerked around". The lyrics could refer to George Bush ("Teflon whitewashed presidency" is referred to at one point) but with Stipe's usual ambiguity in full effect, it's hard to be sure.
They should be getting far too old for this kind of stuff now, but Bad Day is more proof that REM remain one of the best bands on the planet.
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