I want to read that essay! (especially after churning through R.E.M.'s discography in a quest to try to understand a band I've never been able to appreciate, with some good success)The Narrator Returns wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 6:25 pmI could bang out a whole essay on how this connects to Monster, and not just the two songs used in it. It's all about sexual deviancy and men trying to control women (Stipe singing as both the men and the women), people becoming the pop culture they consume and then cluelessly trying to exploit it not knowing the sinister forces working behind it (there are many different interpretations of "I Took Your Name" and one of them is that it's Jeremy Bobb's songwriter singing it). "Strange Currencies" over the credits is the perfect punchline, the album's closest thing to a sincere love song and it's a statement of its narrator futilely trying to possess, rather than love, the object of his desire.
I also want to hear ARP's reading, already - it's a secret that's bothering me way more than it should