Leaving New York - R.E.M.

Another milestone has been crossed in my long, long, never ending but super enjoyed music journey. Yesterday I finally finished listening to the whole discography of R.E.M. after more than 2 years since I started. It has been quite an interesting journey, one that sometimes has excited me a lot and some other times has bored me a little. I have anyway unforgettable memories that are tied to R.E.M. songs, the first one coming to my mind being my wandering in Boston a little less than a couple of years ago during a trip I took while doing my exchange in Montréal. Some other memories are more recent and some songs are rooted so deep in my (music) tastes that they have become an essential part of my (musical, but not only) baggage. Another factor that made the journey interesting is how it has been a super relevant part of a change in my way of approaching music: until 2010 I have practically been listening to one new "big" artist per year, while in 2011, when I was taking the same approach with Bjork and got kind of stuck, I started broadening my horizon and R.E.M., together maybe with U2 and, a little later, Patti Smith have been my main focus of the next couple of years. As I said already, I enjoyed every part of this journey, some parts more, some other less, but knowing that it has ended 

makes me a bit sad, especially because R.E.M. have disbanded themselves as a band just while I was 

Leaving New York - R.E.M.

through their discography, so this end feels kind of final. I really hope that they will be together again soon, at least for some live gigs, and to get the chance to see them perform live!

Anyway, all of this to celebrate my completion of their discography. Let me just spend a couple of words for the song though. Around the sun has been the last album I've been listening to, not one of my favourites I must say, but this song has always meant a lot to me, since actually when it came out. It has been one of the very first R.E.M. songs I fell in love with and, probably, the first one in my library. Its description of the sadness of saying goodbye to something that you love perfectly fits the occasion; moreover I have the feeling it is the one that pushed me to start this journey when I was listening to it just before leaving New York in April 2011. It all fits perfectly, doesn't it? Well, goodbye R.E.M., hope to get the chance to see you live soon!