Everybody hurts, it’s true, but not everybody gets to attend one’s own funeral. R.E.M. find themselves in that strange and enviable position, as the legendary alt-rock band’s decision last week to throw in the towel has led to a wave of tributes. One of the highest-profile salutes came Saturday night at the Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta, where Coldplay covered R.E.M.’s ballad “Everybody Hurts”; watch it below (via Consequence of Sound and YouTube user sflemi4).
Coldplay’s Chris Martin introduced the song, from R.E.M.’s 1992 classic Automatic for the People, by asking fans to “appreciate the gesture” rather than judge the performance for its merits. “One of our favorite bands of all time, R.E.M., for some crazy reason have finished — and it’s sad,” he says in the fan-made video. “So with the most respect in the world … this is just to show how much they meant to us.” The crowd can occasionally be heard singing along during this strummy, subdued cover of R.E.M.’s melancholy yet reassuring tear-jerker.
Coldplay’s new album Mylo Xyloto arrives October 24. The recently played album cut “Paradise” on The Late Show With David Letterman.
R.E.M. will release a career-spanning greatest hits album on Nov. 15. Titled Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982-2011, the collection includes tracks from the band’s years at both Warner Bros. (1988 to 2011) and the IRS label (1982 to 1987). As Warner Bros. announced this morning, the release will also feature three new tracks the band recorded this summer with producer Jacknife Lee, who also oversaw their final two albums, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now. Check out the tracklist below.
R.E.M., Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage tracklist:
Disc 1
1. Gardening At Night
2. Radio Free Europe
3. Talk About The Passion
4. Sitting Still
5. So. Central Rain
6. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
7. Driver 8
8. Life And How To Live It
9. Begin The Begin
10. Fall On Me
11. Finest Worksong
12. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
13. The One I Love
14. Stand
15. Pop Song 89
16. Get Up
17. Orange Crush
18. Losing My Religion
19. Country Feedback
20. Shiny Happy People
Disc 2
1. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
2. Everybody Hurts
3. Man On The Moon
4. Nightswimming
5. What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
6.New Test Leper
7. Electrolite
8. At My Most Beautiful
9. The Great Beyond
10. Imitation Of Life
11. Bad Day
12. Leaving New York
13. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
14. Supernatural Superserious
15. UeBerlin
16. Oh My Heart
17. Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter
18. A Month of Saturdays
19. We All Go Back to Where We Belong
20. Hallelujah
