Magic Jewball

I have been thinking about college a lot this weekend (more on that later this week, I hope) and so I thought I would use a song from this artist whom I think of as the very definition of “college music.” Both before me and after me. When I was a kid, I visited Sister2 at the University of Pennsylvania and saw a sign that they were playing. I was already a fan then and thought it was a signal that I would love college myself. Ha! Later, I saw them during my own college years as well as again last month (you may have noticed it squeezed in between many mentions of The Cure who I saw twice that same week).

The real issue is that it is hard to pick a song. Many of my favorites are probably already on your iPod and the one with nearly the most meaning to me was already used to illustrate a pivotal post for this blog. So I don’t want to use that one either. My very favorite R.E.M. song is Sweetness Follows but honestly, I consider Automatic For the People, one of my favorite albums of all time, of a piece and so not the best choice for just choosing one song. Just get the whole thing!

And so, I am left with this song. It doesn’t even have a name! That’s because it’s one of those hidden tracks that were so in vogue back in the day. It’s one of the most cheerful and peppy songs about being apart from the one you love that I know and it served me well during several long-distance relationships. This is because I am bad at love letters and good at song-picking.

Napster and I call this song two different things. Whatevs!

Napster:
R.E.M. – Untitled

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.