Everybody hurts — and today, fans of R.E.M. are especially hurting.
Michael Stipe and the gang have called it quits, according to a statement on the band’s website. The statement noted that R.E.M. will “call it a day as a band,” and will “walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished.”
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It seems like there are no hard feelings involved in the split, with band members writing that it was simply time to part ways. Bassist Mike Mills wrote:
“During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, ‘what next’? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.”
The Athens, Ga. band produced 15 studio albums together, with notable hits like “Losing My Religion,” “Shiny Happy People,” and, yes, “Everybody Hurts.” Their final album, Collapse into Now, came out this past March.
Listen to one of their greatest hits, which has new significance given today’s news: “It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”
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