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Electrolite

"Electrolite"
R.E.M. - Electrolite.jpg
Single by R.E.M.
from the album New Adventures in Hi-Fi
B-side "The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live), "Binky the Doormat" (Live), "King of Comedy" (808 State remix)
Released December 2, 1996 (1996-12-02)
Format CD, 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, Cassette
Recorded Soundcheck at the Desert Sky Mall in Phoenix, United States on November 4, 1995
Genre Alternative rock, folk rock
Length 4:05
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(s) Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe
Producer(s) Scott Litt & R.E.M.
R.E.M. singles chronology
"Bittersweet Me"
(1996)
"Electrolite"
(1997)
"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us"
(1997)

"Electrolite" is a song by R.E.M., released as their third single from their tenth studio album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi. The song is a piano-based ballad to Los Angeles, Hollywood icons and the closing 20th century. The single was released on December 2, 1996 in the United Kingdom and on February 2, 1997 in the United States.

Initially, Michael Stipe objected to including the song on the album, but was won over by Peter Buck and Mike Mills. It has since become one of his favorite R.E.M. songs as well as one of Thom Yorke's;Radiohead has covered the song.

The single's music video, directed by Peter Care and Spike Jonze, "involved dune buggies, crazy costumes, and rubber reindeer."

The piano line for the song was originally written by Mills in his apartment before bringing it to the band. The lyrics were composed by Stipe about the two-year period he spent living in Santa Monica and the trips he would take to people-watch on Mulholland Drive. During a June 21, 2008 performance in Atlanta, Georgia, Stipe mentioned that he was inspired to write the song after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He told the audience that his home in L.A. was badly damaged and he went up Mullholland Drive and watched the lights from the city at night.

Like most of New Adventures in Hi-Fi, this song was recorded while on tour promoting Monster. This song was recorded by Joe O'Herlihy, Scott Litt, and Jo Ravitch during a soundcheck before their November 4, 1995 show in Phoenix, Arizona's Desert Sky Pavilion.


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