“Find the River” by R.E.M.

"Find the River" was the last word from Automatic for the People, R.E.M.'s eighth album: the last of the six singles the band pulled from that 1992 record. All four members share the writing credit, but the music is Mike Mills' baby: he handles the bass, piano and organ on it, plus acoustic guitars and accordion, while Peter Buck sits this one out entirely. Scott Litt produced with the band.

Listen to the backing voices tangling behind Michael Stipe. Mills and Bill Berry cut their harmonies without hearing each other, trying the trick again that had worked on "Harborcoat" back on Reckoning, and the result drifts and overlaps like a slow current. It stalled at 54 in Britain and never charted in America, one of just three R.E.M. singles that decade to miss the UK Top 40.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.