“Near Wild Heaven” by R.E.M.

"Near Wild Heaven" was the third single from Out of Time, R.E.M.'s seventh studio album, issued by Warner Bros. in August 1991, and it hands the lead to bassist Mike Mills. He co-wrote the words with Michael Stipe, which made it the first R.E.M. single with lyrics Mills had both helped write and sung. He had written the words to "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" and sung the cover "Superman", but he had never fronted a single of his own.

It's the band at its sunniest, a bright, breezy swirl of stacked harmonies from Mills, Stipe and Bill Berry, with Peter Buck's guitar chiming underneath, Berry doubling on piano and guest Kidd Jordan sneaking in on baritone sax. Scott Litt produced with the band. Britain got the single and took it to number 27; America never did.

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