“Walk Unafraid” by R.E.M.

"Walk Unafraid" comes from Up, the album R.E.M. put out through Warner Bros. on October 26, 1998, their first without drummer Bill Berry, who had retired the October before. Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe share the writing credit. The band produced it with Pat McCarthy, and Nigel Godrich mixed it.

Up was R.E.M. feeling their way forward on shaky legs: session drummers and drum machines where Berry used to sit, keyboards and programming all over the place, Stipe chasing lyrical ideas about spirit versus science, and no Scott Litt behind the desk for the first time since the mid-'80s. The sessions got rough enough that the band later owned up to nearly splitting, and this song is part of what they carried out of that uneasy stretch.

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