R.E.M.: Bad Day

A song that truly captures a constant feeling most of us already felt any time in our lives: "it's been a bad day!". Well, one of R. E. M. Last singles and possibly their last video masterpiece, "Bad Day" is catchy, filled with energy and rock n'roll and it reveals plenty of aspects about the human nature when facing disastrous moments where we don't wish to be seen at all when all things go wrong in just one day.

The video concept has to be one of the most original to ever grace the screen, especially in music video terms: in it, R. E. M. Play the Morning Team news with lead singer Michael Stipe playing a news anchor who covers plenty of stories as his reporters Mike Mills and Peter Buck present the on-going breaking news which involves a kid who becomes a human tornado; a flood happening inside a politician office; and there's the weather forecast, all predicting how stormy and bad things are going to be. Stipe as the anchor dubs the song in a very dramatic matter as if reading the news. It's all full of humor and very funny.

This is one of the band greatest moments, not just visually but also the song which is also one of their most memorable. I remember when this was released back in the day and even today it still impress me a great deal due to the quality of everything that's presented. Nostalgia hits real hard with this because it was back when I was starting to know, and this came up on a compilation of their greatest hits, one of the very first CD's I ever got. Two enthusiastic thumbs up to this video masterpiece, one of their greatest. 10/10.