"Electrolite" is a song by American rock band

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

, released as the closing track from their tenth studio album, ''

New Adventures in Hi-Fi ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi'' is the tenth studio album by the United States, American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was their fifth major-label release for Warner Bros. Records, released on September 9, 1996, in Europe and Australia, and the fol ...

'' (1996), and as the album's third single later that year. The song is a piano-based

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

dedicated to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

and the closing twentieth century. Frontman

Michael Stipe John Michael Stipe (; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Stipe was born in Metro Atlanta in January 1960. Due to his father's militar ...

initially objected to including the song on the album, but was convinced by his bandmates

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.; he played the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his caree ...

and

Mike Mills Michael Edward Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., hi ...

. The single was released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

on December 2, 1996, in the United Kingdom and on February 2, 1997, in the United States. Commercially, "Electrolite" reached the top 40 in Canada, Finland, Iceland and the United Kingdom but stalled at number 96 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The single's music video, directed by

Peter Care Peter Alan Care (born 28 April 1953) is an English director of music videos, commercials and film. He has directed music videos for Cabaret Voltaire, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, Depeche Mode and New Order, amongst others. Biograp ...

and

Spike Jonze Adam Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze (), is an American Filmmaking, filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze ...

, "involved dune buggies, crazy costumes, and rubber reindeer."

Composition

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 Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

and the trips he would take to look down on Los Angeles from

Mulholland Drive Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura counties is n ...

. During a performance in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

in June 2008, Stipe mentioned that he had been inspired to write the song after the

1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake affected Greater Los Angeles, California, on January 17, 1994, at 04:30:55 PST. The epicenter of the moment 6.7 () blind thrust earthquake was beneath the San Fernando Valley. Lasting approximately 8 seconds ...

. Most of ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi'' was recorded while the group was on tour promoting ''

Monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...

''; "Electrolite" was recorded by Joe O'Herlihy,

Scott Litt Scott Warren Litt (born March 10, 1954) is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s during the band's most ...

, and Jo Ravitch during a

soundcheck A soundcheck is the preparation that takes place before a concert, speech, or similar performance to adjust the sound on the venue's sound reinforcement or public address system. The performer and the audio engineers run through a small po ...

before a performance at the Desert Sky Pavilion in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, on November 4, 1995. Stipe recorded his vocal track at Bad Animal Studios in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

after the tour concluded. Stipe initially did not want to include the song on the album, but was persuaded to by his bandmates.

Lyrical content

In June 2006, the website of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' featured an article on Mulholland Drive including excerpts from an essay written by Stipe: :"Mulholland represents to me the iconic 'from on high' vantage point looking down at L.A. and the valley at night when the lights are all sparkling and the city looks, like it does from a plane, like a blanket of fine lights all shimmering and solid. I really wanted to write a farewell song to the 20th century...And nowhere seemed more perfect than the city that came into its own throughout the 20th century, but always looking forward and driven by ideas of a greater future, at whatever cost." During R.E.M.'s performance on ''

VH1 Storytellers ''Storytellers'' is a television music series produced by the VH1 network. In each episode, artists perform in front of a (mostly small and intimate) live audience, and tell stories about their music, writing experiences and memories, somewhat ...

'', Stipe introduced the song by saying:

"I had a dentist in Los Angeles, who was also a dentist to
Martin Sheen Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. His work spans over six decades of television and film, and his accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and ...
, and Martin Sheen was in the dentist's chair, getting his tooth drilled, when I went up to him and said, 'We have a record coming out in a couple of weeks and you're mentioned in one of the songs, and I just want you to know that it's honoring you; I don't want you to think that we're making fun of you.' And he was saying 'Thank you very much!'. He was very nice about it."

Critical reception

Paul Lester Paul Lester is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster from Elstree, Hertfordshire. Career He began his career as a freelance journalist, for ''Melody Maker'' in the early 1990s, as well as ''City Limits'', '' 20/20'', '' Sky Maga ...

from ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' wrote that "the cello-plaintive" song was "fine". In a separate review, ''Melody Maker'' editor

Everett True Everett True (born Jeremy Andrew Thackray on 21 April 1961) is an English music journalist and musician. He became interested in rock music after hearing The Residents, and formed a band with school friends. He has written and recorded as The ...

said: "This is R.E.M. sounding all melancholy, impassioned and dreary — as opposed to R.E.M. sounding all bouncy, jovial and irritating." ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' writer Mark Kemp called the song a "a simple, folk-based pop song fueled by R.E.M.’s soothingly familiar guitar jangle."

Track listing

All songs written by

Bill Berry William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guita ...

and

. #"Electrolite" – 4:05 #"The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live) – 5:07 #"Binky the Doormat" (Live) – 5:01 #" King of Comedy" (

808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. Taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" the members shared, they released ...

remix) – 5:36 The two live tracks were recorded at the

Omni Coliseum Omni Coliseum (often called The Omni) was an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Completed in 1972, the arena seated 16,378 for basketball and 15,278 for ice hockey, hockey. It was part of the Omni Complex, now known as the CNN Cente ...

on November 18, 1995.

Live versions

June 8, 1997, New York City *Mike Mills – drum machine, piano *Michael Stipe – vocals October 27, 1998, London *Peter Buck – guitar *

Scott McCaughey Scott Lewis McCaughey is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter and the leader of the Seattle and Portland-based bands The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5. He was also an auxiliary member of the American rock band R.E.M. from 199 ...

– keyboards *Mike Mills – piano *Michael Stipe – vocals *

Ken Stringfellow Kenneth Stuart Stringfellow (born October 30, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer. Best known for his work with The Posies, R.E.M., and the re-formed Big Star, Stringfellow's discography include ...

– bass guitar *

Joey Waronker Jon Joseph Waronker (born May 20, 1969) is an American drummer and music producer. He has performed with acts including Beck, R.E.M., Oasis and Roger Waters, and is a member of the experimental rock bands Atoms for Peace and Ultraísta. Back ...

– drums, percussion July 19, 2003, Wiesbaden *Peter Buck – banjo *Scott McCaughey – guitar *Mike Mills – piano *

Bill Rieflin William Frederick Rieflin (September 30, 1960 – March 24, 2020) was an American musician. Rieflin came to prominence in the 1990s mainly for his work as a drummer with groups (particularly in the industrial rock and industrial metal scen ...

– drums *Michael Stipe – vocals *Ken Stringfellow – bass guitar October 7, 2003, New York City *Peter Buck – guitar *Scott McCaughey – keyboards *Mike Mills – piano *Bill Rieflin – drums, percussion *Michael Stipe – vocals *Ken Stringfellow – banjo June 30 – July 5, 2007, Dublin *Peter Buck – guitar *Scott McCaughey – keyboards *Mike Mills – piano *Bill Rieflin – drums, percussion *Michael Stipe – vocals March 13, 2008, Austin *Peter Buck – guitar *Scott McCaughey – bass guitar *Mike Mills – piano *Bill Rieflin – drums, percussion *Michael Stipe – vocals

Personnel

"Electrolite" *

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

Andy Carlson Andrew Carlson is a violinist from the United States. He began learning traditional fiddle music from his grandfather when he was five. He has won numerous fiddle contests including being named Georgia State Champion Fiddler twice and being named t ...

–

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

Nathan December Nathan December is an American rock and roll, rock guitarist, best known for his work as a side musician with R.E.M. and the Goo Goo Dolls during the 1990s. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Music December appeared in the 1994 film ''Reality Bi ...

–

güiro The güiro () is a percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines (see photo) along the notches to produce a ratchet sound. The güiro is commonly ...

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

"The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live) *Bill Berry – drums *Peter Buck – guitar *Nathan December – guitar *

– guitar, keyboards *Mike Mills –

, vocals *Michael Stipe – vocals "Binky the Doormat" (Live) *Bill Berry – drums *Peter Buck – guitar *Nathan December – guitar *Scott McCaughey – guitar, keyboards *Mike Mills – bass guitar, vocals *Michael Stipe – vocals "King of Comedy" (808 State Remix) *Bill Berry – drums *Peter Buck – guitar *

Sally Dworsky Sally Dworsky is an American singer-songwriter and playback singer in animated films. In addition to her solo work and co-fronting the alt-rock band Uma, Dworsky served as the singing voice for lead characters in iconic animated films including ' ...

– background vocals *Mike Mills – bass guitar, vocals *Michael Stipe – vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

"Electrolite" was released as a single on 7-inch and 12-inch vinyl, cassette, and two-track and maxi-CD singles. The 7-inch, cassette, and two-track CD releases only contain "Electrolite" and "The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live). The song was included in R.E.M.'s

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

greatest-hits compilation '' In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003''. The music video appears on the accompanying

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

'' In View: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003''. The public debut of the song was performed by Mills and Stipe on June 8, 1997 in New York City for the

Tibetan Freedom Concert Tibetan Freedom Concert is the name given to a series of socio-political music festivals held in North America, Europe and Asia from 1996 onwards to support the cause of Tibetan independence. The concerts were originally organized by Beastie Boy ...

and released on ''

''. Another version recorded on October 27, 1998 for ''

Later with Jools Holland ''Later... with Jools Holland'' (also known as ''Even Later... with Jools Holland'', and previously known as ''Later Live... with Jools Holland'' and ''...Later with Jools Holland'') is a contemporary British music television show hosted by Jo ...

'' in the BBC Television Centre in London was released as a b-side to " Suspicion" with a recording of " Man on the Moon" from the same performance. The July 19, 2003 performance also appears on the '' Perfect Square'' DVD. A version recorded live in-studio at Clinton Studios in New York City on October 7, 2003 was included in the promotional disc ''A Joyful Noise – In Time with R.E.M.''; the promo includes several other songs from that session. R.E.M.'s performance from their 2005 Dublin rehearsals was released on the live album '' Live at The Olympia'' and their 2008 performance from ''

Austin City Limits ''Austin City Limits'' is an American Concert, live music Television show, television program recorded and produced by KLRU, Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", an ...

'' appears on '' R.E.M. Live from Austin, TX''. "Suspicion" single ''A Joyful Noise – In Time with R.E.M.''

Cover versions

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

have covered "Electrolite" live as an introduction to their song "

Everything in Its Right Place "Everything in Its Right Place" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the opening track of their fourth studio album, ''Kid A'' (2000). It features synthesiser, digitally manipulated vocals and unusual time signatures. The ly ...

References

External links

Lyrics from R.E.M. HQFull video on R.E.M. HQ's YouTube channel
{{Authority control 1990s ballads 1996 singles Music videos directed by Peter Care Music videos directed by Spike Jonze R.E.M. songs Rock ballads Songs about California Song recordings produced by Bill Berry Song recordings produced by Michael Stipe Song recordings produced by Mike Mills Song recordings produced by Peter Buck Song recordings produced by Scott Litt Songs written by Bill Berry Songs written by Peter Buck Songs written by Michael Stipe Songs written by Mike Mills Warner Records singles Folk rock songs 1996 songs Songs about Los Angeles