"Supernatural Superserious" is a song by American

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band R.E.M. It is the first single and third track from the band's fourteenth album ''

Accelerate In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the ...

'' and premiered on now defunct New York City radio station

WRXP WGVX, WLUP and WWWM-FM are three separate radio stations that make up a trimulcast serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul media market, radio market. The three stations are owned by Cumulus Media, along with sister stations KQRS-FM and KXXR. The ...

on February 5, 2008, without the consent of

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. The single was first released on February 11, 2008 as an

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Orig ...

, and February 25, 2008 on CD.

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 alternative rock band R.E.M. He is known for his vocal quality, poetic lyrics and unique stage presence. Po ...

considers the song to be "one of the best things we've ever wrote." Like most of the songs on ''Accelerate'', it made its debut during the band's "working rehearsals" at the Olympia Theatre in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

between June 30 and July 5, 2007, in an unfinished form with the name "Disguised"; the song appears on '' Live at The Olympia'' in this form. Its title was changed on the advice of

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey (manager), Phil H ...

frontman

Chris Martin Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, pianist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Devon, he went to Uni ...

. The song itself proved an early success, entering the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

at number 54 on downloads, before its official physical release, although—unlike most of R.E.M.'s lead singles in the UK—it was not a hit there. It also became R.E.M.'s first song since 2001's "

Imitation of Life Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. I ...

" to enter more than two charts and to chart on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

, with an entry position of number 36, eventually reaching 21. The other chart that the song charted was the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 where it reached number 85. It is also the band's final appearance on the Hot 100 chart. The song reached number one in Norway, becoming the band's only chart-topper there, and also reached the top 30 in several other European countries, including Belgium, Italy, and Sweden. The song was used by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

as part of their coverage of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

's 2008 Opening Day. It was also featured in the film '' He's Just Not That Into You''. A special 7" single was released to commemorate

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

on April 19, 2008, in the US. The single was made available exclusively for participating stores along with special releases from

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

and

Death Cab for Cutie Death Cab for Cutie is an American rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. The band is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (keyb ...

Music video

The music video was shot by director

Vincent Moon Vincent Moon (real name Mathieu Saura, born 25 August 1979) is an independent filmmaker, photographer, and sound artist from Paris. He was the main director of the Blogotheque's Take Away Shows, a web-based project recording field work music vide ...

in various locations around

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. On February 12, 2008 the website supernaturalsuperserious.com (no longer available) was launched, containing ten takes of the video available for download in high definition as well as
YouTube page
for users to upload their own versions of the video.

Track listing

;CD single #1 (UK, Germany) (W798CD), 7" Single (US) #"Supernatural Superserious" – 3:25 #"Airliner" – 2:21 ;CD single #2 (UK) (W798CDX) #"Supernatural Superserious" – 3:25 #"Airliner" – 2:21 #"Red Head Walking" – 2:11

Personnel

*"Supernatural Superserious" written by

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 also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his c ...

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., ...

, and

. *"Airliner" written by Buck, Mills, Stipe, and

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 1994 u ...

. *"Red Head Walking" written by

Calvin Johnson Calvin Johnson Jr., (born September 29, 1985) is an American former football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons with the Detroit Lions. He played college football at Georgia Tech, where he twice ...

(

Beat Happening Beat Happening is an American indie pop band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1982. Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis, and Bret Lunsford have been the band's continual members. Beat Happening were early leaders in the American indie pop and lo-fi ...

cover, from their album '' Dreamy'', 1991).

Release history

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Music video
{{Authority control R.E.M. songs 2008 singles Number-one singles in Norway Songs written by Peter Buck Songs written by Mike Mills Songs written by Michael Stipe Warner Records singles Song recordings produced by Jacknife Lee Song recordings produced by Michael Stipe Song recordings produced by Mike Mills Song recordings produced by Peter Buck 2008 songs Films directed by Vincent Moon