Most R.E.M. albums have at least one song on them in 6/8 time - that is, in a time signature which revolves around 6 eighth notes per bar, not the usual 4 quarter notes per bar.
Please don’t worry if music theory is not your bag. All I want to point out here is that songs in 6/8 have a different feel to them, a different groove. R.E.M. have exploited this by often putting out one song per album out in 6/8.
Here is a list of those songs.
R.E.M.’s songs in 6/8
Murmur - We Walk
Reckoning (no song)
Fables of the Reconstruction (no song)
Life’s Rich Pageant - Swan Swan H
Document - Fireplace
Green (no song)
Out of Time - Half a World Away
Automatic for the People - Try Not to Breathe AND Everybody Hurts
Monster - Strange Currencies
New Adventures in Hi-Fi - New Test Leper
Up - Daysleeper
Reveal - Disappear AND Summer Turns to High
Around the Sun (no song)
Accelerate - Houston AND Until the Day is Done
Collapse Into Now - Oh My Heart
Why do R.E.M. write songs in these different time signatures?
I imagine R.E.M. include songs in 6/8 on their albums to break up the sequence of songs normally in 4/4, to give our ears something new to work on, to set out an alternative mood and soundscape for Mr Stipe and his vocals and lyrics.
With R.E.M., their albums never start with songs in 6/8 (I’ll write about songs that open their albums another time). This seems to make sense when we think that an opening track to an album tends to be solid, straightforward and engaging as it sets the pace and tone for what is to come. In my mind, songs in 6/8 are there to contrast with the prevailing beat or tone of an album. Songs in 6/8 have a role to play, but they are not there to set that beat up from the start. Often, R.E.M. place their 6/8 songs towards the centre of their albums. These songs provide a gear shift as we journey through the tracks.
Songs in the time signatures of 6/8 tend to have a circular, swirly feel to them (Half a World Away feels a bit like this). Sometimes these songs sound a bit like shanties or folk songs (Swan Swan H, anyone?). At other times, they are the perfect opportunity for Peter Buck to bring in his picked arpeggios, running up and down a chord in notes grouped in threes (Everybody Hurts, most famously). 6/8 songs are often contemplative songs (Try Not To Breathe) but can also rock in a kind of chaotic way even if not in 4 time (thinking of Fireplace, with its unhinged saxophone solo).
All in all, many of my all time favourite R.E.M. songs have this feature of a 6/8 time signature. In particular that run of songs from Out of Time through to New Adventures: Half a World Away, Try Not to Breathe, Strange Currencies, New Test Leper. These are just some staggeringly good tunes.
Here’s New Test Leper, in case we need reminding of its awesomeness:
Do R.E.M. use any other alternative time signatures?
Yes, two examples spring to mind. Shiny Happy People has a 6/8 intro but then flips into a standard 4 beat song, but brings back the 6/8 intro as a bridge later in the song.
On Around the Sun, Wanderlust has an unconventional time signature. I think the intro has a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 3/4, then 4/4, then 3/4, then four more bars of 4/4 before the verse kicks in, also in 4/4. This intro set up is brought back for the choruses. Around the Sun doesn’t have another song on it in 6/8 so Wanderlust does that job of breaking up the conventional beat of the record for us.
To me, neither of these songs are much improved by the changing time signatures. I just don’t think either song is that great anyway, and mixing time signatures hasn’t really helped matters.
A bit more music theory: The difference between 3/4 and 6/8
I “think” all of R.E.M.’s songs listed above can be counted in 6/8, but I have seen some sheet music which has it at 3/4 (Daysleeper, for example). Things can get a bit tricky when trying to hear or explain the difference between 3/4 and 6/8. For me, it is to do with how the beat falls and also the pace of the song. A 6/8 song feels like it is governed by 2 repeated beats each bar (often a bass drum kick on 1, and a snare on 2). In between these beats are triplets (2 x 3 = 6 eighth notes). Sometimes, I’ve also seen this written on R.E.M. sheet music as 12/8. So, confusingly, you can hear a count of 4 at the start of Until the Day is Done… this does not mean the song is in conventional 4 time, however. The eighth notes are there in between each beat, making 4 x 3 eighth notes, or 12/8 time.
See below for a video which I think does a fairly good job of explaining these nuances with some nice examples from pop and rock (sadly no R.E.M. songs featured):
(Country) Feedback and Comments
Finally, it’s quite possible I’ve missed out a 6/8 song somewhere or missed something in the analysis. Let me know in the comments, I’m really up for learning more. And if you’d like to, please let me know what your favourite R.E.M. 6/8 song is and why.
Also, my sense is that not many of the other big bands in rock music make use of 6/8 as much or as well as R.E.M., but I’m not sure if I am right or wrong about that, so let me know if you have any ideas.
All for now,
DM