REM: “Find The River” (Warners)

Actually it isn’t the official radio single that really concerns and excites me here. Instead it’s the second cut, their remarkable and riveting live MTV awards version of “Everybody Hurts” that comprehensively stole the show from even, Neil Young. Was it soul? Well, the band’s groove and Peter Buck’s guitar part were succulent Memphis soul stew but Michael Stipe’s utterly focussed vocal and the resonant French horn took that spectacular performance far beyond blue-eyed genre categories into the ineffable.