Strange Currencies

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"Strange Currencies"
File:R.E.M. - Strange Currencies.jpg
Single by R.E.M.
from the album Monster
B-side "Strange Currencies" (instrumental version)
Released April 3, 1995 (1995-04-03)[1]
Genre
Length 3:52
Label Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Script error: The function "ucfirst" does not exist. singles chronology
"Crush with Eyeliner"
(1995)		 "Strange Currencies"
(1995)		 "Tongue"
(1995)

"Strange Currencies" is a song by American rock band R.E.M. It was included on their ninth studio album, Monster (1994), and was released as the album's third single on April 18, 1995. The single reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number 47 in the United States. Like "Everybody Hurts" on R.E.M.'s previous album, it has a time signature of 6
8.

Composition

Stipe has said that the song is about "when somebody actually thinks that, through words, they're going to be able to convince somebody that they are their one and only."[4]

The song almost did not make it on the album due to its rhythmic similarities to "Everybody Hurts." Yet Michael Stipe's melody, the band felt, was too good to pass over, so the original rhythm was slightly reworked.

Critical reception

Steve Baltin from Cash Box declared "Strange Currencies" as "maybe the sweetest song" from the Monster album. He explained, "There's a simple longing, mixed with reassuring, in the way Michael Stipe sings “I tripped and fell/did I fall/what I want to feel I want to feel it now.” A sparse but lovely melody accompanies Stipe's tour de force. [...] Of course it will be a smash at the usual outlets, it's R.E.M.; but look for this one to break out at Top 40 and maybe even at Adult/Contemporary."[5] Chuck Campbell from Knoxville News Sentinel said it's the song "with perhaps the most enduring appeal" on the album, declaring it as "a languid track on which Stipe explores the enigma of a would-be lover with alternating fits of determination and vulnerability."[6] Howard Hampton from Spin felt it's better than its "tearjerking predecessor", "Everybody Hurts", describing it as a "tremulous, pledging-my-soul" track.[7]

Music video

The accompanying music video for "Strange Currencies", directed by Mark Romanek, was shot on the first anniversary of the death of Michael Stipe's close friend River Phoenix and features Phoenix's last girlfriend, actress Samantha Mathis.[citation needed] It also features an early performance by actor and model Norman Reedus. It is in black and white, and shows the band playing in an industrial area. The images of the band are interspersed with other shots, some of which, such as a child playing with a dead bird, suggest urban decay.

A second music video for a remix that incorporates live footage from Road Movie and the second season of The Bear was released on June 27, 2023.[8] A lyric video for the Monster 25th anniversary remix was published on July 20, 2023.[9]

Live performances

"Strange Currencies" was played live frequently throughout the Monster tour but was not performed live again until 2003, when the song would then only appear on and off throughout various set lists until their final tour in 2008.

Track listings

  1. "Strange Currencies" (album version) – 3:52
  2. "Strange Currencies" (instrumental version) – 3:52
  • UK maxi-CD and 12-inch single, UK and Australian CD single[14][15][16]
  1. "Strange Currencies" – 3:52
  2. "Drive" (live) – 4:17 (4:10 in UK)
  3. "Funtime" (live) – 2:16 (2:20 in UK)
  4. "Radio Free Europe" (live) – 4:43

Note: All live tracks were recorded at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, on November 19, 1992. The performance, a benefit for Greenpeace, was recorded on a solar-powered mobile studio.

  • 2023 digital edition, released to coincide with the second season of The Bear[17]
  1. "Strange Currencies" (25th anniversay remix by Scott Litt) – 3:52
  2. "Strange Currencies" – 3:52
  3. "Strange Currencies" (Live version from Road Movie) – 4:13

Charts

Release history

Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
United Kingdom April 3, 1995
  • 7-inch vinyl
  • CD
  • cassette
 Warner Bros. [1]
United States April 11, 1995 Contemporary hit radio [34]
Japan May 25, 1995 CD [35]
Worldwide June 24, 2023 Music streaming [17]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ http://remhq.com/albums.php[dead link]
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Campbell, Chuck (October 7, 1994). "R.E.M. Rocks Anew On Heady 'Monster'". Knoxville News Sentinel.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 9220." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Strange Currencies". Irish Singles Chart.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – R.E.M. – Strange Currencies" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  26. ↑ "Archive Chart: 199504". Scottish Singles Top 40.
  27. ↑ "R.E.M.: Artist Chart History" Official Charts Company.
  28. ↑ "R.E.M. – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for R.E.M..
  29. ↑ "R.E.M. – Chart history" Billboard Alternative Songs for R.E.M..
  30. ↑ "R.E.M. – Chart history" Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs for R.E.M..
  31. ↑ "R.E.M. – Chart history" Billboard Pop Songs for R.E.M..
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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