In between bouts of wrangling paperwork today, I noticed several mentions on twitter that R.E.M. has ended its run.

For me, this is a sad and surprising development, but at the same time, it kind of feels natural. The last two records aside (Accelerate and Collapse Into Now are both VERY GOOD), R.E.M. has been kind of languishing in elder-statesmanlike semi-obscurity since Bill Berry left for health reasons in ’96. They’d indelibly influenced the world of popular music, serving for many years as the very definition of “alternative rock,” though as time passed, that same world of popular music had largely passed them by.

I actually kind of feel cheated out of the opportunity for further discovery, because I came upon R.E.M. relatively late into their career. They were there in the background for me, since Document in ’87, but as I wrote in this blog’s precursor upon the release of a greatest hits disc from the I.R.S. years back in 2006, I was a little too young, too trend following**, and thus, too into hair metal exclusively to really “get” it, and as a result, I kind of missed out on the experience of being into something underground (and perhaps having something to talk about with that cute bookish girl in the back of Honors English).

The story changed when I got to college and met some new friends to point me in new directions. I discovered other bands and followed them down different musical rabbit holes, invariably finding R.E.M. at the bottom of the warren. Through my twenties and thirties I really started digging them, especially the early stuff, and listened to it often. It just took some time and experience until I was “ready” to really appreciate how interesting and innovative their music is.

And now, they’ve called it a day. And, I guess I can’t blame them. They’ve left their mark on popular music, and are going out, at least creatively, on top. Singer Michael Stipe left the following comments on the band’s official site today, and I can’t say that I disagree with the reasoning:

A wise man once said–‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.

I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

All good things come to an end, and for R.E.M., it was time.

Doesn’t mean my twelve year old daughter isn’t going to be heartbroken. She’s a big fan.

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*- This post shall not, and never will be titled “it’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)”

** – For certain values of “trends” anyway – in more worldly environs than small town Pennsylvania, R.E.M. was was the trend. Where I found myself in the late 80s, though, it barely registered.