100 favourite songs: #62: "Be Mine" - R.E.M.

Another from New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and in a lot of respects the obvious number to pull out from that record’s tracklisting (along with bizarre and great-in-a-different-way single “E-Bow the Letter”) and tone-perfect closer “Electrolite”) — possibly the sweetest thing they ever recorded, its downbeat indie-rockisms and straight-up melody make it a close cousin to MBV’s “Sometimes”, but wearing its heart and its plaintiveness far more on its sleeve. One of the best builds-ups and eventual cuttings-loose in modern rock music, and an ending which goes on and on and on and is exactly right.