Strange Currencies

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."{{cite book | first=Johnny | last=Black | title=Reveal: The Story of R.E.M. | publisher=Backbeat Books | location=London | year=2004 | isbn=0-87930-776-5 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/revealstoryofrem00john }}

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.

Steve Baltin from Cash Box named "Strange Currencies" "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."{{cite magazine|first=Steve|last=Baltin|title=Pop Singles|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/90s/1995/CB-1995-05-06.pdf|magazine=Cash Box|date=May 6, 1995|page=11|access-date=October 13, 2022}} 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."Campbell, Chuck (October 7, 1994). "R.E.M. Rocks Anew On Heady 'Monster'". Knoxville News Sentinel. Jennifer Nine from Melody Maker complimented it as "buoyant".{{cite magazine|first=Jennifer|last=Nine|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/nothingelseon/53425116608/|title=Singles|work=Melody Maker|date=April 8, 1995|page=39|access-date=December 30, 2023}} Another Melody Maker editor, Andrew Mueller, wrote that it "puts the accompaniment to "Everybody Hurts" through a cheap and brutal amplifier and replaces universal balm with the self-abasing heroics of the unrequited admirer. "Fool might be my middle name", he sings, gloriously, uselessly besotted, "I tripped and I fell...you will be mine". Ah, the pathos, the hopeless deluded joy of it all. Lovely."{{cite magazine|first=Andrew|last=Mueller|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/nothingelseon/53283464145/|title=Albums|work=Melody Maker|date=October 1, 1994|page=37|access-date=October 25, 2023|author-link=Andrew Mueller}} Barbara Ellen from NME said, "Like Morrissey, Michael Stipe is an expert on the agonies of obsessive, unrequited love. [...] The lyrics of "Strange Currencies" are among his most deceptively simple and potent yet, encapsulating all the need, hope and dread of a painful, secret crush".{{cite magazine|first=Barbara|last=Ellen|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/nothingelseon/53426010087/|title=Singles|work=NME|date=April 8, 1995|page=58|access-date=December 30, 2023}} Roy Wilkinson from Select noted how Stipe "wanting to turn you on".{{cite magazine|first=Roy|last=Wilkinson|url=https://selectmagazinescans.monkeon.co.uk/showpage.php?file=wp-content/uploads/2013/02/rem.jpg|title=New Albums|work=Select|date=November 1994|page=102|access-date=January 1, 2025|author-link=Roy Wilkinson}} Howard Hampton from Spin felt it's better than its "tearjerking predecessor", "Everybody Hurts", describing it as a "tremulous, pledging-my-soul" track.{{cite magazine|first=Howard|last=Hampton|title=Spins|magazine=Spin|date=November 1994|page=91|access-date=January 27, 2023|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZURL7ud3IwsC}}

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|date=April 2010}} 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.{{Cite web |url=https://remhq.com/news/r-e-m-partners-with-fxs-the-bear-to-release-music-video-for-strange-currencies-remix/ |title=The Band & FX’s The Bear Release Music Video for "Strange Currencies (Remix)" |date=2023-06-27 |language=en-US |publisher=R.E.M. |access-date=2023-06-27}} A lyric video for the Monster 25th anniversary remix was published on July 20, 2023.{{Cite web |url=https://remhq.com/news/watch-lyric-video-for-strange-currencies/ |title=Watch Lyric Video for "Strange Currencies" |date=2023-07-20 |access-date=2023-07-20 |language=en-US |publisher=R.E.M.}}

"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.

• US CD and cassette single, UK 7-inch and cassette single{{cite AV media notes|title=Strange Currencies|others=R.E.M.|year=1995|type=US CD single disc notes|publisher=Warner Bros. Records|id=9 17900-2}}{{cite AV media notes|title=Strange Currencies|others=R.E.M.|year=1995|type=US cassette single sleeve|publisher=Warner Bros. Records|id=917900-4}}{{cite AV media notes|title=Strange Currencies|others=R.E.M.|year=1995|type=UK limited 7-inch single sleeve|publisher=Warner Bros. Records|id=W0290X}}{{cite AV media notes|title=Strange Currencies|others=R.E.M.|year=1995|type=UK cassette single sleeve|publisher=Warner Bros. Records|id=W0290C}}

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{{cite AV media notes|title=Strange Currencies|others=R.E.M.|year=1995|type=US maxi-CD single disc notes|publisher=Warner Bros. Records|id=9 43513-2}}{{cite AV media notes|title=Strange Currencies|others=R.E.M.|year=1995|type=US 12-inch single vinyl disc|publisher=Warner Bros. Records|id=9 43513-0}}{{cite AV media notes|title=Strange Currencies|others=R.E.M.|year=1995|type=UK & Australian CD single liner notes|publisher=Warner Bros. Records|id=W0290CD, 9362435132}}

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{{Cite web |url=https://remhq.com/news/strange-currencies-ep-available-to-stream/ |title="Strange Currencies" EP Available to Stream |publisher=R.E.M. |language=en-US |access-date=2023-06-24 |date=2023-06-24}}

1. "Strange Currencies" (25th anniversary remix by Scott Litt) – 3:52
2. "Strange Currencies" – 3:52
3. "Strange Currencies" (Live version from Road Movie) – 4:13

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050409074607/http://www.remhq.com/shared_assets/videography/videos/strangeCurrencies.html Video clip at REMhq.com]

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Category:1995 singles

Category:American soul songs

Category:Music videos directed by Mark Romanek

Category:R.E.M. songs

Category:Songs written by Bill Berry

Category:Songs written by Peter Buck

Category:Songs written by Mike Mills

Category:Songs written by Michael Stipe

Category:Warner Records singles

Category:1994 songs

Category:Song recordings produced by Scott Litt

Category:Song recordings produced by Michael Stipe

Category:Song recordings produced by Peter Buck

Category:Song recordings produced by Bill Berry

Category:Song recordings produced by Mike Mills