Next week R.E.M. will release their fifteenth studio album Collapse Into Now into the world. They’ve already announced that they won’t tour in support of it, maybe it’s because they’re getting old, but only in body because they’re certainly trying new ideas conceptually. They have decided to create a short film for all twelve of the songs on the new album, just don’t call them music videos because Michael Stipe believes they’re “way beyond that as a viable medium.” I suppose you can legitimately say that when you’ve made 56 music videos previously (thank you Wikipedia).
They’ve drafted in a whole range of directors to help them with project including Sam Taylor-Wood, whose best known work is the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, and Oscar-hosting movie star James Franco to do two. The videos will be released one by one by various internet media outlets over the coming weeks. Check out the full list of directors below:
Discoverer (Michael and Lynda Stipe)
All The Best (James Herbert)
Uberlin (Sam Taylor Wood)
Oh My Heart (Jem Cohen)
It Happened Today (Tom Gilroy)
Every Day Is Yours To Win (Jim McKay, Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch)
Mine Smell Like Honey (Dominic DeJoseph)
Walk It Back (Sophie Calle)
Alligator_Aviator_ Antipilot_ Antimatter (Lance Bangs)
That Someone Is You (James Franco)
Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando And I (Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan)
Blue (James Franco)
If you haven’t heard Collapse Into Now yet then head over to NPR where the album is streaming and start imagining how you think these videos, whoops, I mean short films, will look.
