In anticipation of summer, Muzzle of Bees posted a clip of R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming," a heavenly track from the band's 1992 masterwork Automatic for the People, an oddity in the band's canyon now seen as a precursor to the current chamber-folk movement. "It's increasingly difficult to hear the album without imagining that
its songs have somehow always existed in the world," Fluxblog founder
Matthew Perpetua mused in an essay for Stereogum's 15th anniversary tribute to the record. "Whereas most other rock bands at the time either embraced the
aggressive, self-destructive angst of grunge or the brainy, aloof irony
of indie rock, the Athens quartet presented something far more singular
and timeless in the form of a tightly composed, occasionally baroque
song cycle obsessed with mortality and the passage of time."
Good stuff. "Star Me Kitten" fits the mold you're describing a bit as well. It blows my mind that that record came out so long ago; it still gets consistent spins from me.