now, to business gentlemen

five underrated REM songs:

1. Half a World Away (Out of Time) - If the sheer essence of REM's appeal is Michael Stipe's ability to sorrowfully croon, then this mournful masterpiece may be the highest synthesis of their talent. The tone isn't as melodramatic as the band's lyrics can sometimes be, instead telling of a more subdued, everyday, personal pain with lines like "my mind is racing, as it always will/ my hands tired, my heart aches..." Never a single, the song also serves as a reminder that Out of Time may be one of the band's best efforts, rather than just the album that had Losing My Religion on it.
this lonely world is wasted

2. At My Most Beautiful (Up) - While this may be a bit of a stretch for an underrated song, considering its status as both successful single and fan favorite, it's also damn likely to be the best song Michael Stipe has ever written, and is rarely recognized as such. With symphonic backing (a recurring device in the work of REM) and lyrics that express romantic longing with incredible imagistic clarity, the result is lovely and haunting. After all, all the best songs are about unrequited love, right?
I've found a way to make you... I've found a way... a way to make you smile

3. You Are the Everything (Green) - As much as At My Most Beautiful is complete and emblematic, You Are the Everything is fascinatingly offbeat and experimental. It's high school poetry, almost "emo", if you're one who likes to throw around that term. It isn't as polished or articulate as much of Stipe's best lyrical work, but the emotional state that it attempts to communicate is many times more complex. The lyrics are a breathless, manic flurry of delicate images and illogical superlatives, and there are many gems to be found among its lines.
the stars are the greatest thing you've ever seen

4. Imitation of Life (Reveal) - An unsuccessful single, and widely dismissed by fans as an attempt to recreate Losing My Religion with its rambling, stream of consciousness lyrics (compare that song's "I think I thought I saw you try" to this one's "c'mon, c'mon, no one can see you try"), this song nonetheless contains a great deal of strong lyricism, and catchy pop sound that represents REM at the top of their talent in that particular area.
charades, pop skill, water hyacinth, named by a poet

5. Texarkana (Out of Time) - Another non-single album track from Out of Time, this song is almost entirely the work of Mike Mills, and is one of those great examples of a song by another member in a band that is usually dominated by a single songwriter (another great example: Graham Coxon's fantastic You're So Great in the middle of Blur's self titled album). Again, this song shows REM's ability to do catchy pop tunes, and demonstrates the great track-to-track longevity of the Out of Time album.
I would give my life to find it, I would give it all

I'd also like to give an honorable mention to Everybody Hurts. Somewhere along the line, it became fashionable to treat that song as a joke (blaring from Dwight's car radio on an episode of The Office probably wasn't its finest hour) and I know people who think it's quite overwrought, but I still remember it as poignant, affecting, and an important moment in the band's history.

some other business:

Neil Finn has a cover of The Smiths' There Is A Light That Never Goes Out featuring Johnny Marr on his live album that I haven't been able to hear enough of for several months now.

Tycho, from Penny Arcade, wrote a rant about Paramore's abysmal song crushcrushcrush a while back on that blog that everyone should read.

No doubt due to its use in the ridiculously cool looking trailer for The Pineapple Express, my resistance to the M.I.A. song Paper Planes has been worn down completely. I now like it, and am deeply shamed.