Michael Stipe shares new song from isolation with Aaron Dessner

Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has released a brand new song from the walls of his lockdown situation featuring Aaron Dessner of the National.

R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe has been slowly building to a solo album. Last year, he said that he had 18 new songs ready to go, and over the last few months we’ve gotten two of them, ‘Your Capricious Soul’ and ‘Drive To The Ocean.’ Stipe has been stuck inside like the rest of us — he capitalized on the pandemic-related resurgence of ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ with a video message encouraging y’all to wash your hands — and it seems like he’s also been working on new music.

Late last night, Stipe shared a video of himself singing along to a demo of a new track that he worked on with the National’s Aaron Dessner. It’s called ‘No Time For Love Like Now,’ and it seems to have been at least partially inspired by the lockdown madness we’re all feeling. In the YouTube description for the track, he says this was his first take.

Watch and listen below.

Earlier this month, R.E.M.’s iconic single ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine),’ experienced a surge in popularity. The song has climbed the iTunes chart to #26 — 33 years after its release. In response, R.E.M frontman Michael Stipe has taken to social media to share a video outlining precautions we should be taking amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the video, the singer performs a few lines from the neurotic anthem, before sharing his four rules for dealing with the situation.

“I do feel fine. I feel okay,” he begins “The important part of that lyric, that song title, is ‘As We Know It.’ We’re about to go through – we are going through something that none of us have ever encountered before and that is, of course, the coronavirus. And it’s real and it’s serious and it’s here.”

Stipe then offered four essential tips to get through the crisis. The Michael Stipe COVID-19 survival guide is as followed:

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