Michael Stipe Recites the 1927 Poem “Desiderata” Over “Hum”

In 1927 Max Ehrmann wrote a poem called “Desiderata”. On 25 July Michael Stipe released “Hum Desiderata”, in which he reads it. Underneath sits an instrumental piece, “Hum”, made with Andy LeMaster; the vocalist Elizabeth Hatmaker is on the recording too.

The interesting part is not the song but the address. It is available only through Joyfully Waiting, a sound exhibition platform. Not a playlist, not a recommendation feed. A musician whose band sold tens of millions of records has hung his new work on a wall instead.

It will be his first solo album — after R.E.M., after all the years when his voice was the band’s signature. The record is being readied, but there is no title and no date. In April he performed another new song, “The Rest Of Ever”, on Stephen Colbert’s show.

Two pieces have appeared in half a year, while the album still has neither a date nor a title. For now they work as pieces in their own right rather than instalments in a campaign. The record business dislikes an empty calendar. Stipe has left one open.