In which I answer the burning question everyone is asking – “why are you still masking in 2026”?

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R.E.M.’s eighth studio affair is a sonic triumph, and an anomaly in a landscape of heavy alt rock, with Michael Stipe demonstrating an almost bottomless empathy for humanity throughout.

The unlikely collaboration between U2, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois yielded the band some of its most visceral and daring music to date.

ALT: Key & Peele: Referee's Gear Inspection

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The album’s title, and the iconic scene it evokes, was prescient, for ‘Static & Silence’ ended up being the Sundays’ final album, of the ‘90s—and ever.