Michael Stipe’s Debut Solo Album Almost Has a Release Date

Michael Stipe wasn’t kidding when he told the New York Times Magazine in 2023 he was “in no rush” to release his long-awaited first solo album. Four years after its initially teased premiere date, the former R.E.M. singer-songwriter has finally revealed when it’s coming in an interview with the LA Times: the first single arrives New Year’s Eve of this year, with the as-yet-untitled LP debuting in May 2027. Also, per Stipe, “five seconds into the new year, there will be a new song with a video setting up the album.” In April, Stipe debuted a song from the project called “The Rest of Ever” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Stipe is working with resident rock-icon whisperer Andrew Watt on the album, along with Andy LeMaster and “a gallery of thieves,” he told the Times. “Andy and I are in the studio for three days mixing some of the songs that he and I have worked on together,” he said. “I think the rest of it should be a little bit of a surprise.” Stipe added some vague details about the album’s politics (or lack thereof) as well. “I was talking to someone about the record over dinner—they haven’t heard a single note of it…and they said, ‘It’s political?’ I said, ‘No, not at all,’” he recalled. “Then I said, ‘In fact, just by dint of it being me and my place in pop culture and my reputation as an activist and the kind of songs that I wrote in the past with my former band, it is deeply, deeply political.’ But it’s not topical. Music is such a powerful medium, and I’m responding to instinct over anything else right now in terms of what I feel like I need from music and what I feel like I can offer.”

Alex Suskind has overseen music coverage for New York magazine’s Vulture and, before that, Entertainment Weekly. He has written about TV, film, technology, politics, and tons of other stuff for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and The Fader. ... Read More