10 Best Songs About Becoming An Adult

At the start of the '90s, no one could have predicted that R.E.M. would become one of the biggest bands in the world. Even though grunge had a tight chokehold on the rock world, these college rock titans ended up reinventing themselves from one record to the next, with each artistic move being bolder than the last. It's almost an anomaly that these guys even had a shot in the age of angst, but when you have something as heart-wrenching as "Nightswimming," people stand up and take notice.

With only a piano and an orchestra, Michael Stipe's story feels like a relic from a past life, as he talks about going swimming in Georgia when he was young. While it might seem fairly simple to capture swimming at night, Stipe knows that it won't be the same if he were to return to the waters of his youth today.

In that respect, nightswimming becomes less of an activity and more of a mental image of what youth was like, that (for whatever reason) has to be replaced by everyday. Giving us just the fundamentals of a classic tune, R.E.M. painted a detailed picture that nearly anyone can relate to. There's no real way to get back to where you came from, but even on the quietest of nights, you can still feel that youthful energy creeping in.