REM stream final single, We All Go Back To Where We Belong

REM in one of their final group portraits
REM in one of their final group portraits (Image credit: Minneapolis Star Tribune/ZUMA Press/Corbis)

Back in September, Athens, Georgia's most celebrated sons announced that they had split after 31 years together. Although July studio sessions sparked media speculation that the band were working on their 16th LP, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills were in fact recording their final single.

We All Go Back To Where We Belong is a lush, heartstring-tugging ballad that features Burt Bacharach-style brass and string augmentation and prominent baritone guitar lines.

The song is set to feature alongside two other previously unreleased cuts on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, a career-spanning retrospective due out 14 November (15 November in the US).

Listen to Rolling Stone's audio stream of We All Go Back To Where We Belong here.

Chris Vinnicombe worked with us here on the MusicRadar team from the site's initial launch way back in 2007, and also contributed to Guitarist magazine as Features Editor until 2014, as well as Total Guitar magazine, amongst others. These days he can be found at Gibson Guitars, where he is editor-in-chief.