Song vs. Song with Todd In The Shadows / NEW POLL: "Everybody Hurts" vs. "Runaway Train"

tbf the yt comments sections of most melancholy music videos are just memorials for loved ones now.

Albert Farkas

2024-08-20 08:52:54 +0000 UTC

?

Albert Farkas

2024-08-20 08:49:01 +0000 UTC

Like, I went and checked the comments on the YouTube videos of both. The top one on Runaway Train (as of writing) is someone whose relative was featured in the video thanking them, and people mentioning how many people were found from the video, and it's cool to see that direct impact! But the top comments from Everybody Hurts are things like: a random widower mourning their partner of multiple decades, people talking about using the song to cope with their PTSD and depression, multiple people who said it pulled them out of a suicide attempt, people playing it at their parent's funerals... it just wild how wide a range it connects on.

Theo Gerome

2024-08-16 09:26:56 +0000 UTC

I had heard Runaway Train before, but didn’t realize what it was about until I saw the music video just now. It’s… fine, I guess, but does kind of feel like “the band read about this thing and thought it was sad, so they wrote a song about it”. Which isn’t bad, but Everybody Hurts always felt like “REM somehow found a way to distill their personal emotional pain to a universally-applicable expression of grief”, and it’s REALLY hard to top that.

Theo Gerome

2024-08-16 08:53:50 +0000 UTC

Despite being "Song vs Song" I feel there is a fairly steady ~10% bump when one artist is just indisputably more important than the other, REM were huge and influential for a solid decade and Soul Asylum were, at least as concern of popular culture, sort a relic of a fairly short lived era. The songs themselves probably poll more even if you take out the artist vs artist effect. I admit even though I prefer Runaway Train that voting against REM just felt wrong.

Joel Thomas

2024-08-14 14:12:58 +0000 UTC

Dave Pirner sounds like Michael Stipe if you sand papered him, slapped him and told him to please just act presentable in front of his relatives.

Jakob Eyjólfsson

2024-08-14 11:53:22 +0000 UTC

Wow, it’s not often I disagree so hard with the results. How do y’all prefer that one??? The other is wayyyy better

Lee Breezy

2024-08-14 06:04:52 +0000 UTC

Do you really want to take your chances with Michael stipe !?

Robert_boy_genius

2024-08-13 16:26:22 +0000 UTC

The correct answer is whichever one of these is currently on the radio in my mom's car while I'm being dropped off at school, because I'll forget about them immediately after I get out and run to home room.

Graeme

2024-08-13 14:46:58 +0000 UTC

didn't the runaway train video ruin some kids' lives because they had run away from a shitty home and were doing much better away from their shit family, and that video running on prime time MTV hours suddenly put them on the spotlight? I can understand the good intentions though.

Vincent Lamontagne

2024-08-13 14:12:20 +0000 UTC

I don’t know if I’ve ever actually heard “Runaway Train” all the way through. But Automatic for the People is in my Top Four Favorite Albums of All-Time so for me it’s not much of a contest (even if “Everybody Hurts” isn’t necessarily my favorite song off that album)

Jacob Witmer

2024-08-13 14:00:01 +0000 UTC

Sometime after voting for “Everybody Hurts” in this poll, I actually saw the music video for “Runaway Train” for the first time on the same day that I forgot to take my meds and got kind of emotional. I’m still going with “Everybody Hurts,” but this occurrence feels like “Runaway Train” exacting revenge on me.

David Yurch

2024-08-12 18:08:31 +0000 UTC

"Cat's in the Cradle" has to go against Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" sometime in the future.

TimeBombMan

2024-08-09 20:48:59 +0000 UTC

Both songs are just dad rock at its dad rockiest but even my dad didn't like runaway train

Filip Kaźmierczak

2024-08-09 11:50:41 +0000 UTC

I definitely associated "Runaway Train" more with "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" as a kid, but I feel a bit of that was the music videos having overt messages. Musically, I think the No Rain suggestion above might be better, also lyrically both songs seem to be less about sadness/melancholy and more about genuinely having Depression.

Joel Thomas

2024-08-08 12:34:27 +0000 UTC

ngl the only rem song ive ever actively liked was radio free europe. it's kind of a shame bc i like robyn hitchcock/the soft boys, who inspired them a lot, but they occupy this weird sonic middle space for me, where they're less energetic or pop-y than a lot of the fun or angst music i like, but they're more energetic than the weird/minimal/ethereal (boring) music that i like (yo la tengo, arthur russell, múm, etc.) so they end up occupying this weird no man's land space in my brain where i think of them as being music for normies who dont want to feel anything that strongly in their music, but need more pop structure & production than sth actually understated or fragile. which isnt fair, since im pretty sure they're alternative kinda by definition, but i struggle to imagine a headspce where they would speak to me more than other acts for a given mood im in

Kite

2024-08-07 11:08:33 +0000 UTC

Fair enough. And thanks.

David Germeck

2024-08-03 19:03:08 +0000 UTC

Idk, I can't quite explain it, it had always just been there

Nico Niconi

2024-08-02 22:02:43 +0000 UTC

And the video - „vamos a perder toda nuestra dignidad“ - isn‘t it just „America - the music video“?

Albert Farkas

2024-08-02 21:15:44 +0000 UTC

I see your snark, Sir, and I like it

Albert Farkas

2024-08-02 21:06:07 +0000 UTC

Well, don‘t I just know that feeling. See, you‘re not alone!

Albert Farkas

2024-08-02 21:01:47 +0000 UTC

Is it though? Is it not more about, well, magic people with supernatural powers?

Albert Farkas

2024-08-02 20:59:24 +0000 UTC

On another note, is Runaway Train lost girl shit?

Albert Farkas

2024-08-02 20:58:00 +0000 UTC

Well, Todd has repeatedly stated his appreciation for songs that come to singlehandedly symbolize an entire emotion, and Everybody Hurts surely is the poster song for melancholy. I’m sure Runaway Train has done some material good in saving all those kids, and this fact of its function transcending its status as „just“ a work of art is a huge feat in itself. But Everybody Hurts simply has a universal resonance. I have a hard time imagining that there was ever time when it didn‘t exist. And the dissolve at the end of the song is just, well, touching and beautiful.

Albert Farkas

2024-08-02 20:57:35 +0000 UTC

Oh also is it too late to get Rob Harvella from 60 Songs That Explain The 90s to guest start on the show?

Jack Darnell

2024-08-02 14:04:02 +0000 UTC

How is it Michael Stipe can technically be in tune and yet sound so far off the note? Everybody Hurts gets my vote for sheer glorious imperfection.

Jack Darnell

2024-08-02 14:03:10 +0000 UTC

I'm trying to think of a good third party vote to use thats a depressing 90s rock song about people hurting inside... Mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm.... Nope, nothing else comes to mind!

Nico Niconi

2024-08-01 19:08:29 +0000 UTC

She's So High by Tal Bachman?

Bruxistentialist

2024-08-01 16:57:54 +0000 UTC

I am a big fan of Without a Trace and Sometime to Return before that.

Bruxistentialist

2024-08-01 16:14:00 +0000 UTC

First of all, I'd like to say that this is the first time I've really felt so torn that I thought you needed an all/tie option. Second, this poll just happened to come at a very hard time in my life in which I've felt very alone at lost while I was at work. Without going into too much detail I was away from work for a while for health reasons, and every time I came back to work it seemed like all the little things I did to make everyone's life easier at work weren't done in my absence. And I began to feel more and more pressure to come back like I needed to be there to pull it all together which made me feel even worse (physically and mentally). Then in my time of need I realized why, even though both of these songs resonate strongly with me, lines like "You're not alone" and "Everybody Hurts" sometimes rang hollow. No matter how many people at work told me they had my back and understood that I was going through a lot of trouble I felt like I was on an island alone. Where as: Bought a ticket for a runaway train Like a madman laughing at the rain A little out of touch little insane It's just easier than dealing with the pain These lines began to hit me so hard, and I realized (as I resigned from my job and am now filling out job applications to start a career in fields that I truly enjoy) that sometimes running away from pain is as much about starting over and moving on to a better life as it is about just escaping a situation. Thus, finally after this long spiritual, tough journey and running these second set of lines through my head for so long that I couldn't sleep. I vote for Runaway Train.

David Germeck

2024-08-01 08:49:16 +0000 UTC

Everybody hurts is gonna runaway with this like a trian

Tori Schmidt

2024-08-01 01:31:25 +0000 UTC

Well I don't think I've ever listened to Everybody Hurts on purpose (except just now for this poll), so I'm going to have to go with Runaway Train. Which I've listened to on purpose at least a couple of times over the decades.

Felix Forrester

2024-07-31 20:13:29 +0000 UTC

I vote for Soul Asylum because it's Blake Shelton's favourite band

Max Urai

2024-07-31 15:29:34 +0000 UTC

Going by the Andy Kaufman connection: the Mighty Mouse theme

Max Urai

2024-07-31 15:28:05 +0000 UTC

Sweet Dee drunkenly singing this to the kid running away in Its Always Sunny is the deciding factor for me

KBucky

2024-07-30 18:17:09 +0000 UTC

Lol there actually was a cover of Cats in a Cradle around this time that got popular but it’s pure dogshit

Eric J

2024-07-30 17:09:38 +0000 UTC

Everybody Hurts, but not everybody is a Runaway Train.

Eric Lane

2024-07-30 16:29:17 +0000 UTC

I'll admit that "Runaway train" does have lyrics that are a bit emo, however none of them are as melodramatic for me as "everyyyybodyyy hurrrrts."

Foxylover92

2024-07-30 11:02:33 +0000 UTC

Ooh! What would be a good opponent for 'Man On The Moon'? 'Cat's In The Cradle'?

House Chaos

2024-07-30 10:11:47 +0000 UTC

As far as the lyrics go, I'd say it's the other way round!

House Chaos

2024-07-30 10:06:10 +0000 UTC

I love this pair-up. It's like a guy opening up to his older brother about how tough life is and how he just want to get away from it all, and the older brother saying Yeah, I know, shit sucks, but I got your back and it's going to be okay. These songs together are the wholesome counterpart of Cat Stevens's 'Father and Son'.

House Chaos

2024-07-30 08:27:39 +0000 UTC

The stallion

Sladen377

2024-07-29 21:19:32 +0000 UTC

You are NOT immune to letting it linger.

Alaina Lisanti

2024-07-29 17:30:02 +0000 UTC

No, he used the actual "Runaway Train" in this vignettes

Dork Mode

2024-07-29 15:26:21 +0000 UTC

My mind immediately went to the "Sad songs are nature's onions..." skit from Mr Show, even though that was about Tears in Heaven (a bad song, by a worse person, about a far worse tragedy). I bring up this mental connection as it may give some context on how suspiciously sincerity was viewed in the early-to-mid 90's culture. I was a little kid that only absorbed Gen X culture by proxy, but there was clearly a pretty healthy amount of derision for these songs (especially Everybody Hurts) despite their success even among people that otherwise liked these bands and alternative rock. That probably does cloud me a bit from having the kind of personal connection that would make these songs more powerful. I love REM but never listen Everybody hurts, I just can never get the emotion from it and without emotion it's just kind of boring, it only works to me if used for ironic melodrama. Runaway Train meanwhile is a song most remembered for its music video with some clunky and cliche lyrics set over a fairly common chord progression, and... I kind of love it.

Joel Thomas

2024-07-29 14:21:47 +0000 UTC

Who's Meg?

Jon Heiman

2024-07-29 13:54:42 +0000 UTC

"Syndicated Incorporated," which was a parody of Soul Assylum's "Misery"?

Jon Heiman

2024-07-29 13:52:51 +0000 UTC

Everybody Hurts is so goddamn boring

Josie

2024-07-29 11:15:30 +0000 UTC

Teenage me learned the words to Runaway Train by heart thanks to Busted covering it. Loved the song more than life - evweything came crumbling down when my dad played me the original and I realized how bad the cover actually was. 🥲 I'm sorry Soul Asylum, here's a vote to apologize for my teenage mistake.

lilylilkay

2024-07-29 08:28:54 +0000 UTC

My vote goes for Runaway Train because I am no longer a teenager going through my first real breakup

Taryn

2024-07-29 04:35:03 +0000 UTC

Going the ballad route, Ordinary World

Dmills

2024-07-29 03:43:24 +0000 UTC

But is it hot girl shit?

JazzySpF

2024-07-29 03:03:01 +0000 UTC

I assume both of these songs were picked because they are from 1993, so I'm voting for the third party option of Dazzey Duks by Duice

JazzySpF

2024-07-29 02:54:34 +0000 UTC

I've never heard of Soul Asylum or any of their music, so I checked up on the music video for Runaway Train. The song covers a very serious topic that I hadn't really seen anyone else do, and I was about to give them my vote... ...then I re-listened to Everybody Hurts, and it spoke so strongly to my incredibly tough life situation that I burst out in tears for the first time in what feels like forever, so R.E.M. wins.

Subspace Jet Witch

2024-07-29 02:29:48 +0000 UTC

Another tough choice. One good song from an iconic band with many better songs and another song whose lyrics I put so much effort into memorizing in the eighth grade that I still remember them today without having listened to the song in few years. This is a head versus heart moment.

Theodora

2024-07-29 00:23:13 +0000 UTC

I vote for Runaway Train for 2 reasons: First is Everybody Hurts is one of my least favorite REM songs, but more then that, Runaway Rain's music video was one of many very memorable videos from the 90's when Music Videos arguably meant more then the music.

Aurone86

2024-07-28 23:40:42 +0000 UTC

Hey Jealousy. They're both rootsy adult alternative songs with lyrics about losing close friends and driving recklessly, performed by bands named after floral-related slang terms.

Timothy Holmes

2024-07-28 22:45:18 +0000 UTC

Any other '90s alt-rock songs by sons of '60s musicians out there?

Russet Burbank

2024-07-28 20:30:09 +0000 UTC

Runaway train plays at the gas station pump I fill up at everytime I get gas. Their ad screen is busted so I didn't realize it was a missing kid commercial for years

Charlie L

2024-07-28 19:55:31 +0000 UTC

This match up would be tougher for me if the match up was against "Losing my Religion," the result that I got when I accidentally typed in Runaway Train REM. Youtube thinks you paired the wrongs songs Todd.

Nawf4

2024-07-28 14:58:31 +0000 UTC

R.E.M. is a band I always feel bad for not liking more. I don't hate them, but I don't love them like everyone else does.

Nawf4

2024-07-28 14:56:33 +0000 UTC

Everybody Hurts has the misfortune of being a “just ok” song on Automatic For The People, an album which I was shocked at how much I enjoyed, not previously being an R.E.M. fan. Not super invested in the matchup, but let me know if you ever do Nightswimming or Man On The Moon

(William) Patrick Hodges

2024-07-28 14:51:13 +0000 UTC

The lyrics to Everybody Hurts could be a lasagna recipe and I would still adore it. Just from the instrumentation, vocals and melody alone, it conveys so much warmth and comfort and that feeling that everything will turn out ok. (I also now get that meme of the cat meowing that Billie Ellish song)

Franco del Rosario

2024-07-28 14:27:41 +0000 UTC

If this was Man on The Moon this would be no contest but Everybody Hurts is too whiny for me

Eric J

2024-07-28 12:13:14 +0000 UTC

I used to think so too, but I‘m in my 40s now and I have found my home in that voice.

Albert Farkas

2024-07-28 11:06:12 +0000 UTC

That chord progression before the final verse of Runaway Train gets me every time.

The Omega Geek

2024-07-28 04:33:39 +0000 UTC

Both of these suck so third party vote for the superior Alt rock song from 1993 Linger by The Cranberries.

Mr Spaghett

2024-07-28 03:21:49 +0000 UTC

i... wanna vote for see results tbh ok i'm voting for runaway train just like how i'll prolly be voting for a LEsSeR eViL piece of shit this fall <3

no

2024-07-28 00:13:17 +0000 UTC

Link for those not in the know https://youtu.be/e6bjq8HC_iQ?si=7TYSxmhL9s1AbQrh

Alaina Lisanti

2024-07-27 19:50:17 +0000 UTC

I like trains. Also, if Runaway Train had been paired against Driver 8, we could have Train Song vs. Train Song.

Nick Ozorak

2024-07-27 19:22:27 +0000 UTC

There’s an episode of the WB cartoon “Mission Hill” where the main character joins the cast of The Real World and his sob story confessionals are all set to “Everybody Hurts”, and at the end of the episode the characters watching the episode all sing the song together. The thing is, in the dvd re-release, the song is cut for copyright but they still sing it at the end, thus the joke is completely lost on you out of context.

DIPDOP

2024-07-27 16:58:41 +0000 UTC

This one was a revealing re-listen for me... Growing up I related a lot to the emotions of "Everybody Hurts" in the way that only angsty teens too into their own emotions can. Now the song seems so blunt I'm surprised it it wasn't used as part of the soundtrack to Suicide Squad (2016).

August_A

2024-07-27 16:55:15 +0000 UTC

Here’s a fun fact about Everybody Hurts: the tune was written by REM’s drummer Bill Berry!

Clay Peterson

2024-07-27 16:01:47 +0000 UTC

Two of the very very very first songs I learned to play fully on the guitar. Thanks Michael and Dave for makin' it easy!

DadRock

2024-07-27 13:25:38 +0000 UTC

Prob something off the "Dosage" album by Collective Soul. "Run" cones to mind

DadRock

2024-07-27 13:20:31 +0000 UTC

Hearing Everybody Hurts always manages to ruin my mood, though I guess it’s supposed to be an uplifting song? If only Michael Stipe did not have such a whiney singing voice…

Marieke

2024-07-27 10:49:45 +0000 UTC

Everybody hurts is a middle-aged Dad consoling you over a break up and in the process making himself miserable over his shitty choices. Runaway Train is about meeting terrible situations and depression with friends and chaos. Despite being a middle-aged Dad I know which I pick. Runaway Train all Goddamn day!

Fly, Winged Monkey!

2024-07-27 10:25:52 +0000 UTC

Shouldn't Everybody Hurts be against Billy Joel's You're Only Human (Second Wind) for 90s vs 80s suicide songs? Soul Asylum's hearts were in a good place, but if you don't know what to expect the Runaway Train video seems like a hamfisted product of Walk Hard or Lonely Island. Here are kids being trafficked and assaulted, here's a baby being stolen, while Dave Pirner sings earnestly in his immaculately teased out bedhead. On a fresh listen Everybody Hurts is prettier than I remember, and the traffic jam video is inventive and moving. Maybe it too saved some lives?

Paul Anderson

2024-07-27 08:55:54 +0000 UTC

Once at Catholic school, they were supposed to play Everybody Hurts for a moment of reflection after confession. The priest vetoed this because, and I quote "It's a shit song". So we just sat in silence instead. I don't want to piss off God so I guess I have to vote Runaway Train.

James Smith

2024-07-27 07:46:27 +0000 UTC

Runaway Train and Misery are absolutely polished versions of Unsatisfied.

Dmills

2024-07-27 06:32:45 +0000 UTC

Runaway Train isn’t a great song but I think the story behind it and the video ARE interesting. Would like to see it on a OHW episode.

Ella Phillips

2024-07-27 06:32:35 +0000 UTC

Love shiny happy people

Ella Phillips

2024-07-27 06:31:21 +0000 UTC

Imo yeah. At least one is a metaphor and the other is plainly blunt (with sincerity!)

Christian Reiswig

2024-07-27 04:46:49 +0000 UTC

“Runaway Train” was in one of the best ever episodes of It’s Always Sunny, so that’s not nothing in its favor for younger generations being able to recognize it.

Christian Reiswig

2024-07-27 04:45:35 +0000 UTC

Very good point, but I’d also like to acknowledge that the music video for “Runaway Train” helped solve dozens of missing children cases.

Christian Reiswig

2024-07-27 04:41:56 +0000 UTC

This pairing is making me wonder what “One Headlight” could be paired against in a SvS matchup

Christian Reiswig

2024-07-27 04:39:20 +0000 UTC

Runaway Train was having its moment my junior year and there was this girl who was into me, but I was way too clueless to get it. Anyway, we were at this party and I could've gotten the slow dance if I'd had my shit together. The next song was runaway train and then we danced which was fun and probably correct, but I still kick myself for being a dopey teenager. And Runaway Train always reminds me of that and for some reason I love it.

T. Ryder

2024-07-27 04:30:49 +0000 UTC

Whinier than Runaway Train?

Russet Burbank

2024-07-27 03:38:15 +0000 UTC

In 1997, I absolutely adored "Everybody Hurts" but I think my enjoyment of it plateaued there. It has diminished in my mind every year since then and I could say the same for Automatic for the People. "Runaway Train," on the other hand, has stayed pretty consistently solid.

StuTheShoe

2024-07-27 01:44:41 +0000 UTC

If Jimmy Kimmel’s producers had picked a different song to play behind celebrities reading mean things people tweeted them this would be more of a bloodbath than “Chop Suey” vs “Down With the Sickness”.

Griffin

2024-07-27 01:35:15 +0000 UTC

Hot take here, I can't stand "everybody hurts" I always found it too melodramatic which isn't the case for "runaway train"

Foxylover92

2024-07-27 00:59:14 +0000 UTC

If you're going to use REM, the closest REM hit to Runaway Train, sonically, is Losing My Religion. Maybe Bittersweet Me or Imitation of Life, but both of those are too late and too forgotten for this poll. Losing my Religion can't be used, though, because it would just destroy Runaway Train. In this case, however, Runaway Train wins. It's also an easy karaoke win.

Keith Badje

2024-07-27 00:50:57 +0000 UTC

Runaway train hits like a runaway train but lacks the staying power and deep pathos of everybody hurts, very hard to choose between them.

Allan Olley

2024-07-27 00:47:27 +0000 UTC

“Everybody Hurts” has helped me more than I’d like to admit but I think of the “Waluigi ruins your dad’s favorite song” parody of it far too often. I still voted for it though.

Alaina Lisanti

2024-07-26 23:54:41 +0000 UTC

Hard to choose. I find Everybody Hurts annoying and never wanna listen to it, but man if it happened to come on at the exact right moment it would really hit. Versus Runaway Train which at any time is perfectly Fine.

giascle

2024-07-26 23:38:19 +0000 UTC

Also, hope all those missing children are okay and living safe and happy lives

Connor Rankin

2024-07-26 23:20:50 +0000 UTC

The two poles of divisive REM songs. One end: Shiny Happy People Other end: Everybody Hurts. The true yin and yang

Connor Rankin

2024-07-26 23:16:00 +0000 UTC

I still love Everybody Hurts, even if it's approaching "How Could This Happen To Me?" territory (plus I cannot forgive that piece of shit Big Mouth show for sullying it)

Connor Rankin

2024-07-26 23:15:11 +0000 UTC

Love REM, but "Everybody Hurts" has become just too cliché for me. When I listen to that song, all I hear is celebrities reading mean tweets.

TimeBombMan

2024-07-26 22:13:13 +0000 UTC

Everybody Hurts should suck… everything about it screams lame, try hard, white-guy-with-an-acoustic-guitar-has-“feelings”, but it just… dodges it through sheer conviction and skill? It’s like when the party’s lvl 20 rogue uses evasion on the bbeg to take no damage or one of those par core videos where someone jumps through the windows of a moving car… I’m in awe of it

Nat

2024-07-26 22:01:56 +0000 UTC

Huge REM fan, but man Everybody Hurts is like the biggest buzz killer song ever. Meg couldn't hype herself up for a bird funeral with that anti banger. Something like night swimming drive or sidewinder next time, please.

Sladen377

2024-07-26 21:54:13 +0000 UTC

For the question about deleting one of them from history, do kinda have to consider that fewer people would be alive if everybody hurts didn’t exist

Ned Curran

2024-07-26 21:37:38 +0000 UTC

I don’t know if it counts as a plus or minus that the song that talks about not going here nor there feels directionless but it became tiring to listen to. Everybody Hurts might be overplayed REM but it is a really good song for a reason

TeacherPenguin20

2024-07-26 21:34:21 +0000 UTC

Here's my REM story: I was round at a friend's place one night, talking to another friend in the front room, while an REM CD was playing. Someone came through the room, then came back about half an hour later and asked why we were still listening to the same track. Apparently, the CD was on 'Repeat one track' and we hadn't noticed because all REM sounds the same.

Steve Harper

2024-07-26 21:05:18 +0000 UTC

I mean I'm an Elder Millenial who owns multiple REM albums and I still am not sure what song Runaway Train is, so I think this is an age-agnostic bloodbath.

Lanth

2024-07-26 21:02:48 +0000 UTC

"Everybody Hurts" is a great slow song, although I think the cover The Corrs did for their MTV Unplugged set is superior to the original. "Runaway Train" is a great song and it has a great message and you can love it for either or both, so it gets my vote.

Michael Russell

2024-07-26 20:57:33 +0000 UTC

I have a very soft spot for "Black Gold" and to a much lesser extent "Somebody To Shove." None for "Runaway Train," and while "Everybody Hurts" isn't top tier Automatic For the People, I'll go with it by default.

Dan Hogg

2024-07-26 20:49:54 +0000 UTC

I had mentally matched up "Runaway Train" with "No Rain" myself.

Dan Hogg

2024-07-26 20:47:24 +0000 UTC

I'm going to vote for "Runaway Train," but I feel like a better matchup for it would have been "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"-- both kind of message songs that came out right at the same time in middle school, and kind of became an honorary part of our required DARE programming. Maybe an honorable mention for Far Behind by Candlebox, too. We could have a sad 1993 teenager message song bracket tournament.

notadocmartin

2024-07-26 20:35:06 +0000 UTC

As far as Tygers with a Y... look up "Tyger, Tyger burning bright..."

GregD

2024-07-26 20:18:56 +0000 UTC

Everybody Hurts isn't even that amazing of a track but Automatic For The People is literally R.E.M.'s masterpiece album

Tristan

2024-07-26 20:12:16 +0000 UTC

I can fully understand and appreciate the cultural impact and emotional heft of Everybody Hurts (and I was absolutely one of the so, so many people who bought and loved Automatic For The People), but my ADHD ass is absolutely taking the midpace strummer over the ballad. HTH

Steve Bock

2024-07-26 20:11:42 +0000 UTC

Runaway Train (never coming back, wrong way down a one way track) just speaks to my soul

The Pretty of the Odd

2024-07-26 20:06:09 +0000 UTC

All I know is that Everybody Hurts saved at least five people I know, myself included, from commiting suicide, at least once. Runaway Train, on the other hand, might very well provide a reason to commit suicide.

Michael Murphy

2024-07-26 20:01:56 +0000 UTC

Third party vote for the ALTV segments that parodied the video for "Runaway Train" by replacing the missing children with missing musical artists.

Dork Mode

2024-07-26 19:59:02 +0000 UTC

It sounds weird to say but the music video to Runaway Train was always a core memory to me. Having shots of missing kids flash by was a very jarring thing for a little kid. I’m still picking Runaway train, because I’ve never liked everybody hurts

Sarah Bee

2024-07-26 19:58:59 +0000 UTC

I'm just here to make the Blake Shelton reference & then go about my merry little way.

Daniel Shaltes

2024-07-26 19:58:21 +0000 UTC

Once, when I was going through it, doing an Everybody Hurts lyrics Sporcle made me cry. So I kind of have to pick it.

Laura Robinson

2024-07-26 19:39:20 +0000 UTC

If Lina can make bringing up being from New Jersey everytime a New Jersey artist comes up on the show a core part of her personality, I can bring up being from Athens, GA everytime an Athens artist comes up part of mine (I think this is the second time one has on the show) so I have to vote REM as a former townie. But Everybody Hurts is their worst hit single by far. I do not like that song and I love REM.

Lior

2024-07-26 19:38:34 +0000 UTC

Every time Everybody Hurts comes on my car radio, I come to a complete stop, get out of my car, and start singing, Michael Stipe-style. My insurance payments are killing me.

Merda d'artista

2024-07-26 19:37:45 +0000 UTC

I will never ever forgive the “Everybody Hurts” music video for winning the MTV Video Award for Best Direction when “Sabotage” was a nominee. Also, Nathaniel Hornblower had all the ideas for Star Wars and everything

Tracy Davis

2024-07-26 19:37:30 +0000 UTC

I love REM but I've never felt anything about Everybody Hurts ever. I'm not sure I've felt anything for Runaway Train beyond 90s nostalgia, but that is in fact one more feeling, Runaway Train it is.

Gemini Man

2024-07-26 19:35:15 +0000 UTC

The video (or rather - the three videos) for Runaway Train helped find many missing kids, and bring awareness to the problem of kids going missing. Still, Everybody Hurts gets me every time - my vote goes to REM!

Peter Nielsen

2024-07-26 19:28:11 +0000 UTC

Once when I was filling up at the BP station, the little tv screen on the gas pump was showing photos of missing teens, asking for any info of thier whereabouts, and playing Runaway Train. I almost had to laugh at how incredibly tactless that was. But anyway, not big on either of these - I abstain.

Tippy

2024-07-26 19:24:56 +0000 UTC

As a Young Person™️, aka an older Gen Z-er, I think this is going to be a situation where Everybody Hurts takes it just because most people my age or younger know Everybody Hurts from memes, and haven't heard of Soul Asylum outside of the clip from The Voice where Blake Shelton pretends to know who they are

Natalie Koppen

2024-07-26 19:24:32 +0000 UTC

"Everybody Hurts" is bottom-rung REM, but I guess it's still better than "Runaway Train"?

Steph

2024-07-26 19:21:34 +0000 UTC

i get why these two are paired up against each other, but going so far as to call Eveybody Hurts R.E.M.'s "Runaway Train" is just mean (i know it's -probably- a typo but i'm never this early & it made me laugh)

squeerward tentacles

2024-07-26 19:20:54 +0000 UTC

Soul Asylum can “hoooold on” because “Everybody Hurts” is the runaway train.

A Good Brent - BlueSky Bitch for Let’s Talk About Snacks Podcast

2024-07-26 19:20:47 +0000 UTC

I don't care for either song, but I'm a big REM fan. Everybody Hurts is authentic, but maudlin. Everything Soul Asylum does is Replacements-lite junk.

Roughhousin By Proxy

2024-07-26 19:17:20 +0000 UTC

Everybody Hurts is can be kinda cheesy but when it gets you, boy does it get you

Dmills

2024-07-26 19:17:05 +0000 UTC

Losing My Religion is probably a better match for Runaway Train in terms of style, but that matchup would've been even more of a blowout.

TJ

2024-07-26 19:14:57 +0000 UTC

I get why people might find Everybody Hurts lacking, but when it builds into the bridge and then the “hold on” part… it gives me chills every time

Clay Peterson

2024-07-26 19:13:29 +0000 UTC

My main association of Everybody Hurts will be those old vines where people would fake bleed out their mouths to the song. It was called Everybody Spurts. You’d think this would deter me from voting REM but you’d be wrong.

Alex Georganas

2024-07-26 19:11:14 +0000 UTC

Soul Asylum is Blake Shelton's favorite 90's rock band. What better endorsement is there?

Gator McKinley

2024-07-26 19:09:17 +0000 UTC

I grew up watching the ‘90s version of the Mickey Mouse club and I remember there was a very plaintive performance of runaway train featuring jc chasez and some people who didn't become famous and for that reason I am voting for everybody hurts

Lars von Trash

2024-07-26 19:07:40 +0000 UTC

That video for Runaway Train had a profound impact on young me. REM also did, but mainly with Nightswimming so Soul Asylum gets my vote.

Lobstarooo

2024-07-26 19:04:43 +0000 UTC

I like trains

Cole Cox

2024-07-26 19:02:34 +0000 UTC

I‘m happy to participate in this historic 100-0% landslide.

Albert Farkas

2024-07-26 19:01:50 +0000 UTC

The music video for Runaway Train is real sad, what with all the missing posters and all but, damn, have you read the YouTube comments for Everybody Hurts?

Angela

2024-07-26 19:01:17 +0000 UTC

Everybody Hurts is probably my least favorite song on Automatic for the People. BUT AftP is the last REM album I really love, so it wins. Plus Pirner always annoyed me (though in fairness part of that was my crush on Winona).

Vince Whitacre

2024-07-26 19:01:11 +0000 UTC

Both songs are more or less equally good, but I’m pretty sure I remember hearing about actual missing kids that were found as at least a partial result of the music video for Runaway Train, so that song has done some tangible good, which means it has my vote.

Gone

2024-07-26 19:01:09 +0000 UTC

me when I hurt: my only comfort is that everyone else is also doing this

Keirik

2024-07-26 19:00:00 +0000 UTC

I’m sorry but Everybody Hurts is so god damn whiny

TJ Guiney

2024-07-26 18:58:55 +0000 UTC

NEW POLL: "Everybody Hurts" vs. "Runaway Train"

Comments

tbf the yt comments sections of most melancholy music videos are just memorials for loved ones now.

?

Dave Pirner sounds like Michael Stipe if you sand papered him, slapped him and told him to please just act presentable in front of his relatives.

Wow, it’s not often I disagree so hard with the results. How do y’all prefer that one??? The other is wayyyy better

Do you really want to take your chances with Michael stipe !?

The correct answer is whichever one of these is currently on the radio in my mom's car while I'm being dropped off at school, because I'll forget about them immediately after I get out and run to home room.

didn't the runaway train video ruin some kids' lives because they had run away from a shitty home and were doing much better away from their shit family, and that video running on prime time MTV hours suddenly put them on the spotlight? I can understand the good intentions though.

I don’t know if I’ve ever actually heard “Runaway Train” all the way through. But Automatic for the People is in my Top Four Favorite Albums of All-Time so for me it’s not much of a contest (even if “Everybody Hurts” isn’t necessarily my favorite song off that album)

"Cat's in the Cradle" has to go against Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" sometime in the future.

Both songs are just dad rock at its dad rockiest but even my dad didn't like runaway train

Fair enough. And thanks.

Idk, I can't quite explain it, it had always just been there

And the video - „vamos a perder toda nuestra dignidad“ - isn‘t it just „America - the music video“?

I see your snark, Sir, and I like it

Well, don‘t I just know that feeling. See, you‘re not alone!

Is it though? Is it not more about, well, magic people with supernatural powers?

On another note, is Runaway Train lost girl shit?

Oh also is it too late to get Rob Harvella from 60 Songs That Explain The 90s to guest start on the show?

How is it Michael Stipe can technically be in tune and yet sound so far off the note? Everybody Hurts gets my vote for sheer glorious imperfection.

I'm trying to think of a good third party vote to use thats a depressing 90s rock song about people hurting inside... Mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm.... Nope, nothing else comes to mind!

She's So High by Tal Bachman?

I am a big fan of Without a Trace and Sometime to Return before that.

Everybody hurts is gonna runaway with this like a trian

Well I don't think I've ever listened to Everybody Hurts on purpose (except just now for this poll), so I'm going to have to go with Runaway Train. Which I've listened to on purpose at least a couple of times over the decades.

I vote for Soul Asylum because it's Blake Shelton's favourite band

Going by the Andy Kaufman connection: the Mighty Mouse theme

Sweet Dee drunkenly singing this to the kid running away in Its Always Sunny is the deciding factor for me

Lol there actually was a cover of Cats in a Cradle around this time that got popular but it’s pure dogshit

Everybody Hurts, but not everybody is a Runaway Train.

I'll admit that "Runaway train" does have lyrics that are a bit emo, however none of them are as melodramatic for me as "everyyyybodyyy hurrrrts."

Ooh! What would be a good opponent for 'Man On The Moon'? 'Cat's In The Cradle'?

As far as the lyrics go, I'd say it's the other way round!

The stallion

You are NOT immune to letting it linger.

No, he used the actual "Runaway Train" in this vignettes

Who's Meg?

"Syndicated Incorporated," which was a parody of Soul Assylum's "Misery"?

Everybody Hurts is so goddamn boring

My vote goes for Runaway Train because I am no longer a teenager going through my first real breakup

Going the ballad route, Ordinary World

But is it hot girl shit?

I assume both of these songs were picked because they are from 1993, so I'm voting for the third party option of Dazzey Duks by Duice

Another tough choice. One good song from an iconic band with many better songs and another song whose lyrics I put so much effort into memorizing in the eighth grade that I still remember them today without having listened to the song in few years. This is a head versus heart moment.

I vote for Runaway Train for 2 reasons: First is Everybody Hurts is one of my least favorite REM songs, but more then that, Runaway Rain's music video was one of many very memorable videos from the 90's when Music Videos arguably meant more then the music.

Hey Jealousy. They're both rootsy adult alternative songs with lyrics about losing close friends and driving recklessly, performed by bands named after floral-related slang terms.

Any other '90s alt-rock songs by sons of '60s musicians out there?

Runaway train plays at the gas station pump I fill up at everytime I get gas. Their ad screen is busted so I didn't realize it was a missing kid commercial for years

This match up would be tougher for me if the match up was against "Losing my Religion," the result that I got when I accidentally typed in Runaway Train REM. Youtube thinks you paired the wrongs songs Todd.

R.E.M. is a band I always feel bad for not liking more. I don't hate them, but I don't love them like everyone else does.

Everybody Hurts has the misfortune of being a “just ok” song on Automatic For The People, an album which I was shocked at how much I enjoyed, not previously being an R.E.M. fan. Not super invested in the matchup, but let me know if you ever do Nightswimming or Man On The Moon

The lyrics to Everybody Hurts could be a lasagna recipe and I would still adore it. Just from the instrumentation, vocals and melody alone, it conveys so much warmth and comfort and that feeling that everything will turn out ok. (I also now get that meme of the cat meowing that Billie Ellish song)

If this was Man on The Moon this would be no contest but Everybody Hurts is too whiny for me

I used to think so too, but I‘m in my 40s now and I have found my home in that voice.

That chord progression before the final verse of Runaway Train gets me every time.

Both of these suck so third party vote for the superior Alt rock song from 1993 Linger by The Cranberries.

i... wanna vote for see results tbh ok i'm voting for runaway train just like how i'll prolly be voting for a LEsSeR eViL piece of shit this fall <3

Link for those not in the know https://youtu.be/e6bjq8HC_iQ?si=7TYSxmhL9s1AbQrh

I like trains. Also, if Runaway Train had been paired against Driver 8, we could have Train Song vs. Train Song.

This one was a revealing re-listen for me... Growing up I related a lot to the emotions of "Everybody Hurts" in the way that only angsty teens too into their own emotions can. Now the song seems so blunt I'm surprised it it wasn't used as part of the soundtrack to Suicide Squad (2016).

Here’s a fun fact about Everybody Hurts: the tune was written by REM’s drummer Bill Berry!

Two of the very very very first songs I learned to play fully on the guitar. Thanks Michael and Dave for makin' it easy!

Prob something off the "Dosage" album by Collective Soul. "Run" cones to mind

Hearing Everybody Hurts always manages to ruin my mood, though I guess it’s supposed to be an uplifting song? If only Michael Stipe did not have such a whiney singing voice…

Once at Catholic school, they were supposed to play Everybody Hurts for a moment of reflection after confession. The priest vetoed this because, and I quote "It's a shit song". So we just sat in silence instead. I don't want to piss off God so I guess I have to vote Runaway Train.

Runaway Train and Misery are absolutely polished versions of Unsatisfied.

Runaway Train isn’t a great song but I think the story behind it and the video ARE interesting. Would like to see it on a OHW episode.

Love shiny happy people

Imo yeah. At least one is a metaphor and the other is plainly blunt (with sincerity!)

“Runaway Train” was in one of the best ever episodes of It’s Always Sunny, so that’s not nothing in its favor for younger generations being able to recognize it.

Very good point, but I’d also like to acknowledge that the music video for “Runaway Train” helped solve dozens of missing children cases.

This pairing is making me wonder what “One Headlight” could be paired against in a SvS matchup

Whinier than Runaway Train?

In 1997, I absolutely adored "Everybody Hurts" but I think my enjoyment of it plateaued there. It has diminished in my mind every year since then and I could say the same for Automatic for the People. "Runaway Train," on the other hand, has stayed pretty consistently solid.

If Jimmy Kimmel’s producers had picked a different song to play behind celebrities reading mean things people tweeted them this would be more of a bloodbath than “Chop Suey” vs “Down With the Sickness”.

Hot take here, I can't stand "everybody hurts" I always found it too melodramatic which isn't the case for "runaway train"

Runaway train hits like a runaway train but lacks the staying power and deep pathos of everybody hurts, very hard to choose between them.

“Everybody Hurts” has helped me more than I’d like to admit but I think of the “Waluigi ruins your dad’s favorite song” parody of it far too often. I still voted for it though.

Hard to choose. I find Everybody Hurts annoying and never wanna listen to it, but man if it happened to come on at the exact right moment it would really hit. Versus Runaway Train which at any time is perfectly Fine.