Anderson Cooper, R.E.M. Think Tribute Videos Should Be Sad, Boring

Last night on Anderson Cooper 360°, R.E.M. premiered the videofor their new single “Until the Day is Done”/ trailer for the upcoming Anderson Cooper adventure “Planet in Peril.” The song is so bland it kind of makes the polar bears want to go extinct. But is it, as Jess predicted yesterday, “the most depressing YouTube tribute video in history?” Well, yes. But it’s also kind of hot.

To be fair, “Until the Day is Done” really isn’t terrible enough to inspire voluntary extinction, but it is boring. It kind of sounds like Anderson Cooper called up Michael Stipe and said, “Hey, I’m going to put on a tight T-shirt and hit the rain forest with Jeff and Sanjay. Could you have an innocuous background song for our documentary trailer ready by the end of the week?” And Michael Stipe was like, “Sure thing. I can have it to you right now, actually. Just last night I wrote and recorded three boring, completely nondescript songs while I was asleep.” But the song’s listless melody and droning vocals somehow work for this particular subject matter. That grating sadness in Stipe’s voice is the perfect tone for environmental catastrophes. It’s saying “This is baaaadd. And I’m moooooping. Why don’t you dooo sooomething abooout it? I’m going to whine until the daaay is dooone.” I found myself irritated into awareness.

Technically the video is nothing special; anyone with a little editing software experience could have put it together. But content-wise it is both very sad and vaguely homoerotic. Maybe this is just me, but Jeff Corwin is incredibly appealing. He knows everything about animals, cares about the environment, and has a cool snake tat. Plus he’s eccentric enough to put out some ambiguous gay vibes, which only fuels the Corwin/Cooper slashfic scenario. Throw in hot, youngish doctor Sanjay Gupta and it’s a veritable consortium of strapping men who care about the environment and want to help. It’s like the set-up for a very earnest, socially conscious gay porn. Not that I would be into that kind of thing. Anyway, the clips themselves, though rather unceremoniously spliced together, are powerful and well-chosen. Here’s the breakdown:

Very sad -Cancer water -Clear cut rainforest -The body of water formerly known as Lake Chad -Elephant with injured foot -Melted ice caps

Very awesome -Jeff holding a baby polar bear -Jeff and Anderson handling a python (too easy!) -The sloth poignantly extending his arm, one of the only visuals that achieves a truly successful moment in conjunction with the song

But overall the video is pretty mediocre, due largely to the blah song. R.E.M. usually sounds pretty sleepy to me, but I was expecting a little more gusto than this. It’s admirable to contribute something to environmental awareness, but just because you’re trying to save the sloths doesn’t mean you have to sing like one.