MOST bands split up. The reasons may vary from death or drug-fuelled ridiculousness to arguments over money or creative bankruptcy, but the end result is generally the same.
What’s unusual is a group going their separate ways and claiming everything’s just fine. The Beautiful South cited “musical similarities” when they called it quits (mocking the oft-delivered line about “musical differences”), but REM must be the first band to break up for no good reason.
But then again the trio from Athens, Georgia (a quartet until Bill Berry left in 1997) have never really been ones to follow anyone else’s lead.
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