Michael Stipe Sets Solo Album for May, First Single for New Year’s Eve

Michael Stipe’s solo debut has been a moving target for years. In 2019 he said he had 18 songs ready to go. In 2023 he offered another update. Earlier this year he performed “The Rest Of Ever” on The Late Show and told Stephen Colbert the album would arrive before the end of the year. That timeline has slipped.

Speaking to the LA Times alongside producer Andrew Watt, Stipe said the record is now set for spring, with the first single landing on New Year’s Eve. “Five seconds into the new year, there will be a new song with a video setting up the album,” he said. “And the album will be released in May.”

On Monica Lewinsky’s Reclaiming podcast, Stipe played a snippet from one of the tracks and confirmed Peaches as a guest. She appeared on R.E.M.’s final studio album, 2011’s Collapse Into Now. “I have two parts written with her in mind. I need her voice and her energy on this record,” he said. “Some of the songs are a bit disco, and she’s really good at that. I’m not.”

That detail matters. A disco turn is not the expected move from a former R.E.M. frontman easing into a late-career solo statement, and Stipe framed the record as re-entry rather than farewell. “I’m so immersed in what I’m doing that I really feel like I’m reclaiming my place in music through this record,” he said. Whatever the reception, he added, he already has ideas about what comes next.