At My Most Beautiful

"At My Most Beautiful" is a song by R.E.M. and the third single from the album Up. With a heavy influence from the Beach Boys (mainly Pet Sounds-era songs) and the Beatles, lyricist Michael Stipe wanted it to be the most romantic song he'd ever written. According to an interview to the Canadian news site CANOE, this was the inspiration for the song:“ It came from, I was driving up and down Santa Monica Boulevard when I was putting together the Patti Smith book I was working on (2XIntro: On The Road With Patti Smith). I was consistently late. It's one of my bad personality traits. I was stuck in traffic, this mid-day traffic, on Santa Monica Boulevard, but I had the tapes, and I was listening to them in the car, and I was trying to come up with stuff. I wrote the line, 'I found a way to make you smile', and I just thought, that's the most beautiful thing in the world. ” The single's video, directed by Nigel Dick, shows an accident-prone cellist, played by Rain Phoenix, on her way to an audition, of which the band are the panel. It appears on In View, the DVD companion to In Time, R.E.M.'s Warner Brothers 2003 "Best Of" album, which also includes the song.

[Chorus] I've found a way to make you I've found a way A way to make you smile [Verse 1] I read bad poetry Into your machine I save your messages Just to hear your voice You always listen carefully To awkward rhymes You always say your name Like I wouldn't know it's you At your most beautiful [Chorus] I've found a way to make you I've found a way A way to make you smile [Verse 2] At my most beautiful I count your eyelashes secretly With every one, whisper I love you I let you sleep I know your closed eye watching me Listening I thought I saw a smile [Chorus] I've found a way to make you I've found a way A way to make you smile