"Strange Currencies" is a song by American rock band R.E.M. It was included on their ninth studio album, Monster (1994), and was released as the album's third single on April 18, 1995. The single reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number 47 in the United States. Like "Everybody Hurts" on R.E.M.'s previous album, it has a time signature of . Composition Stipe has said that the song is about "when somebody actually thinks that, through words, they're going to be able to convince somebody that they are their one and only." The song almost did not make it on the album due to its rhythmic similarities to "Everybody Hurts." Yet Michael Stipe's melody, the band felt, was too good to pass over, so the original rhythm was slightly reworked. Critical reception Steve Baltin from Cash Box declared "Strange Currencies" as "maybe the sweetest song" from the Monster album. He explained, "There’s a simple longing, mixed with reassuring, in the way Michael Stipe sings “I tripped and fell/did I fall/what I want to feel I want to feel it now.” A sparse but lovely melody accompanies Stipe’s tour de force. [...] Of course it will be a smash at the usual outlets, it’s R.E.M.; but look for this one to break out at Top 40 and maybe even at Adult/Contemporary." Chuck Campbell from Knoxville News Sentinel said it's the song "with perhaps the most enduring appeal" on the album, declaring it as "a languid track on which Stipe explores the enigma of a would-be lover with alternating fits of determination and vulnerability." Howard Hampton from Spin felt it's better than its "tearjerking predecessor", "Everybody Hurts", decribing it as a "tremulous, pledging-my-soul" track. Music video The accompanying music video for "Strange Currencies", directed by Mark Romanek, was shot on the first anniversary of the death of Michael Stipe's close friend River Phoenix and features River Phoenix's last girlfriend, actress Samantha Mathis. It also features an early performance by actor and model Norman Reedus. It is in black and white, and shows the band playing in an industrial area. The images of the band are interspersed with other shots, some of which, such as a child playing with a dead bird, suggest urban decay. Live performances "Strange Currencies" was played live frequently throughout the Monster tour but was not performed live again until 2003, where the song would