“It’s a kind of dark and brooding song, “It has this low, fronting cello and spectral organ. and when, winter is very cold, and it’s also very dark. When the sun has set by 4 o’clock, that song particularly reminds me of the winter time.
It’s always hard to tell exactly what Michael Stipe is singing about. He’s notoriously hard to pin down, but it sounds like he’s singing about burying your father and your mother and, you know, a falling out with siblings. And whether he’s talking about literally being at a funeral or whether he’s talking about the dissolution of a family or a family fight, the emotions seem the same. And he’s talking about how we’re all lost in our little lives, and you can be distanced from one and blind to the other. The song is called ‘Sweetness Follows,’ and so whether he’s singing about heaven or whether he’s singing about forgiveness or just the inevitable rise of the song after a dark night…
In the song, he talks about still striving to find a way to live your life filled with joy and wonder and staying all together, No matter how dark the times are, there’s always a sunrise ahead. You just have to stick together.”
The Fat Angel Sings 