Michael Stipe and Aaron Dessner perform 'No Time for Love Like Now' on Jimmy Fallon show, fans call it perfect
Michael Stipe, (best known as the frontman of the American rock band REM) and Big Red Machine performed their new song, 'No Time for Love Like Now', on June 23, for the 'Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' on Tuesday, June 23. Stipe co-produced 'No Time for Love Like Now' with Big Red Machine (the collaboration between The National's Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon) and released a demo version of the single in March. The song is notably the first time Dessner and Iver collaborated since 2018.
In the blended split-screen video of their performance, Stipe and Dessner performed the song together publicly for the first time, although their parts were filmed separately due to the social distancing guidelines of the coronavirus pandemic. The clip opens with Stipe in a darkened room with a microphone, singing, "No time for breezy. No time for arguments. No time for love like now. There's no time in the bardo. No time in the in-between. No time for love like now" over an echoing half-beat and heartrending piano melody played by Dessner.
Fans on Twitter were touched by their performance. "'No Time For Love Like Now' was so perfect and beautiful. I loved it. Nice job, Michael Stipe!" said a fan while another wrote, "Michael Stipe on @FallonTonight. was perfection. Lovely, touching, wonderful, haunting. No, thank YOU, sir." One fan wrote, "If there is a song that I will associate with the pandemic is definitely this one by Michael Stipe (R.E.M. singer). Beauty, passion, love and comfort. 'No time for love like now.'" Another shared, "Loving. important. stunning. beautiful. powerful. needed. heartbreaking. comforting. difficult. healing. helping. choose as many adjectives as you like and watch Michael Stipe and Aaron Dessner’s performance on our show tonight. #FallonTonight."
Stipe performed the song on 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' in April. The official release of 'No Time for Love Like Now' dropped on June 11, which was then followed by its music video, directed by Michael Brown, on June 12. Dessner shared with Rolling Stone on the inspiration on the track and how it began. “On a whim, I shared a folder of in-progress BRM sketches with Michael last year, and it was exciting when he really gravitated to a few of them," he said, adding, "Michael wrote the lyrics to ‘No Time for Love Like Now’ last fall, but when the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic and social-distancing and self-isolation descended, they felt like they were written about this time all along and perhaps the message resonates especially now.”
According to NME, Dessner shared his appreciation for Stipe in a press release, saying, “Michael Stipe has been a great hero and friend to me (and The National) and I never in my wildest dreams imagined writing songs together."
For Stipe, ‘No Time For Love Like Now’ follows his solo single ‘Drive to the Ocean’, which he dropped in January.