The lyric from “Losing My Religion” is “That’s me in the corner.”
R.E.M. released the song in 1991 on their seventh studio album, Out of Time. Written primarily by vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry, it became the band’s biggest international hit and introduced mandolin-driven alternative rock to a huge mainstream audience.
The line describes an intensely self-conscious narrator watching from the sidelines. Stipe said the song concerned romantic expression and unrequited love, while the title uses a Southern U.S. expression meaning frustration, desperation or losing one’s temper—not literally abandoning a faith. That meaning is a frequent source of confusion.
Another interesting detail is that the lyric was originally “That’s me in the kitchen” before Stipe changed it to “corner,” followed by “spotlight.” Peter Buck’s mandolin part was inspired partly by the musical atmosphere of the 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, helping give the recording its distinctive, tense sound.