Dream Police

Written by Nielsen, it opens the album Dream Police and reached number 26 on the Hot 100 and number four in Canada. Nielsen described it as an attempt to take a heavy thought, a quick bit of REM snatched right before waking, and put it in a pop format, and said it was about Big Brother watching you. Its B-side was Heaven Tonight. Nielsen said he helped conduct the strings himself.

Ultimate Classic Rock's Zaleski placed it third in her top ten, calling it a pillar of power pop with swirls of menacing orchestra, and her colleague Dave Swanson called it a tour de force. The band played it at the 2016 Rock Hall ceremony. In 2010 they re-recorded it as Green Police for an Audi Super Bowl advertisement.