“Strange Currencies” is the kind of plaintive-yet-hopeful ballad that R.E.M. perfected throughout their career, and it’s paired on this list with 1898 The Post, a hotel that’s equally the shining example of a genre. The old Central Post Office in Ghent was completed at the turn of the last century, and while its neo-Gothic style makes it look much older than that, a brand-new renovation has this beautifully preserved structure ready to host guests in the current century and beyond.

"The One I Love" announced to the world that R.E.M. was a contemporary sonic interpretation of the steamy South found in the plays of Tennessee Williams. Kruisherenhotel Maastricht is another thoroughly modern interpretation, this time of a fifteenth-century Gothic monastery. Designer Henk Vos transformed the original monks’ cloisters into handsome hotel rooms that are anything but ascetic, with sleek furnishings and bits and bobs by the likes of Le Corbusier, Philippe Starck and Marc Newson.

Long before a recent renovation converted it into a stunning boutique hotel, Chicago Athletic Association was a private club for the city’s movers and shakers. This Venetian Gothic landmark hosted the kinds of government and business elite that “Oddfellows Local 151” suggests are at least partially responsible for the plight of the characters in the song: the homeless population that was left behind by the political and economic machines of 1980s America.

Michael Stipe wrote “Oh My Heart” about the struggles of post-Katrina New Orleans. For our hotel, we turn to Venice, another timeworn city fighting back against rising sea levels — and the home of SINA Centurion Palace. This former convent and its postcard-perfect Venetian-Gothic exterior is located in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, which has survived everything from World Wars to the Black Death. We’re confident it will survive climate change.

“How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us” features an eclectic mix of sounds and influences and has a lack of emotional resolution that stands out amongst R.E.M. tracks. Making it an album opener was a bold decision from the band. Párisi Udvar Hotel Budapest opens boldy as well, with an Art Nouveau shopping arcade that’s been converted into its lobby. The original architecture of the rest of the 1817 building is an eclectic mix of Parisian, Moorish, and yes, Gothic styles.

Chateau Marmont was built to resemble the Loire Chateau Amboise in France, and the French late Gothic Flamboyant style. But this particular chateau and its infamous scenes of decadence could only exist in Los Angeles. Likewise, “Drive” is a song that could only have come from R.E.M. With an echoey atmosphere as haunted as the hallways of the Chateau, the song drives forward slowly and madly, calling out like a pirate radio station in the middle of the night, seeking to empower the youth.

Crystalbrook Albion makes its home in a former convent. Behind its Gothic windows, the hotel’s designers managed to created an enormously fun hotel in what was an otherwise solemn environment. R.E.M. pulled the same trick, but in the opposite direction, with “Swan Swan H.” At first glance, this song about the Civil War appears to be a celebration of freedom, but as it progresses the true cost of a destructive moment in American history becomes more clear.

A century-old Gothic Revival castle high on a bluff over the St. Lawrence river, Le Château Frontenac is Québec City’s most famous landmark, hosting some of the world’s most famous guests. But powerful politicians may have left the greatest influence — suites here are themed after heads of state who have stayed at the hotel. According to Michael Stipe, “World Leader Pretend” was the most political song of the band’s career up to that point, and it might continue to be so today.

The Culloden estate, a 19th-century Gothic castle, cuts an impressive and imposing silhouette, surrounded by twelve acres of wooded parklands and gardens overlooking the waters of Belfast Lough. On its sprawling grounds, you’re likely to find some of the herbs and fruits mentioned in “Find the River,” a song that celebrates life specifically because death is always present. Despite the heavy themes, it's a gorgeous and uplifting song that closes out an album full of hits.

The 19th century obsession with Gothic elements comes through loud and clear in The Qvest. In keeping with the reigning aesthetic in those days, a neo-Gothic influence touched just about every element in the construction: ribbed vaults, lancet windows, hood moulding, tracery, and an overarching verticality all remain visible today. Similarly, all the elements of R.E.M.’s Southern Gothic signature come through in “Wendell Gee,” one of the band’s most under-appreciated pieces of musical mastery.

The Conservatorium is a radical repurposing of Amsterdam’s century-old, neo-Gothic Sweelinck Conservatorium building. As a music school, it focused on pop alongside more traditional conservatory studies like classical and jazz, so there was probably a bit of guitar feedback floating around. There’s a bit of feedback heard in “Country Feedback” as well, wandering almost incongruently in between more traditional country sounds like pedal steel guitar and organ, adding the right amount of edge.

Starting with the gargoyle on the cover, R.E.M.’s debut EP Chronic Town oozes a dark, peculiar, and highly literary Southern Gothic vibe. And “Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars),” with its calliope intro and images of clandestine railway activity, revels in the murky mood. Empress of Little Rock makes its home in this late-Victorian mansion — a large-looming, Gothic Queen Anne-style masterpiece. Each of the individually decorated rooms takes its name from some character in the region’s history.