Entertainment For Lively Minds
R.E.M. The conveniently timed Best of
Here's the track listing for the new Best of. (with 3 new tracks)
Pretty impressive track listing but there's still some shocking omissions. (No Drive! Bang and Blame!! No E-Bow the letter !!!!)
‘R.E.M., Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982 – 2011’
Disc 1:
‘Gardening At Night’
‘Radio Free Europe’
‘Talk About The Passion’
‘Sitting Still’
‘So. Central Rain’
‘(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville’
‘Driver 8’
‘Life And How To Live It’
‘Begin The Begin’
‘Fall On Me’
‘Finest Worksong’
‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’
‘The One I Love’
‘Stand’
‘Pop Song 89’
‘Get Up’
‘Orange Crush’
‘Losing My Religion’
‘Country Feedback’
‘Shiny Happy People’
Disc 2:
‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite’
‘Everybody Hurts’
‘Man On The Moon’
‘Nightswimming’
‘What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?’
‘New Test Leper’
‘Electrolite’
‘At My Most Beautiful’
‘The Great Beyond’
‘Imitation Of Life’
‘Bad Day’
‘Leaving New York’
‘Living Well Is The Best Revenge’
‘Supernatural Superserious’
‘Überlin’
‘Oh My Heart’
‘Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter’
‘A Month of Saturdays’
‘We All Go Back To Where We Belong’
‘Hallelujah’
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Whaaaat?
Still no Furry Happy Monsters?
Ridiculous
No Maps and Legends
See similar posts below I expect!
Or
Feeling Gravity's Pull... :-(
A pedant writes
That'll be "Feeling Gravitys Pull". Stipe never did like apostrophes.
I checked the Amazon site
just after I heard the news of the split. The album (but not the tracklisting) was already, erm "Up".
Wot no "Wolves, Lower" &c
What a stupid, pretentious title...
Couldn't they have called it 40 Golden Greats?
Oh... and Tongue should be on it. One of their most beautiful songs.
And no
Perfect Circle
Pretty Persuasion
Pilgrimage
And that's just the "p"s.
R.E.M.
I became the sort of person I hate yesterday by buying Fables of the Reconstruction in the aftermath of the split. In my defence, it's my favourite R.E.M. album, and I only had it on cassette.
Just to make you feel better...
I bought the Animals and The Final Cut remasters today, despite already owning them on CD.
That's alright!
It's buying records by a band who've just split up / died that usually annoys me. Now I've become a hypocrite! It was worth it 'cause I got to listen to Maps & Legends and Green Grow the Rushes in work today.
Hope the Animals remaster sounds good. I've never heard The Final Cut.
I listened to that yesterday
"Green grow the rushes" that is. A lovely lovely song but with a added meloncholia. They were good then weren`t they?
Ah....
me too....picked up a couple of "late period" albums...discovered they weren't as bad as I'd imagined at the time....going to have to eat a lot of Humble Pie.
Reconstruction
also contains the wonderful Wendell Gee, which isn't being missed by many people.
Pretty good compilation
It's the first to cover both the IRS and Warner stuff. It's mostly singles of course, so given that they're splitting they could have potentially dropped a couple of those above, added another disc and just gone for "complete singles".
Nice to see at least 2 songs an album from the IRS ones. Though obviously there is far more than that of worth, that's not the point of a compilation. Similarly, 'Find The River' and 'Drive' are absent singles, but they released 6 from Automatic For The People and it would be a bit pointless putting half of the album on there.
Sticking to the 'Singles' idea (even though several of the above weren't, I could list too many omissions otherwise), the ones that jump out at me as missing are 'Radio Song', 'E-Bow The Letter', 'Daysleeper' and several from Monster. They've skimmed the Reveal / Around The Sun period as well, but whilst there are some great songs there I can understand it.
The question is, do I buy it for 3 new songs???
I'm just glad that...
...there are six songs from 2011. We can all agree that was REM's classic year.
Would be nice if they would
Would be nice if they would include a live version of ITEOTWAWKI(AIFF). Always enjoyed shouting "Leonard Bernstein" and never understood why they went from closing every show with it to never playing it. Particularly galling as they waited 'til it became "song non grata" to start releasing live albums. Lots of bootleg versions available but a live version deserves an official place in the canon.
There is.
But it's on the Road Movie video/DVD. Which, by the way, is a belter.
Live Versions
I always feel like live versions don't fit in all that well on compilations. I like what they do with it though. From my memory of it, don't Mike and Michael sing the 2 vocals lines at the end the other way around to on the record?
As with appearing on b-sides or edited live albums, generally I'd sooner have a full gig or not at all.
Wot no
Wendell Gee.
An absolute beauty. And a single.
Lovely song
One of my favourites.
I'm sure I read somewhere that Peter Buck hates it though, which I why they never do it. (I think he generally does the setlists and sleevenotes.)
Wot no ad nauseam
only 1 track from UP?
only two from Lifes Rich Pageant?
shakes head in bemusement
Wot
No World Leader Pretend ?
Again
Tracklist fail
Each one of us would come up with a very different "Best of REM", shows what a good band they were and the effect that they related to many people in a number of alternative ways indicates this well.
But still, no "All The Way To Reno" or "Until The Day Is Done" is fairly criminal isn't it?
No.
:-)
Swan Swan H?
Great song...
...but remember that Best Ofs are marketed at the general audience. Of course we'll always have our personal favourites, but that doesn't mean they're the best tracks to go on one of these comps.
Personally, I think R.E.M. would've been better served by a straight Complete Singles comp. It'd save fanboi arguments and still show a really good cross-section of their output for newcomers to the band.
I know that
But the internet was designed for music geeks to argue over tracklists wasn't it?
Haha, I suppose you're right.
:-)
Monster
I think I'm right in saying Monster was their best-selling album and yet there's only one track out of the 40. I'll wager there aren't many acts for whom that would happen.
(Personally, I'd certainly include Bang & Blame and Crush With Eyeliner. Apart from anything else, they sound different to the rest)
Also missing - Boxcars, which I'd have instead of Popsong.
Self Frustration
There's no denying that the tracklist is an absolute cracker.
I'd say even an R.E.M. 'Worst of' would be amazing.
If I want to listen to all my favourite R.E.M. tracks in any order, I can just make a playlist on my iPod, so I can knock up the above CD's, plus any that I feel should be added. Job done.
The problem (if that's the right word) is that I feel frustrated that people who are ignorant (meaning no offense there) to REM's back catalogue will be missing out on songs that I would consider important and representative of REM at their best.
Perfect example: I want everyone who buys the Best Of on a whim or out of curiosity, to experience the sheer genius of Find The River....but they may never realise this song exists, and in my opinion is far more important and reflective of their ability than, for example, 'Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter'.
Couldn't agree more!
Find The River is their best track, a work of genius - end of!
Not "I'm Gonna DJ"?
I'm confused....