143 replies to this topic

[MAK]

I'm glad that they included:
Sitting Still
Begin the Begin
Finest Worksong
Country Feedback
Living Well is the Best Revenge
(because all of this songs weren't huge hits and some of them weren't even singles)

I'm dissapointed  that they DIDN'T include:
World Leader Pretend
Find the River
E-Bow the Letter
Leave
Lotus
Daysleeper
She Just Wants to Be
It Happened Today

I'd rather prefer they left off the following songs:
Stand
Shiny Happy People
Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
(would preffer any other 3 songs from the previous mentioned to be included instead of these 3)



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

[e-botti]

but i'm happy that MSLH is out of this....good...

for the rest....it seems a nice collection....of course i would add a lot of the outsiders but it's ok for me. .........just e-bow................

[kizmatica]

AAAA? SERIOUSLY?!

[e-botti]

but....a moment....why there' Shiny Happy People??....wasn't it one of the most hated song?? by the band itself...??.....

so....it would have been better include Half A World Away....

[e-botti]

kizmatica, on 26 September 2011 - 06:10 AM, said:

AAAA? SERIOUSLY?!

yes...horrible

[Remixomatosys]

Sitting Still
Life and how to live it
Begin the Begin
Country Feedback
New test leper
Living Well is the Best Revenge
Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter

Those are the only non-singles of the bunch.
I'm very happy with Sitting still (my favourite off murmur), lahtli, begin the begin (set opener many times), country feedback
(even if the live version is so much better) and living well. I would have chosen leave or be mine instead of new test leper (which is great, nontheless).
I'm surprised about aaaa (it should be Michael's pick); would have prefered mine smell like honey.
All in all, a great compilation

[Remixomatosys]

An excerpt from the David Fricke article about the new songs (two of them from the cin sessions, and an original one):

"And we were excited to find three really good songs to put out as a farewell," he adds. Two of the new tracks, "Hallelujah" and "A Month of Saturdays," came from demos for R.E.M.'s last studio album, Collapse Into Now, released in March. The third song, a Sixties-flavored treat with sunshine-pop brass, is called, aptly, "We All Go Back to Where We Belong." It comes out as a single October 18th.

[SweetMusic]

Since I'm only interested in the new songs, I really don't care what is on it and what is not. There's always debate about that, since it's very personal. I have all those songs on another cd, so frankly... It's the new stuff I look forward to. The final R.E.M.-songs: still hard to fathom. I wonder if I'll have the courage to put them on once I've bought it. Maybe it will remain in the cellophane for a while. Or maybe by then I will be wondering what the hell I'm saying right now.

[onionmaster]

Glad they're including Sitting Still and Country Feedback, relieved that they are including Shiny Happy People simply because it encourages the casual crowd to actually buy this. Unsure why four songs from Green are needed when they could have included Romance instead of one of them. Don't understand the inclusion of New Test Leper over E-Bow, of all things. Also think that leaving off Mine Smell Like Honey was a mistake simply because it's designed to be heard alongside their 80s stuff. I understand the exclusion of Drive and Find The River because it would result in half of Automatic being on there and they work better as album tracks (in my opinion). I think it's a shame they didn't include Lotus.

But on the whole a respectfully chosen compilation with few surprises. The description of "We all go back" has me excited.

[Sweden]

I guess the hopes for Bill appearing will rise from this quote "R.E.M. actually made their decision a few months ago, before they met in Athens, Georgia, this summer to record three new songs for a two-CD greatest-hits package,"

[Mr. Waffle]

Ronja, on 23 September 2011 - 08:40 AM, said:

I couldn't have said it better.

If that was the intent it could have been done in a better way
they would tell the world they were breaking up like one WEEK before it came out and not 1 month and a half...

by then mainstream will have forgotten, won't affect sales so much

[jsavage]

fanfan, on 26 September 2011 - 04:11 AM, said:

Thanks!

The site also provides a cover:

http://www2.marketwi...ttachid=1742133

The cover is very amusing, pointing out one of the major references the band have made in recent times, namely the changing way we consume music,

[Remixomatosys]

I love the cover, too.
My guess is that Bill will indeed feature on the new single (but not on the other two songs, which came from the cin sessions);
maybe "we all go back to where we belong" is a berry buck mills stipe song...

[Mr. Waffle]

having Bill on the new tracks would be AWESOME

I wish one of those songs would be produced by Scott Litt, too

they should also reach out to their other old producers actually, but I have always wondered how a reunion with Scott Litt would be like.

[patternshirt170]

20 songs per disc is squeezing the time limit on 77mins of CD [71 and 70 sans the three new tracks] unless we get single edits for some of the songs.

Glad there are at least three new tracks and again odd that Drive and much of Monster is awol and SHP and Stand? ah well..

I hope there is a fan friendly version with a third disc of In Time style odds and ends...

[Driver Nate]

I also don't really care what's on it as I'm only buying it for Buck's liner notes and the three new songs anyway.

[bluemookie]

Yeah, I'm sad about them breaking up.  Yeah, I'm looking forward to this collection for the new stuff.  Yeah, I have my own issues with the tracklisting.  All of those concerns pale in comparison to the possibility of a rarities box set.  I would be happy with something similar to The Cure's Connect The Dots.  There's a lot of B-Sides that never made it to a collected edition, like I Walked With A Zombie or Surfing the Ganges.  Not that I really want another dead letter office, but a collection of all b-sides in one place.  Then I would want a box set of demos and unreleased stuff, but I'm not holding my breath.  Why would they even mention stuff like Kick the Traces if we don't get to ever hear it?  Okay, none of this is really germane to the thread, I know.  How about this?  Will they release a deluxe edition, as they did for the last greatest hits collection, In Time?  I think CIN is the only REM Warner Bros release that didn't have a limited edition deluxe version, right?