188 replies to this topic

[mrpoopypants]

I shall forgo my deviant downloading ways and promptly purchase this.

[OrangeCrush76]

I think it doesn't really matter too much on the tracklisting (minus the new songs). People can just as easy make their own versions of the "final" R.E.M. compilation. I'm just buying it for the packaging and liner notes... hell, If all that was inside was 30 different versions of Chance, I couldn't care less.
R.E.M.s "greatest hits" is always defined by the individual. There will never be one universal version. But it is nice to see all those songs and not broken up by label.

[REMCHICAGOBOY]

Davie, on 26 September 2011 - 11:18 AM, said:

Poor ATS?! POOR ATS?!?! What about poor Monster!!!!

As has been echoed above, there are of course some favourites missing, but it was bound to happen.

HOWEVER - majorly bummed about E-Bow. I wonder what possessed the guys to leave it off!

I simply meant I felt badly that it's going to go down in history as R.E.M.'s worst record and least liked record, that's all I meant by "poor ATS".

And I also feel Monster is very, very unrepresented on the upcoming compilation. I am in full agreement about "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" be included, maybe I thought maybe "Crush with Eyeliner" or even "Strange Currencies" would be as well (I think "Strange Currencies" is one of their worst songs ever, BTW...I loathe it...but I know other fans adore it...)

[MagnaMater]

pelagius42, on 26 September 2011 - 08:25 AM, said:

Ethan, do you know if Mr. Berry plays on the new songs?  If you knew, would you be able to say (given that you no longer work for Warners)?

No, he did not play on the new songs. Bummer.

[Adrenaline]

Am I the only one pleasantly surprised they didn't include "I'm Gonna DJ"?

It's a pretty good tracklist overall, "Ebow", "World Leader Pretend",  "Daysleeper" and "Drive" are the most obvious ones that should have been there, maybe remove "Pop Song 89", "Bad Day", "Stand" and "Alligator, blah, blah, blah"

Anyway, it's probably an impossible task to narrow it down to 37 tracks, especially since if you include the hits, it doesn't leave that much room for the deeper cuts.

I'll echo whoever it was that wrote that the Peter Buck liner notes will be worth the price of admission alone.

[Nightingale]

Disc 1 is practically "Eponymous".

[Nightingale]

pelagius42, on 26 September 2011 - 08:17 PM, said:

But what good is Eponymous without Romance?

"easy come, easy go...."  

[Hoffi_65]

OatiosSpellCheck, on 26 September 2011 - 11:12 AM, said:

anyone know how WB was able to get the IRS songs? or does the band now own then?

not too difficult. WB either licensed them in from i.r.s. or else, r.e.m. themselves licensed these masters. to WB.

[LST 390]

MONSTER got robbed! Theoretically you can find it in any used bin for a nickel so I'll just pretend they ignored it to feature more from "Hi-Fi" and "Up" oh...

Can't wait to read the liners!

Still wish it was called "All The Best".

[CONNMAN]

mattlpfoster, on 26 September 2011 - 08:41 AM, said:

I'd have dropped Alligator for something more from Up or Reveal. Really don't think they should skirt over those two, especially with 4 from AFTP. 24 tracks from the first decade and only 16 from the last two seems unfair on the late period stuff.

Also, seeing Shiny Happy People on here, I do wonder whether they've reconciled themselves to this track or whether the label had a hand?

Will be lovely to get three new tracks, though.

Kinda surprised there's no Daysleeper and It Happened Today, but on the whole a nice collection.

[cédric]

A really good tracklisting in my opinion.
I would just have put :

perfect circle instead of sitting still
these days instead of finest worksong
world leader pretend instead of pop song '89
drive instead of sidewinder sleeps tonite
it happened today instead of AAAA

Anybody knows the cover of the album?

[Sweden]

c�dric, on 26 September 2011 - 11:45 PM, said:

A really good tracklisting in my opinion.
I would just have put :

perfect circle instead of sitting still
these days instead of finest worksong
world leader pretend instead of pop song '89
drive instead of sidewinder sleeps tonite
it happened today instead of AAAA

Anybody knows the cover of the album?

Exactly. Those changes would have made sense completely. But then again...

The cover has been posted numerous times in various threads:

[Geordie mad]

I wonder if they're doing any promotion for this and the single? Maybe a couple of last live appearances.

[patjoller]

According to Mike Mills' interview with the Rolling Stone mag, no chance to see them play together.
I keep on thinking that this title would have been also cool for that greatest hits package "This is R.E.M. and This is what we did"

[mrocks7]

patjoller, on 27 September 2011 - 02:03 AM, said:

According to Mike Mills' interview with the Rolling Stone mag, no chance to see them play together.
I keep on thinking that this title would have been also cool for that greatest hits package "This is R.E.M. and This is what we did"

I like that idea. Yeah, Mills's line about never playing on the same stage together again stung, but, I don't fully believe that to be the case. I'm sure that at least he and PB will play together again when they happen to be in Athens at the same time (a la Baseball Project show last March where both were on stage along with BB). Time will tell.

[chrome3d]

Again a comp with 3 new songs. I would have liked to get those 3 songs as an EP because the other songs are quite familiar and In Time is still quite okay. If the Ep doesn´t happen then I will listen to them in Spotify and wait until the comp shows up in discount. Then I have at least one reason to go to the record store every now and then as R.E.M. was almost the only band I liked whose albums were easily found in any record store.

[robertandrews]

It's probably the right setlist for the job... all the main, catchy hits.
Not necessarily representative of *my* 40 best tracks - where's Airportman?? ;-) - but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
This is R.E.M. saying, these are the tracks we know the mainstream already knows and these are the tracks we want it to remember us by.

[fanfan]

c�ic, on 26 September 2011 - 11:45 PM, said:

A really good tracklisting in my opinion.
I would just have put :

perfect circle instead of sitting still
these days instead of finest worksong
world leader pretend instead of pop song '89
drive instead of sidewinder sleeps tonite
it happened today instead of AAAA

Me too!

Anyway, I already have several CD copies of most of the songs, so I'm mostly interested in the new songs.