cungar

Fables has always been top 5 REM for me. The first 4 will always be in the top 5.

auto

I can see Fables not being top 5 but I cannot ever see it in the bottom 5.

Hokeyboy

I wouldn't say I have an "expensive" system, but a quality one. I sit and listen to music often, either as an active or passive experience. I also do "music on the go" with my iPod and/or car stereo, but the home experience is the most important one to me. Maybe it's a generational thing.

EDIT: I stream uncompressed audio mostly. I don't purchase any lossy music... I rip CDs to FLAC via EAC/AccurateRip, store the discs in binders, and enjoy lossless audio for the most part.

Dubya

A DVD comparison to music compression would be the newly "remastered" Blu Ray of Predator that is being rightly skewered in it's thread in the blu ray forum.

cdollaz

I'm not sure why, it just never did it for me much. Perhaps because the 2 right before and after it are so good, it creates high expectations, which it doesn't meet for me. I would rank it above Around The Sun, Up, Green, and possibly Reveal, but other than that I would rather hear other stuff in their catalog usually.

auto

I hear ya....I would just put anything past New Adventures below Fables. Also, Green, Monster, Out of Time. I guess I just like it better than you do.

cdollaz

Out Of Time is mixed for me. I think where it is good, it is very good, but has some lesser tracks that are easy to skip. I like Monster alot. I've never understood why it is the bargain bin king.

cungar

Never liked Monster. I agree that Out of Time is about half a great album and I feel the same about Document. Side 2 of Document is pretty lame except for King of Birds which is a great song. Of all the Warner releases I think New Adventures in Hi Fi is the best.

auto

Agree with you guys that OOT is half a great album. I've always thought Monster was strong, just radically different from what came before it, hence the seemingly millions that found they're way to the bargain bins. Overall, a much stronger album than OOT.

cdollaz

Picked it up with a 40%-off coupon at Borders. Figured $18 would be the best price in the short-term.

bearkiss

where did you find the 40% off coupon?

cdollaz

http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/7w2...id=SL_20100713

It expires today.

The bottom of the coupon says it is only good at the stores which are listed on it, but I used it at one which is not listed. However, I guess YMMV.

auto

Damn, wish I'd seen the coupon earlier. Will probably hold off for $14.99. I have plenty of new albums to listen to in the meantime.

czdub

This might surprise you but I'm only 19 and I prefer listening to CDs on the home stereo. IMO, nothing else can compare.

Supermallet

I listen to a lot of vinyl at home. If it's a CD it will most likely be SACD or a DTS surround mix of an album.

cdollaz

From a recent article about Mike Mills:

He does, however, expect to see a 25th anniversary edition of "Lifes Rich Pageant" this year, featuring "a lot of demos, some of which I think are actually better than the songs on the record."

Supermallet

Oh god, that would be amazing.

auto

Yep, this is the one I've been waiting for.

Guru Askew

The last two came towards the middle of the year but "Murmur" was released around the holidays. I'm guessing this will come later in the year so as not to compete with their new album.

If that's the case it should make the wait for "Document" seem like nothing. I remember being surprised by how quickly "Reckoning" came out after the first reissue.

I remember worrying that EMI wasn't going to pick up where Universal legally had to stop with the first two reissues but now it seems like we have the IRS years in the bag and it's almost time to wonder if the Warner albums will receive similar reissues. If they slavishly adhered to the 25th anniversaries they campaign would start to lose steam after 2013 as the anniversaries would become a lot less-frequent.

I'd also like to see Universal and EMI acknowledge "Dead Letter Office" as part of the "canon" and use it as a catch-all for any stray IRS-era tracks (or earlier like Hib-Tone) that are left over from b-sides, comps, soundtracks etc. It would also be q good way to get "Chronic Town" into the reissue series even though it's too short to get it's own release.

I know I wouldn't be complaining if you could buy 5 2-disc sets and a 3-4 disc set containing EVERYTHING released pre-Warner.

Supermallet

There are already 2-disc editions of several of the Warner albums. I've got the one for New Adventures In Hi-Fi.

auto

Those came with a surround sound mix on DVD, right? I never picked them up. Big fan but they seemed too costly.

Eddie W

Yeah, the Warner's 2-disc issues were just remasters with a 5.1 DVD-audio mix on the 2nd disc. No bonus tracks.

keith71

More demos? Ehh. I'd much rather they include a complete(or nearly complete)live concert cd. Or about a live dvd? Surely a couple of shows were filmed during their Pageantry tour.

cdollaz

http://theseconddisc.com/2011/05/03/...ary/#more-6509

“Lifes Rich Pageant” Gets Richer for 25th Anniversary

It’s always good to see a band focusing on their catalogue while they’re still putting out fresh, new music. This year, R.E.M. is one of the acts to have a foot in both camps, releasing their 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, in March, and will release another 25th anniversary edition of an album this summer, with Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) getting the deluxe treatment from EMI/Capitol.

R.E.M.’s fourth LP, which was produced by Don Gehman (producer of John Mellencamp’s ’80s hit records), was an eco-socially conscious affair (“Fall on Me,” “Cuyahoga”) with one of the band’s most enduring early favorites, a cover of The Clique’s “Superman.” Peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard charts, it was the Athens, GA-based band’s highest-charting effort yet. It was also their first gold record, moving over 500,000 copies upon release.

While Lifes Rich Pageant was expanded outside of America along with the band’s other I.R.S. output, the recent string of 25th anniversary editions feature entirely unreleased bonus material, and this set is no different. A bonus disc includes 19 demos recorded in Athens in early 1986, featuring unreleased early versions of not only the songs from the original LP but songs that would be recorded between one year later (“March Song” would later become “King of Birds” on Document) and 17 years forward (“All the Right Friends” and “Bad Day”). One tune, “Wait,” has never been released in any official capacity.

Featuring lift-top packaging with an enclosed poster and postcards (the go-to approach for EMI’s deluxe editions of late) and new liner notes by writer Parke Puterbaugh, the deluxe Pageant will be available on July 12. Hit the jump for the full track list and a pre-order link.


R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant: 25th Anniversary Edition (I.R.S./Capitol, 2011)

Disc 1: Remastered original LP (released as IRS Records 5783, 1986)

1.Begin the Begin
2.These Days
3.Fall on Me
4.Cuyahoga
5.Hyena
6.Underneath the Bunker
7.The Flowers of Guatemala
8.I Believe
9.What If We Give It Away?
10.Just a Touch
11.Swan Swan H
12.Superman

Disc 2: The Athens Demos (previously unreleased)
1.Fall on Me
2.Hyena
3.March Song (King of Birds)
4.These Days
5.Bad Day
6.Salsa (Underneath the Bunker)
7.Swan Swan H
8.Flowers of Guatemala
9.Begin the Begin
10.Cuyahoga
11.I Believe
12.Out of Tune
13.Rotary Ten
14.Two Steps Onward
15.Just a Touch
16.Mystery to Me
17.Wait
18.All the Right Friends
19.Get on Their Way (What If We Give It Away)

auto

Just coming in to post this. Would have liked a concert, but the demos sounds pretty interesting.

Not sure what this means but I hope they match the packaging of the other reissues:

"Featuring lift-top packaging with an enclosed poster and postcards (the go-to approach for EMI’s deluxe editions of late)"