dolphinboy

Document isn't my favorite REM album, although it's great, but Disturbance at the Heron House is my all-time favorite of their songs (Sitting Still is 2nd) and it's one of my top 5 favorite songs from any artist.

Glad I got this and will continue to keep buying them, although why they can't find a way to release the EP upsets me.

Might have to pick up the special edition of Gabriel's SO too.

auto

Green Deluxe Announced

R.E.M.'s series of 25th anniversary reissues continues May 14 with a re-release of the band's 1988 major label breakthrough, Green. The album, which was R.E.M.'s first for Warner Bros., will be reissued via Rhino.

Along with a remastered version of the album, the 2xCD Green reissue will feature 21 tracks from a November 10, 1989 gig in Greensboro, North Carolina, the next-to-last show of the band's massive Green World Tour. The reissue comes in a hard clamshell box with postcards, a poster, and liner notes by Uncut editor Allan Jones.

On May 14, the remastered Green will also be available on vinyl with the original art and packaging.

In advance of the reissue, on April 20, a limited edition Live in Greensboro EP will be out on CD for Record Store Day. It features five more cuts from the same 1989 show as the Green reissue, as well as an original patch from that tour. (They are not reproductions and "were recently uncovered in the band's vault," according to a press release.)

Watch R.E.M. play "Pop Song 89" after the tracklist.

Green: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition:

Disc 1: Original album:

01 Pop Song 89
02 Get Up
03 You Are the Everything
04 Stand
05 World Leader Pretend
06 The Wrong Child
07 Orange Crush
08 Turn You Inside Out
09 Hairshirt
10 I Remember California
11 Untitled

Disc 2: Live in Greensboro, 1989:

01 Stand
02 The One I Love
03 Turn You Inside Out
04 Belong
05 Exhuming McCarthy
06 Good Advices
07 Orange Crush
08 Cuyahoga
09 These Days
10 World Leader Pretend
11 I Believe
12 Get Up
13 Life and How to Live It
14 Its the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)
15 Pop Song 89
16 Fall on Me
17 You Are the Everything
18 Begin the Begin
19 Low
20 Finest Worksong
21 Perfect Circle

Live in Greensboro EP:

01 So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
02 Feeling Gravitys Pull
03 Strange
04 King of Birds
05 I Remember California

nothingfails

Glad to see the reissue series is continuing through Rhino. Hopefully Out Of Time's reissue also means we'll get a vinyl reissue like Green.

reubs82

Anyone know why Rhino is doing this one? Did Warner sell their catalog or something?

Guru Askew

Warner Music Group owns Rhino so it was pretty much an inevitability.

cdollaz

I'm still a couple behind on these as I am still waiting on a decent price for Life's Rich Pageant and Document.

wahlers

I'm still disappointed that they did not do an anniversary edition of Dead Letter Office.

Yes, I'm aware that it was a collection of b-sides from their 4 albums prior to Document, but it is a great collection of songs that deserved to get remastered. Some purists say it shouldn't count, but it doesn't overlap any of their other material and even the band (who were very concerned with not wanting to "sell out") were pretty much fine with the release.

Regardless, the 2-CD format would have been perfect because the 2nd CD could have been the b-sides and mixes from Document plus other unreleased songs or rare tracks from soundtracks (i.e. Romance, which later appeared on Eponymous and was not included on any of the later collections or best ofs). It would have made a real nice compliment to the set to have the rest of their studio IRS tracks remastered. There was a lot of good material included on "And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987" but it was definitely not complete or as cohesive feeling as Dead Letter Office.

Also, not remastering it meant that Chronic Town was never re-released on CD for the anniversary since it was only ever on CD as part of the expanded Dead Letter Office CD release.

That said, I had heard from band members that the WB deluxe albums were going to happen but was a little skeptical. I'm glad this is being released. However, I'm not sure about have to fight through the crowds of hipsters that sometimes make me sad to be a record collector to get into a shop on Record Store Day to buy a CD. But I will try.

As for the future of the series, personally, I have my doubts that they'll finish the whole set because what casual buyer's going to pick up an anniversary edition of Around the Sun? How many copies could they possibly sell?

This whole thing will also mean I'll have two copies of each album then because I'm not going to get rid of my "CD + DVD-Audio" versions of the albums. Plus I already have vinyl copies of all of their studio releases so I guess I'll end up with 3 copies of each album in my collection. Not sure what to think of that.

milo bloom

A standalone CD release of Chronic Town is pretty much the only thing I want at this point. I have all the regular albums (including some of the Best-Ofs) and a few live albums (but I don't care much for live albums), so that's the only thing I'd love to have.

keith71

Great news! I really hope that the Out of Time reissue includes the official long awaited debut of MTV's Unplugged, either on cd/dvd or BOTH. My 22 year old VHS copy is getting worn out.
And I really really hope that the remastering doesn't sound like crap. The remastering on Murmur deluxe edition is soooo loud and compressed. Horrible.

milo bloom

What's the story on Unplugged never being released? I'd certainly pick that up
(I'm listening to Nirvana's Unplugged right now; if you asked me at this second, I would probably call it a desert island disc).

Guru Askew

I agree. They need to get right on releasing the same music that's been available on the Dead Letter Office for 25 years minus the DLO tracks.

auto

Yes, but much louder!

wahlers

There's almost always room to improve on the mastering done to CDs in the 80s. And, no, I'm not just talking about making them louder. :/ Even in the case of the I.R.S. Vintage Years releases from 1992 and 1993, the Dead Letter Office one is not an improvement over the original CD. Some people say it's not a remaster at all, but is the exact same audio as the original CD, just with a couple of bonus tracks added.

Now, for the record, I'm not a vinyl snob. I completely believe that if you have someone who's good at mastering now-a-days on both CD and vinyl, the two formats can be mixed to sound identically good. Just look at the later albums from Nine Inch Nails for an example.

However, when you can put on a record from the 80s and compare it to the CD from the 80s and the record is clearer and fuller with better bass and a richer sound, then there is room to improve the CD.

In a case like Dead Letter Office they could satisfy collectors by putting Chronic Town on its own disc in a mini-lp sleeve and the original tracklisting of Dead Letter Office along with a 2nd disc of additional outtakes separate. This way Chronic Town could be put in its chronological place before the other albums for those who want it there.

Guru Askew

I've said this multiple times (probably in this same thread) but they need to repurpose Dead Letter Office as a catch-all for miscellaneous IRS-era tracks. They need to include Chronic Town (I'd be fine with it having its own disc in a mini-LP sleeve) and the DLO album properly-sequenced (they could do the same thing, single disc, mini-LP, but this isn't necessary like Chronic Town) and then round out the rest of the collection with EVERYTHING else. Unique tracks from Eponymous, And I Feel Fine, IRS Years reissues, In the Attic etc. B-sides, compilations, even different mixes and edits, everything that isn't on the first 5 reissues. I can't imagine this would take up more than 4 discs.

A cool idea for this would be to include some sort of comprehensive IRS discography in the liner notes with a guide explaining how listeners could replicate those now-obsolete releases. Wanna listen to Eponymous? It'll tell you which disc/track from the reissue campaign needs to be added to your iPod playlist or burned to your CDr to replicate it. That way it respects the various ways people were introduced to the music, but you're never asking people to buy the same track twice.

PhantomStranger

Modern R.E.M. issues are chronically the poorest-sounding CDs in my collection, and the collection numbers over 10,000 pieces. I've stopped buying these reissues due to the loud, compressed sound.

dolphinboy

I really don't think we're going to get Chronic Town. I've mentioned how much I wanted it going all the way back to the first thread on these R.E.M. deluxe editions. It just seems like they would have released it first or at the same time as Murmur. We're at Green now...I just think, for some strange reason, they already decided to not remaster it.

Guru Askew

The next few years will be good opportunities to do my Chronic Town/Dead Letter Office IRS mop-up extravaganza idea. There will be no 25th anniversary in 2014 or 2015 (Out of Time is up next in 2016) so they're gonna have to do something along those lines unless they don't wanna make any money for two years.

dolphinboy

Are they calling them all 25th anniversary editions? I'd be surprised if they wait until 2016 for Out of Time. I would think it would come out next year as a deluxe edition. I would love to get deluxe editions all the way through New Adventures in Hi-Fi and I can't see how they'd plan to release that in 2022.

Turd Ferguson

I've really enjoyed the Deluxe Editions so far, and I'm looking forward to picking up "Green" next month.

Back when I was in ninth grade, the band rented a house across the street from a friend of mine while they were recording "Green" at Ardent Studios here in Memphis. My friend's sister was a senior at the time, and she got up the courage to go over and see if she could meet them one Saturday. She told us they were all totally cool and relaxed and invited her to hang out for a while. The one thing she really remembered was seeing a coffee table in the living room that was basically a drug bufett with pot, mushrooms, coke, etc.

Guru Askew

Looks like the lack of a 25th anniversary in 2014 (next proper anniversary will be in 2016) isn't gonna stop the R.E.M. archival money train.

R.E.M. Unplugged 4LP for Record Store Day. CD and digital to follow on May 20. Both Unplugged performances in full.

dave94

Only took 23 years to get the first Unplugged in an official release!

musick

tracklists

R.E.M. Unplugged Tracklisting

1991 Unplugged

Side One

1."Half A World Away"
2."Disturbance at the Heron House"
3."Radio Song"
4."Low"

Side Two

1."Perfect Circle"
2."Fall on Me"
3."Belong"
4."Love Is All Around"

Side Three

1."Its The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
2."Losing My Religion"
3."Pop Song 89"
4."Endgame"

Side Four

1."Fretless"*
2."Swan Swan H"*
3."Rotary 11"*
4."Get Up"*
5."World Leader Pretend"*

2001 Unplugged

Side Five

1."All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)"
2."Electrolite"
3."At My Most Beautiful"
4."Daysleeper"

Side Six

1."So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)"
2."Losing My Religion"
3."Country Feedback"
4."Cuyahoga"

Side Seven

1."Imitation of Life"
2."Find the River"
3."The One I Love"*
4."Disappear"*

Side Eight

1."Beat a Drum"*
2."I've Been High"*
3."I'll Take the Rain"*
4."Sad Professor"*

* Not included in original television broadcast

auto

Man, I'd love to get this but no way I'm braving RSD.

cdollaz

I'll gladly get that cd.

Eddie W

Yeah, I'd really like to have this but I'm sure a 4 LP vinyl will have MSRP of $150 or something ridiculous like that.

I'm surprised there is no mention of a video release. These were after all, originally aired on MTV. I'd love to have a Blu with lossless audio. A CD or digital download, not so much.