PhantomStranger

I'll wait for the CD.

keith71

Great news! While I too would prefer Unplugged on blu ray or even dvd I am still def going to buy the cd. The unreleased/unaired tracks sound sweet. I'm looking forward to hearing "Get Up" and "Sad Professor" especially.
Quite frankly, I'm a huge fan of old school R.E.M. so the "archival money train" can keep on rolling...

wahlers

I'm disappointed that the official press release says "THE COMPLETE 1991 AND 2001 SESSIONS" and yet they played The Great Beyond in the 2001 set. Where's it at?

milo bloom

Were any of those Unplugged tracks ever released on CD? Like singles or compilations? I've got every studio album and now that they're done I thought I'd pick up some of the live CDs and such.

wahlers

CD: MTV Unplugged Collection Volume One (1994) included "Half a World Away".

CD: Very Best of MTV Unplugged: Volume One (2002) included "Losing My Religion".

CD: Very Best of MTV Unplugged: Volume Two (2003) included "Imitation of Life".

CD: Very Best of MTV Unplugged: Volume Three (2004) included "It's the End of the World as We Know It".

Video: R.E.M.: This Film is On (1991) included "Love Is All Around".

I'm not aware of any other releases of this material.

dave94

I used to have a cassette copy of the first Unplugged when it was broadcast on Westwood One radio. I had copied it from a buddy and loved it, but lost it in one of my moves.

Can't wait for May!

keith71

I wonder if they are going to release Monster-20th Anniversary deluxe edition this year as well? I think most R.E.M. fans would agree this wasn't one of their best albums. But hey, compared to Around the Sun Monster is a friggin' classic!

wahlers

They've only done 25th anniversary sets so far. Out of Time would be next for 2016.

And, for the record I love Monster. It's one of my 3 favorite R.E.M. albums along with Lifes Rich Pageant and Automatic For The People.

But I definitely agree that Around the Sun is their worst album. Funny that most of that material live is not half bad. It would be interesting if they remixed and stripped down the album for a re-release, sort of a Around the Sun...Naked if you will.

cdollaz

That is my opinion of Around The Sun as well. A pretty awful album as released, but it seems like there are some good songs in there. They just need to be done correctly.

Supermallet

Monster has gotten better with time, perspective, and the hindsight of listening through some of REM's later albums.

milo bloom

Thanks, I never picked up any of those MTV Best ofs, we have the Nirvana and 10,000 Maniacs Unplugged and we've played the hell out of them over the years. I will be very pleased to pick up this R.E.M. set.



As for Monster, I've loved it from the beginning. It breaks my heart to see it in every shelf of CDs at every thrift store I've ever shopped at.

Decker

Why aren't these Unplugged CD sets available for pre-order on Amazon?

milo bloom

Amazon link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846

Price seems too good to be true? ($13.88 for 2 CDs)

auto

I preordered at amazon when it was $16.99 and, considering the pricing of their reissues, thought that was a good deal.

Decker

My copy should arrive from Amazon later today. The album is already on my cloud thanks to Auto-Rip. Sounds great (especially compared to the old cassette I used to have of that first Unplugged show). I really think that first Unplugged is REM at their absolute peak - creatively and commercially. I love that I'm finally able to own that performance. Buying an Unplugged CD on the day of release -- it's like I just went back in time 20 years!

dave94

Picked up the set today and it does sound great!

And then the announcement of the full catalog available today, mastered for iTunes, including Chronic Town and over 150 rarities now in one place. Say what you will about the quality of digital mastering but it's pretty awesome seeing everything there now. Great day for R.E.M. fans.

auto

Due to demand, the band announced they'll be releasing the unplugged shows on two separate vinyl releases.

The Antipodean

I was really happy to see they're putting R.E.M. rarities out at last, as I've long wanted some kind of career-spanning box set and there's a ton of great stuff out there... and then I saw that both the IRS and Warner bros "boxes" of 150+ songs are planned to be digital-only.

http://theseconddisc.com/2014/05/19/...r-digital-box/

I'm not paying $80 for a bunch of Mp3 files, and it seems like this kind of set is the sort of thing obsessive collectors like me would be glad to pay out for a nice physical package of. Really hope a "tangible" release is in the future for these rarities sets.

PhantomStranger

Yeah, I would have snapped that up as a CD box set in a second. Considering most R.E.M. fans are likely still clinging to CDs (their age makes them ripe as current CD consumers), it's a curious move.

Supermallet

I assumed that "mastered for iTunes" meant "made to sound okay on tinny earbuds", but in fact reading more about it, it may actually result in better sounding digital files than your basic MP3.

Nice! I wanted to snag the RSD set but I wasn't even able to get to the stores that day. This is even better as I will likely just get the 1991 release because it has most of my favorite songs by the band.

Decker

I feel like I was very familiar with the Unplugged version of End of the World as We Know It (perhaps I owned the Best of Unplugged Vol 3 at one time) - like I remember the phrasing and such. This version sounds different. I wonder if it's from a different take like a rehearsal or something. Anyone else notice that? At very least, there isn't the intro where Michael Stipe talks about having to get someone go find the lyrics and write them down and how he's not sure they're right. Oh, the good old days pre-internet.

BTW : it's not one of their best songs or anything, but I absolutely love their take here on "Belong". With the complex harmonies, it's not a song that would be easy to pull off in a live unplugged setting and they do an amazing job here.

cdollaz

I would jump at a Rarities cd box, but I am not interested in mp3s.

milo bloom

Blerg, I hope my wife doesn't see the digital offer, that's the kind of thing she would buy me because she hates having physical copies. She wants all books on Kindle, all music in MP3 and all movies and TV shows on streaming.

I'm okay with some of it being in the cloud, but R.E.M. is a group that I'll always hang onto my CD collection.

dave94

They did remove the pre-song talk where they say it was a request from MTV (Mike replies with "those guys again" ) Other than that, it sounds like the same exact take that I had on a cassette from a Westwood One broadcast back in the day.

dolphinboy

I doubt that I'll buy the rarities set anytime soon unless there is a physical box set release, but I'd definitely like to grab Chronic Town if they really are going to sound better than my old cd. Anyone know if they will?

Also, has anyone checked out iTunes already? I see two listing for Chronic Town. One is just under the heading "Albums Mastered for iTunes" and is $4.99 but if you click Complete Studio Albums, there they also have a stand alone purchase choice for Chronic Town but it's $6.45. Anyone know if there's a difference between the two?

Thanks!