R.E.M. - In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Special Edition)
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Artist: R.E.M.Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2003-10-28
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Man On The Moon
- The Great Beyond
- Bad Day
- What's the Frequency Kenneth?
- All the Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star)
- Losing My Religion
- E-bow The Letter
- Orange Crush
- Imitation Of Life
- Daysleeper
- Animal
- The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
- Stand
- Electrolite
- All The Right Friends
- Everybody Hurts
- At My Most Beautiful
- Nightswimming
- Pop Song '89 (acoustic b-side of Pop Song '89)
- Turn You Inside-Out (from Tourfilm)
- Fretless (from Until The End Of The World soundtrack)
- Chance (dub) b-side from Everybody Hurts
- It's A Free World Baby (from Coneheads soundtrack)
- Drive (from Live Greenpeace)
- Star Me Kitten (featuring William Burroughs from X-Files)
- Revolution (from Batman And Robin soundtrack)
- Leave (from A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack)
- Why Not Smile (Oxford American version)
- The Lifting (demo version b-side from Imitation Of Life)
- Beat a Drum (demo version b-side from Imitation of Life)
- 2JN (b-side from Imitation of Life)
- The One I Love (live from The Museum Of Television and Radio)
- Country Feedback (live from Wiesbaden, Germany, 2003)
Music reviews of In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Special Edition)
Music Review: How they spent their $40 million after signing with Warner?
Rating: 4 Stars
I was a fan of R.E.M. ever since I heard tracks from the just-released "Chronic Town," and my preferences are with the folkier/janglier I.R.S. rather than the stadium/studio WB years. Still, while waiting for the new IRS compilation, I figured I'd give this a spin. As somebody who already had all the studio cuts from the standard "In Time," the only reason I bought this was the added tracks and bonuses. At least the band's thoughtful enough, and also enough of savvy self-promoters, to give longtime fans bonus tracks and obscurities. As I told my son the other day, at least the band supports good causes with their millions that they continue to make and invest in responsible socially aware programs and artistic support; perhaps this is one reason the band did not call it quits as they once promised, either on the eve of the millennium or when one of the original members left?
I often wondered, as I heard their last three albums (I count "Around the Sun" although "In Time" predates it; the newest songs on the compilation fit in to the "Reveal" / "Around" sound neatly, why the band did not fold up their tent after Bill Berry left. The five or six years that this compilation documents since his departure have led the trio into more arcane directions, most of them muted and rather downbeat. When he was with the band, the previous nine or so years led the four of them into arena rock, massive hits, worldwide acclaim, and more exposure after Warner Bros signed them for $40 million, a record at least back then.
So, how does the band's evolution sound on this gathering of their best-known (not always their best quality) latter-day songs? They show off the band's increasing eclecticism, married to a "pop song" sensibility, that speaks well for their intelligence and creativity. However, "Sidewinder" gets cutesy, and I miss the dignity of another song from "Automatic," "Find the River," which fits beautifully with "Nightswimming" more than the novelty-tune weightlessness of "Sidewinder." Peter Buck's pithy liner notes note that the song was added to lighten the funereal tone of that album, and while perhaps a sensible choice, it does not endure as one of their dozen or so standout tracks from the 90s. I give this as one example of the type of decisions the band made, I suppose, in putting this together: while you may not agree with their choices, they show care was made.
Another choice, to only give one cut from "Out of Time," may seem surprising but I do not think that album's more popular tunes have worn all that well fifteen years later, and at least they left off "Shiny Happy People." Less guitar, more keys, less riffs, more depth: these qualities permeate many of the songs. They at their best do burrow deeper, and are less immediately catchy, but they do show a band refusing to recycle their sound, and for that I give them credit if not always mindless applause.
Each CD has hidden treasures, of course, and I do think that more of them and less of the already recognizable "favorites" played often to death on radio could have made this a stronger collection, which could have been 3 discs if such lesser-played tracks had been included. The CDs are well sequenced, and the bonus disc, while not timeless, does offer one song I liked better than practically all of "Monster," at least when that record appeared! "Revolution" from a dismal Batman movie's soundtrack, Buck tells us, was from the "Monster" sessions and sounds it, but maybe it was left off since it was almost too punky? It bops about as if pogoing, and reminds me of tapes from the band in the days they played frats, 1981-2. much more than almost any other song they have recorded. The lovely stripped-down demo of "Make You Smile" makes the band's increasingly obsessive studio-meets-the-spirit-of-Brian Wilson tastes more palatable taken in such a delicate dose.
The notes are welcome, the songs do remind you of what a top-notch band can be without selling out, and the lyrics do show that empathy, curiosity, and wit do survive even at the global hitmaker status, for very few bands at least, but I am happy that R.E.M. has survived in such style. While I may not be enamored with all of their work from this later stage, they do emerge, from the evidence on these two discs, with their ethics intact and their enthusiasm, if perhaps of late more subdued, still evident. I do not know if a third compilation of post-2003 will appear, but this and the I.R.S. complement the band's two phases, the light and dark side of the moon that glares from the cover(s).
Description of In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Special Edition)
SPECIAL EDITION: The two-CD set adds a 16-selection CD of rarities, including live and acoustic versions of some of R.E.M.'s most popular songs, and a 40-page booklet.How do you condense 15 years of music down to 76 minutes? In the case of this survey of the second phase of R.E.M.'s career, the answer is: Exceptionally well. The dangling carrot for diehards is two new songs; the rapid fire "Bad Day" hurtles along like the kissing cousin of "It's the End of the World as We Know It," while "Animal" is anchored by a majestic drone reminiscent of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." In a surprising, but gratifying move, the rest of the program shortchanges the band's breakthrough, Out of Time (no "Shiny Happy People"), to better accommodate movie soundtrack contributions, and spotlight gems from the less commercial, post-Bill Berry albums Reveal and Up; with its baroque piano and multi-tracked vocal harmonies, the Beach Boys homage "At My Most Beautiful" is particularly gorgeous, while the burbling keyboards and slightly dazed singing of "All the Way to Reno" will appeal to Flaming Lips fans. --Kurt B. Reighley
This expanded edition covering the band's first decade-and-a-half at Warner now includes a DVD featuring a new 5.1 surround sound mix of all the album's tracks. That new bonus disc also features an October, '03 Vancouver rehearsal of the new song "Bad Day" that allows viewers the unique experience of switching between four different camera angles. Also includes the smart, network-news spoofing video for the same track.
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