Music News

R.E.M. to release first definitive ‘hits’ album

By Patrick Luce Sep 27, 2011, 13:22 GMT

History was made the night of March 13, 2008, when the members of R.E.M. stepped onto the Austin City Limits stage for the first time a special milestone for the longest-running music show in American television. Almost three decades into their career and just days before the release of their 14th studio album Accelerate, on a breezy Texas day amidst the buzz of South by Southwest that week, they gave ...more

On the heels of the band’s website announcement that they had decided to "call it a day as a band," R.E.M. has announced plans to release its first-ever definitive greatest hits album ‘R.E.M., Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982 - 2011’ on Warner Bros. Records on November 15th.

The album captures the band’s 31-year recording career and is a 40-song retrospective including tracks from both the IRS (1982 to 1987) and Warner Bros. Records (1988 to 2011) years along with three new songs. The first new single, "We All Go Back To Where We Belong," hits radio and sales on October 18th

In a press release, Mike Mills stated: "Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together."

In addition to liner notes written by band members Berry, Buck, Mills, and Stipe, the album also features three new songs that R.E.M. finished after they completed their last album, ‘Collapse Into Now’: "A Month of Saturdays," "We All Go Back To Where We Belong," and "Hallelujah," which were recorded over the summer in Athens with ‘Accelerate’ and ‘Collapse Into Now’ producer, the estimable Jacknife Lee. The band came roaring back with those two albums in the last two years, achieving some of the best reviews of their career and enabling them to go out at the top of their game.

R.E.M. formed in 1980 when singer Michael Stipe met guitarist Peter Buck in an Athens, GA, record store where Buck worked. After recruiting bassist Mills and drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. released its first single, "Radio Free Europe," in 1981, followed by 1982's ‘Chronic Town’ EP, capturing the imagination of a new generation of music lovers and bringing "guitar pop back into the underground lexicon," as All-Music put it.

Widely credited with inventing the college-rock genre, R.E.M. became the most influential American alternative rock band in history - inspiring such artists as Sonic Youth, Pavement, Nirvana, and Radiohead - for achieving multi-platinum mainstream success while maintaining their distinct identity.

Over the course of its career, the band has released 15 studio albums: ‘Murmur’ (1983), ‘Reckoning’ (1984), ‘Fables of the Reconstruction’ (1985), ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ (1986), ‘Document’ (1987), ‘Green’ (1988), ‘Out of Time’ (1991), ‘Automatic For The People’ (1992), ‘Monster’ (1994), ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’ (1996), ‘Up’ (1998), ‘Reveal’ (2001), ‘Around the Sun’ (2004), ‘Accelerate’ (2008), and ‘Collapse Into Now’ (2011). They have sold more than 85 million albums worldwide.

The track-listing for ‘R.E.M., Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982 – 2011’ is as follows:

Disc 1:
Gardening At Night
Radio Free Europe
Talk About The Passion
Sitting Still
So. Central Rain
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
Driver 8
Life And How To Live It
Begin The Begin
Fall On Me
Finest Worksong
It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
The One I Love
Stand
Pop Song 89
Get Up
Orange Crush
Losing My Religion
Country Feedback
Shiny Happy People

Disc 2:
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Everybody Hurts
Man On The Moon
Nightswimming
What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
New Test Leper
Electrolite
At My Most Beautiful
The Great Beyond
Imitation Of Life
Bad Day
Leaving New York
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Supernatural Superserious
ÜBerlin
Oh My Heart
Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
A Month of Saturdays
We All Go Back To Where We Belong
Hallelujah