R.e.m. Rarities

R.E.M. began their Warner contract in 1988 as the biggest band to emerge from the college-radio-fueled American underground. Fifteen years later, they released In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003, the first overview of their long stint at Warner Records. During that decade and a half, R.E.M. had a turbulent journey…

From the start of their recording career, Athens, Georgia's finest have been a fertile source of cover tunes, non-album B-sides and alternate versions. This limited-edition collection compiles a baker's dozen of rarities and oddities, including the band's readings of Pylon's "Crazy," Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic," the Floyd Cramer instrumental "Last Date," and the gospel number "Tired of Singing Trouble," plus a variety of alternate mixes and live versions. Rounding out the set are a pair of ramshackle acoustic numbers from the soundtrack of the documentary Athens GA, Inside Out, "Swan Swan H" and the Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream." Although a couple of tracks overlap the band's 1987 rarities package Dead Letter Office, In the Attic is a handy adjunct to R.E.M.'s album catalog.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.'s tenth studio album. This Deluxe 2-CD/1-Blu-ray offers a trove of content, including the remastered album, B-sides and rarities, a previously unreleased outdoor projection film, and EPK…

Arriving mere months before Document took the group into the Top Ten, the B-sides and rarities collection Dead Letter Office sums up all of the quirks and idiosyncrasies that made R.E.M. the leading underground guitar pop band of the '80s. While only a handful of songs on Dead Letter Office rank among the group's best, the record is extremely entertaining, even for casual fans, particularly because it captures the wild spirit of R.E.M. that was evident at their concerts, but not always on their records…

R.E.M.‘s 1996 album New Adventures In Hi-Fi will be reissued for its 25th anniversary in October across three physical formats. This was the band’s final album with drummer Bill Berry and was mostly written and recorded on the road, during their 1995 Monster tour. Bassist Mike Mills recalls: “We wanted to make a record about being on the road without singing about being on the road. The idea was that the feeling of being on the road would come through in the sound and feel of the record itself.”