~ REM appreciation thread ~

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  • axeljohan
    axeljohan Posts: 477
    Bit underwhelmed by the content of the deluxe editions, but at least they continue their reissue campaign (not like other bands I know). And I managed to get a marble vinyl, so I won’t complain. 
  • dankind
    dankind Posts: 20,841
    Jesus fuck!

    Vinyl already sold out!

    Guessing/hoping there'll be a black edition...?
    I SAW PEARL JAM
  • Tim Simmons
    Tim Simmons Posts: 9,649
    yeah. It will be everywhere. All thats SO at REMHQ is the /1000 clear with black swirl.
  • GlowGirl
    GlowGirl New York, NY Posts: 12,116
    goldrush said:
    Preorders are up on remhq.com with a bunch of different bundle options






    Craft Recordings proudly celebrates the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.’s tenth studio album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, with a special reissue, available for pre-order today and set for release on October 29. The bonus-filled 2-CD/1-Blu-ray Deluxe Edition offers a trove of audio-visual content, including the newly remastered album, 13 B-sides and rarities, a never-before-released 64-minute outdoor projection film (shown on buildings across five cities in 1996 to promote the album’s original release), and a previously unreleased 30-minute EPK. Additionally, the Blu-ray features New Adventures in Hi-Fi in stunning Hi-Res and 5.1 Surround Sound audio, plus five HD-restored music videos including “Bittersweet Me,” “Electrolite,” and “E-Bow the Letter.” Housed in a 52-page hardcover book, the collection includes archival photographs—many of which have never been published—plus new liner notes from journalist Mark Blackwell and reflections from all four original band members, as well as from Patti Smith, Thom Yorke, and producer Scott Litt.

     

    An Expanded Edition is also available as a 2-CD or digital collection, including the remastered album along with B-sides and rarities. The 2-CD offers an exclusive 24” x 24” poster and four collectible postcards, as well as a booklet featuring new liner notes and archival photos. Additionally, the newly remastered album will be available as a 2-LP set, pressed on 180-gram vinyl, with lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. Fans can preview all physical formats via the official unboxing trailer here.  A limited-edition pressing on clear and black marbled vinyl is also available exclusively at R.E.M.’s official store (limited to 1,000 worldwide), along with special New Adventures in Hi-Fi merchandise.

     

    Available via digital platforms today, ahead of the album, is the advance single “Leave – Alternate Version.”Originally recorded for the A Life Less Ordinarysoundtrack, the single offers a haunting, sparse, siren-less version of New Adventures album track “Leave,” for which Michael Stipe re-recorded the vocals. Reflects Stipe, “I actually might prefer this version to the one that’s on the record… Well, I wouldn’t say I prefer it, it just tells a different story with the lyric.” Fans can stream or download the single now, and pre-save the album.

     

    First released in September 1996, New Adventures in Hi-Fiendures as one of R.E.M.’s most acclaimed albums and stands as a favorite among band members and fans alike. The album was a global success, achieving platinum certification in the US and peaking at No.2 on the Billboard 200. Elsewhere, the album went to No.1 in more than a dozen countries, including Australia, the UK, and Canada. Critically, New Adventures in Hi-Fi received wide praise and was named as one of the best albums of the year by such outlets as Rolling Stone, Spin, Mojo, Entertainment Weekly, and the NME. Over the decades, the title has achieved cult status, with several press retrospectives ranking it among the top albums in R.E.M.’s rich catalog of releases.

     

    Recorded at the height of their fame, New Adventures in Hi-Fi also marks R.E.M.’s final album with drummer and founding member Bill Berry, who left the group amicably the following year. Perhaps most remarkable, however, is that the album found the band taking a unique creative approach: writing and recording much of the LP on the road, during their 1995 Monster tour.

     

    While writing new material on the road wasn’t an unusual feat for R.E.M., New Adventures was unlike anything they had done before. As they embarked on tour, the band sought to create an abstract travelogue documenting every emotion and experience as it happened. “We wanted to make a record about being on the road without singing about being on the road,” bassist Mike Mills explains in the liner notes. “The idea was that the feeling of being on the road would come through in the sound and feel of the record itself.”

     

    The band traveled with a mobile recording truck, capturing new songs on an 8-track during soundchecks (as well as in various backstage areas and on the tour bus). “The idea was, ‘Let’s challenge ourselves,’” guitarist Peter Buck tells Blackwell. “My feeling was, it’ll show exactly where we’re at right now in a way that maybe some of the records don’t at all. This record was just an attempt to be who we were at that minute.”

     

    The year-long outing, which began in January 1995, marked R.E.M.’s first tour in six years. As one of the biggest bands in the world, the quartet played to packed arenas across North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, with support from acts like Sonic Youth and Radiohead. But along the way, the tour was marred by medical emergencies. In March, Berry collapsed on stage from an aneurism and spent the next month recuperating. Mills, meanwhile, underwent intestinal surgery in June. A month later, Stipe had emergency surgery for a hernia (which, he asserts, occurred while performing the song, “Undertow”).

     

    After the band returned from the eventful—yet highly successful—run of dates, they entered the studio with their longtime producer, Scott Litt, to record a few final tracks and put finishing touches on others. Among them was the epic, seven-minute-long “Leave;” “E-Bow the Letter,” featuring backing vocals from the legendary singer-songwriter Patti Smith; “New Test Leper,” which Buck proclaims is his favorite R.E.M. song; and “How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us,” one of several songs on the album inspired by Stipe’s experiences living in Los Angeles.

     

    Upon its release, New Adventures in Hi-Fi marked R.E.M.’s longest studio album, with a total run-time of 65 minutes. Filled with cinematic storytelling, haunting effects, and dissonant notes, New Adventures in Hi-Fi found R.E.M. exploring diverse sonic territories—particularly in songs like “Low Desert,” which, Berry describes, is “just dusty and kind of slow and it’s swampy…I feel isolated when I listen to that song, but it’s a good thing.” Stipe adds that the song offers such questions as, “‘What are we doing in the desert? What are we doing in the American West? What are we doing in this unlivable, uninhabitable place?’” Other tracks, like “Departure” and “The Wake-Up Bomb” deliver classic R.E.M. rock vibes.

     

    The band looks back on New Adventures in Hi-Fi with great pride. Buck, perhaps, sums it up best. “Most records, you go in the studio and you just do ’em. And years later all you really remember is vaguely where you stayed, and the songs and the recording process. But this one I remember every bit of it. It was an experience. It was f**king tough, but we made a record. And it was as challenging as anything I’ve ever done.”

     

    Click here to pre-order New Adventures in Hi-Fi on 2-CD/1-Blu-Ray, 2-CD or 2-LP, or to stream the single and pre-save the deluxe digital album.

     

    New Adventures in Hi-Fi 25th anniversary tracklists:

     

    Deluxe Edition (2-CD/1-Blu-Ray):

     

    Disc 1 – New Adventures in Hi-Fi (remastered audio)

    1. How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us
    2. The Wake-Up Bomb
    3. New Test Leper
    4. Undertow
    5. E-Bow the Letter
    6. Leave
    7. Departure
    8. Bittersweet Me
    9. Be Mine
    10. Binky the Doormat
    11. Zither
    12. So Fast, So Numb
    13. Low Desert
    14. Electrolite

     

    Disc 2 – B-sides and Rarities

    1. Tricycle (Instrumental)
    2. Departure (Live Rome Soundcheck / Rome, Italy / 2/22/1995)
    3. Wall of Death
    4. Undertow (Live / Atlanta, GA / 11/18/1995)
    5. Wichita Lineman (Live / Houston, TX / 9/15/1995)
    6. New Test Leper (Live Acoustic / Seattle, WA / 4/19/1996)
    7. The Wake-Up Bomb (Live / Atlanta, GA / 10/4/1995)
    8. Binky the Doormat (Live / Atlanta, GA / 11/18/1995)
    9. King of Comedy (808 State Remix)
    10. Be Mine (Mike on Bus version)
    11. Love Is All Around
    12. Sponge
    13. Leave (Alternate Version)

     

    Disc 3 (Blu-Ray) 

    1. E.M. Outdoor Projections – Saturday Sept 7, 1996 – 5 cities (64:56)
    2. New Adventures in Hi-Fi EPK – previously unreleased 30 min version (29:13)
    3. New Adventures in Hi-Fi 5.1 Audio
    4. New Adventures in Hi-Fi – Hi-Resolution Audio
    5. E-Bow the Letter (Music Video)
    6. Bittersweet Me (Music Video)
    7. Electrolite (Music Video)
    8. How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us (Music Video)
    9. New Test Leper (Music Video)

     


    Thanks for the heads up. I ordered the limited edition vinyl 2-LP vinyl version that came with a long sleeved tee.
  • JOEJOEJOE
    JOEJOEJOE Posts: 10,825
    I will always love "New Adventures" because I got to hear several of the songs in a live setting before the album came out.  I always seem to like songs better if I hear the in a live setting first.
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,664
    Pap said:

    It amazes me that there is so much hate in the world for this song.  Love for it too, of course, but I mean, man, you should read some of the stuff that's been said about it!  Sad!
    I've always thought it was great and that video is a kick! 
    The song gets played in my grocery store once in awhile.  If you see a guy doing a funny little dance down the pasta isle when it's playing, I'm that guy.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • FR181798
    FR181798 Posts: 2,166
    Missed out on the marbled vinyl. Hopefully the black drops in price and I can get this for £20 one day, seems over priced for a 2lp. I love the album but wont spend too much on this.
  • JH6056
    JH6056 Posts: 2,437
    I loooooove Texarkana! So many great songs on this album...  Thanks for posting!
  • JeBurkhardt
    JeBurkhardt Posts: 5,331
    brianlux said:
    Pap said:

    It amazes me that there is so much hate in the world for this song.  Love for it too, of course, but I mean, man, you should read some of the stuff that's been said about it!  Sad!
    I've always thought it was great and that video is a kick! 
    The song gets played in my grocery store once in awhile.  If you see a guy doing a funny little dance down the pasta isle when it's playing, I'm that guy.
    The only bad song on that album is Radio Song, and only because of the stupid rapping on it from KRS-1. The song itself is pretty good. I have a copy of the Bingo Hand Job acoustic record where they perform it live and I really like that version.
  • GC31608
    GC31608 GA Posts: 246

    Anyone that successfully ordered the limited edition marbled New Adventures to later receive a cancellation message received the message above today. I wonder what the ‘something special’ they’re sending out is to make up for it.
  • GlowGirl
    GlowGirl New York, NY Posts: 12,116
    GC31608 said:

    Anyone that successfully ordered the limited edition marbled New Adventures to later receive a cancellation message received the message above today. I wonder what the ‘something special’ they’re sending out is to make up for it.
    I ordered the marble vinyl and haven’t gotten a cancellation notice. I hope I don’t get one. But I wonder what the “something special” is. Let us know when you find out. 
  • Tim Simmons
    Tim Simmons Posts: 9,649
    You would have gotten it by now. The cancellations went out by the end of the day it went on sale. 
  • GC31608
    GC31608 GA Posts: 246
    GlowGirl said:
    .I ordered the marble vinyl and haven’t gotten a cancellation notice. I hope I don’t get one. But I wonder what the “something special” is. Let us know when you find out. 
    Don’t think I’ll get the something special. I ordered the marbled mega bundle, then ordered the marbled vinyl with a t-shirt. Only the 2nd one was cancelled and I figured it was because it was one per customer which I didn’t realize until after I ordered the 2nd one.
  • goldrush
    goldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,802
    Hard to believe it’s been 10 years!



    As we think back on September 21, 2011, here’s a reprise of Peter, Mike, and Michael’s comments on REMHQ from 10 years ago when the band “called it a day”:

    “To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.” 
    -R.E.M.

    In their own words: The guys share their thoughts on why now.

    MIKE

    “During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, ‘what next’? 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.

    “We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this–there’s no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We’ve made this decision together, amicably and with each other’s best interests at heart. The time just feels right.”

    MICHAEL

    “A wise man once said–‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.

    “I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

    “We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”

    PETER

    “One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us. It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you.

    “Mike, Michael, Bill, Bertis, and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years. Even if it’s only in the vinyl aisle of your local record store, or standing at the back of the club: watching a group of 19 year olds trying to change the world.”

    (Here's a link to the original announcement: https://bit.ly/3nNzywa)
    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • HughFreakingDillon
    HughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,518
    crazy it's been a decade already. wow. 
    By The Time They Figure Out What Went Wrong, We'll Be Sitting On A Beach, Earning Twenty Percent.




  • JeBurkhardt
    JeBurkhardt Posts: 5,331
    My favorite band of all time, 10 years has gone by quickly.  
  • JH6056
    JH6056 Posts: 2,437
    Ooops, I just re-upped a different REM discussion for the same reason.  But really, can you ever have "too many" REM threads trending? <3

    10 yrs has indeed gone by very quickly, yet it also feels like ages since they were together. Missing them more than usual right about now....
  • HughFreakingDillon
    HughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,518
    Stipe was asked about a reunion and he said it "will never happen". 
    By The Time They Figure Out What Went Wrong, We'll Be Sitting On A Beach, Earning Twenty Percent.




  • Tim Simmons
    Tim Simmons Posts: 9,649
    love the commitment, but if they did one more tour of just the 4 of them (maybe like 40 world wide tour dates. Even if they just did festivals), I wouldn't hold it against them and actually be incredibly happy.

  • HughFreakingDillon
    HughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,518
    He said something to the effect of "I hate nostalgia" and  “That’s wishful thinking. We will never reunite. We decided when we split up that that would just be really tacky and probably money-grabbing, which might be the impetus for a lot of bands to get back together. We don’t really need that. And I’m really happy we just have the legacy of 32 years of work that we have.”
    By The Time They Figure Out What Went Wrong, We'll Be Sitting On A Beach, Earning Twenty Percent.




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