After the announcement of R.E.M.'s breakup, several sources are reporting a new career-spanning compilation being released by Warner Bros. on November 15. This will span both the IRS and Warner Bros. years, and will also include some previously unreleased tunes that were recorded during the Collapse Into Now sessions...



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005NS0VNU/?tag=imwan-20

The band did mention a forthcoming compilation... glad to see it will include some unreleased material as well.

From musictap:

The upcoming Greatest Hits package from R.E.M. will be named Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982 – 2011. In this 40-song retrospective, the band has assembled a complete look back at their wonderful career over 2CDs. That means that this collection will contain music from their I.R.S. years as well as their Warner Brothers years, which makes for a nice closing argument of what is one of Rock’s great successes.

As a bonus to this set, there will be three new songs that were recorded after the band completed the music for Collapse into Now (2011). The songs, “A Month of Saturdays”, “We All Go Back To Where We Belong”, and “Hallelujah” bolster the release further. ”We All Go Back To Where We Belong” will be released as a new R.E.M. single on October 18.

85 million album sales, and 31 years of recording and touring, make R.E.M. more than an important band in our lives, it makes them forever.

Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982-2011 releases on November 15.



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
.

Pretty lame, and missing some obvious selections and it includes a few that don't belong (Country Feedback? New Test Leper???). Off the top of my head, I'd say most glaring are "Pretty Persuasion", "Can't Get There From Here", "Superman", "Drive" (are you kidding?), "Bang And Blame", "Bittersweet Me", "e-Bow The Letter", "Daysleeper", etc.
Couldn't they have gotten this right? Obviously not. I would've bought this but not now. FAIL.

One puzzling inclusion is "Shiny Happy People", as the band has made clear in the past how much they hate the song. They wouldn't put it on the In Time... comp, but it's on this one. IP mentions some really good songs that were omitted. Also, three tracks from the latest album seems a bit much, particularly since they left off "It Happened Today" (now one of my all-time favorite R.E.M. songs). I think I'm happy (and shiny!) with the R.E.M. CD's I already have.

Has anyone heard if Document and/or Dead Letter Office will be re-released in remastered "Deluxe Edition" format like the rest of the IRS catalog?

Maybe they shoulda included "Furry Happy Monsters" instead. Dig that Kate Pierson muppet!

No "Superman" is a complete fail.

Yep-a really glaring ommission. This comp is typically pretentious R.E.M. How is "Drive" not on there? And a piece of crap like "Country Feedback" is? I'm sure Michael Stipe compiled it while staring at an acorn naked in a room painted orange while using an abacus.

I suspect that, since they didn't write "Superman," it's been omitted since the group gets no publishing percentage. Not saying it shouldn't be there.

It was on the I.R.S. comp.

The comp that came out a few years ago (2 cds) does a great job of covering those years. They need a slightly better Warner collection. These one really does neither ere justice.

In Time sounded like crap anyway, they merely saved you the trouble of buying and listening to a lousy sounding mastering of "Shiny Happy People".

"Shiny Happy People" is the Garbage Part. Truth in advertising with that comp title.

Based on many of the comments above, it would appear the album title is very appropriate for this compilation, espcecially ..."...,Part Garbage".

Stipe has described both of those songs as among his favorites.

On the live version of CF that's on "In Time," Stipe says "Here's a request from the website, and we're gonna do it because it's my favorite song."

On the "Live At The Olympia" version of NTL, he intros it by saying "I really love this song and Peter really loves this song, and we think Mike does too." (to Mike): "You do, right?" Mike: "Sure."

FWIW, I like both of those, and don't think they're out of place on a 2 disc comp. If it was a single disc, they wouldn't be good choices.

I don't quite understand all of the complaints regarding the song selection on this release. R.E.M. is clearly not marketing this as a "Greatest Hits" compilation, or even a "Best Of" collection.

The official R.E.M. website states that it is a "a 40-song career-spanning retrospective that collects, for the first time ever, songs from R.E.M.’s entire back catalog". So, this is a collection that is representative of their music, not necessarily what songs made the charts or got tons of airplay. The "greatest hits" tag does not appear on the album artwork, and IIRC originated from Warner's (clueless) press people, not the band's intent. They certainly don't want want to simply repeat what was on previous comps, so cut 'em a little slack here (and, there have been other compilations besides 'And I Feel Fine' and 'In Time').

btw, "Country Feedback" is a perennial fan-favorite deep-cut track, so it's inclusion here is definitely warranted.



Of course, in concert Stipe often prefaced songs by saying "This is my favorite song...". Sometimes it was "World Leader Pretend", sometimes it was "Stand", sometimes it was any of a dozen other songs ...

"True" - it is not a GH in label, but that is splitting hairs of the imagination. The tracklist is slathered with the basic "hits"...for the most part this tracklisting does not appear to be thoughtful...but a 10 minute roundatable of "Songs of R.E.M. for a comp". Tossing a few deep racks is fine, but call it for what it is is.

Considering the "I Feel Fine..." IRS comp and "In Time" Warner comp - this one seems rather pointless (I am going by the deluxe versions of each). I think its s missed opportunity, where they could have released a box set (tradional 4 disc long box would more than suffice - thank you very much) to provide a more accurate "40-song career-spanning retrospective that collects, for the first time ever, songs from R.E.M.’s entire back catalog".