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| Artist: R.e.m.
Label: Capitol/I.R.S.
Category: Music
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $14.97
You Save: $10.01 (40%)
New (53) Used (20) from $11.70
Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 5445
Format: Extra Tracks, Collector's Edition
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.6
MPN: 69942
UPC: 094636994222
EAN: 0094636994222
ASIN: B000GTJSLM
Release Date: September 12, 2006
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Change of heart February 22, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thought R.E.M. was just dismissable frat-rock all through the eighties...wow, has my mind changed. I love the jangly rock on this excellent collection...yes, R.E.M. rock for the best.
"Music that didn't pander to an audience" - it created one February 18, 2007
During 1982-87 REM was probably the best band - possibly ever - if you define best band by great ALBUMS and great concerts. Similar to U2, REM created an audience - a big one - by original ideas that invited the audience to interpret the music. They didn't let tell you what it meant - maybe it meant nothing - but millions (billions?) THOUGHT IT DID. As Michael Stipe stated "Not everyone can carry the weight of the world". They CREATED an audience that wanted something new (the original alternative music). Nowadays - as the last line in U2's "Kite" states ("the time when new media was the big idea") audiences demand technology but the meaning or value of music is not relevant. I'd recommend this album to anyone who wants to hear America's greatest band at its creative best from a time when music could be relevant.
 More about the remastering January 6, 2007
35 out of 39 found this review helpful
Firstly, the music on this collection is stupendous. In the 80's, R.E.M. was the most consistently excellent, yet idiosyncratic and unconventional, band around and each release was a new gift. I don't have many quibbles with the song selections made for this best-of, and getting the second disc for not much more than the price of the single-disc version is a value. If you don't know early R.E.M. very well, this is a great place to start.
But... as several other reviewers have commented, this release was mastered to sound as loud as possible. And at first listen, it sounds great. Then, after it's on for awhile, you will probably find yourself turning the volume down, and even thinking about turning it off. That's because the mix has been highly compressed - that's how they get newer CDs to sound so much louder than old ones, but it's akin to how a loud commercial suddenly comes on when you're watching a TV show and sends you jumping for the remote to turn it down. It becomes obnoxious and irritating when everything is so loud all the time, and robs the music of all dynamics. And if you listen closely you'll hear distortion - they mix it so high that they're actually introducing clipping, which means flattened sound waves that results in a static-y edge to the sound.
Unfortunately this is a trend that has been going on with CD mastering for the last decade, though it gets very little publicity. The record companies do it because they think we like it, and actually many of us think we do, judging by a lot of the positive comments on the sound of overloud remasters. But once you're aware of it, you'll notice it, and you'll start to feel ripped off. The public needs to tell the record companies we want quality remasters that don't compromise true fidelity and range for shallow loudness and distortion. To learn more on this topic, do a web search on "loudness war".
Discover This Band January 5, 2007
There was once a band called 'R.E.M.' and they played energetic, inventive, interesting, raw, yet somehow sophisticated jangly rock country punk. Their lead singer sounded like nobody else with sort of a baritone drawl that somehow managed to not really sound country at all, but they were from Georgia. They weren't precious or self-conscious. At the same time that a lot of groups were doing synth-pop or hair metal, this band was sorting out how to fuse art-rock with folk rock. The words the singer sang were sometimes imagistic, sometimes surreal, sometimes obscure. The drums were punchy. The bass was melodic. The guitar was sometimes jangly, sometimes ferocious. This is a collection of what that band sounded like 'in the day'. Not complete without the bonus disc, however.
and i feel fine...the best of the irs years 1982-1987 January 5, 2007
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
good.didn't need to be 2 discs though
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