Side A
Artist	Song
R.E.M.	Pop Song '89
R.E.M.	Get Up
R.E.M.	Stand
R.E.M.	Orange Crush
R.E.M.	Untitled
R.E.M.	Dark Globe [Syd Barrett]
R.E.M.	See No Evil [Television]
R.E.M.	Academy Fight Song [Mission of Burma}
R.E.M.	I Walked With A Zombie [Roky Erickson]
R.E.M.	Losing My Religion
R.E.M.	Shiny Happy People
R.E.M.	Belong
R.E.M.	Me In Honey
R.E.M.	It's A Free World Baby
R.E.M.	First We Take Manhattan [Leonard Cohen]
R.E.M.	Drive
R.E.M.	Ignoreland
R.E.M.	Everybody Hurts
R.E.M.	Man On The Moon
R.E.M.	The Lion Sleeps Tonight [The Tokens]
R.E.M. w/ Natalie Merchant	Photograph
Side B
Artist	Song	Buy
R.E.M.	What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
R.E.M.	King of Comedy
R.E.M.	Star 69
R.E.M.	Strange Currencies
R.E.M.	Bang and Blame
R.E.M.	Revolution
R.E.M.	How The West Was Won...
R.E.M.	Departure
R.E.M.	E-Bow The Letter
R.E.M.	Electrolite
R.E.M.	Wall Of Death [Richard Thompson]
R.E.M.	Love Is All Around [The Troggs]
R.E.M.	Daysleeper
R.E.M.	At My Most Beautiful
R.E.M.	The Great Beyond
R.E.M.	Draggin' The Line [Tommy James]
R.E.M.	Imitation Of Life
R.E.M.	Bad Day
R.E.M.	Leaving New York
R.E.M.	Aftermath

Comment:

The less-than-exciting sequel to my 2-cd compilation of R.E.M.'s early years (1980-1987), this one captures the Warner Brothers years. The title (from one of many forgettable songs from 1998's Up) is only partially meant as a dig; there were some fine albums and essential songs after the major label switch, though I have to confess that the 3 albums since drummer Bill Berry left have been rather dull (and are thus poorly represented here). I suppose I could have done them better justice by waiting until the release of their next album (currently due early 2008) as, based on the tracks they previewed at some rehearsal shows this summer, it may actually be a return to form (or, at least, a return to the amped-up rocking of Monster).
But I kinda wanted to get this one done with, figuring I can update it next year. Plenty of merit here, though, unlike the prior collection, I leaned much more heavily on covers (found on various tribute albums and b-sides). I still find Green, Monster, and New Adventures in HiFi a bit underrated (but commercial breakthrough albums Out Of Time and Automatic for the People a bit overrated) -- not that there aren't some truly great tracks on all of them, albeit nothing that changed my life like on their first few albums.

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