Greatest Hits Pop Music : In Time: The Best of REM 1988 - 2003

In Time: The Best of REM 1988 - 2003

£3.79

  1. Man On The Moon
  2. Great Beyond
  3. Bad Day
  4. What s The Frequency Kenneth
  5. All The Way To Reno (You re Gonna Be A Star)
  6. Losing My Religion
  7. E Bow The Letter
  8. Orange Crush
  9. Imitation Of Life
  10. Daysleeper
  11. Animal
  12. Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
  13. Stand
  14. Electrolite
  15. All The Right Friends
  16. Everybody Hurts
  17. At My Most Beautiful
  18. Nightswimming

In 1988, REM were a cult on the cusp of major success. In 1992 they were somewhere close to being the biggest band in the world. In 2003, they re marginalised again, a middle-aged institution purportedly on the wane. Still, uninformed listeners to In Time might find it tricky to work out which songs come from which era. The 18 singles collected here in non-chronological order show a band that s operated at a terrifyingly high standard throughout the period, so that less lauded songs like The Great Beyond stand proud alongside the familiar anthems from the early 1990s. Of course, these compilations are sent to irritate loyalists, whose relief at the inclusion of E-Bow the Letter (a mesmerising duet with Patti Smith from 1996) will be undermined by the bewildering absence of 1992 s tearjerking epiphany Find the River. For a more comprehensive survey of REM s excellence, you ll also need The Best of REM, the highlights of their elliptical early years. One suspects a box set which tells the full story of this enduring band can t be that far away. For now, though, In Time will do well enough. --John Mulvey

GOOD ALBUM - This is the first time I have bought a REM Cd and so far, the tracks I have heard are great. Every song on this album is great.

Timely collection - There may never be agreement on the best tracks of such an important, much-loved band. Universally successful groups like REM reach a great variety of people with diverse tastes, connecting with different sides of their musical personality. This, their second best-of, covers REM s albums with Warner, incorporating their most commerically successful period and taking us up to their more recent slip from the limelight. Still a great band, there is no disputing the fading of their relevance lately, but their time will come again. This collection concentrates mostly on their singles output, but somehow largley avoids the sunnier side. I think - and I think the diehards would agree - that this Best Of is at least a close representation of the Spirit of the band, something that can t always be said about such compilations. That said, there is also the irritating commercial imperative to include some new tracks which don t make the grade, but this is standard practise now.I think there are some jarring exclusions - conspicuous in their absence - such as Drive , Country Feedback , World Leader Pretend , Crush With Eyeliner . The albums Monster and Out of Time are only represented by one track each, criminal really, the most obvious omission being the latter s Shiny Happy People (but this is understandable). If the intention of this collection is to bolster the songs post-Automatic, then it succeeds to place them on a non-chronological platform with greats such as Losing My Religion , Man on the Moon , Nightswimming etc. The overall effect is one of amazing consistency, but feels strangely downbeat, despite the inclusion of poppier moments such as Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and What s the Frequency Kenneth? . Anyone for whom REM fell off the radar during the 90s will be blown away by E-Bow the Letter with Patti Smith, among their best ever songs. Quibbles aside, you can t beat the value of this CD for content. I don t normally mention the price of a CD when discussing its merits, but this really is a bargain!!

Classic Songs from a Great Band - I picked this up in a sale recently and was surprised at just how great these songs are. I didn t know them all, but all of them had a kind of familiarity about them as if you had heard them before. This is great music to just relax and chill out to. My personal favourites are All the Right Friends, Bad Day, The Great Beyond, Man on the Moon and my all-time favourite REM song Nightswimming. Definitely worth a purchase at this price.

An excellent reflection - Can the story of R.E.M. be told in one compilation? Possibly not, but In Time tries to tell half of the tale thus far. The band tried to take into account fan opinion when compiling In Time, though when it came down to it, the view of both themselves and Warner Brothers carried a heavier weight. Warners wanted one of the catchy singles on it, R.E.M. were less convinced and only acquiesced to The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite. In the end, Shiny Happy People was left off at the band s request and in doing so, prevented In Time being a true Greatest Hits 1888-2003. In Time is almost entirely made up of singles, apart from the strange decision to include All The Right Friends, an original track performed at R.E.M. s first ever live performance in 1980, but never released on an album. Well, that s not entirely true. It did feature as a bonus track on an early 1990s German re-release of B-sides compilation Dead Letter Office... All The Right Friends, the lead track from the film Vanilla Sky, would perhaps have been better on the separately available limited edition Rarities disc.All the big hits, apart from the aforementioned Shiny Happy People, are here, such as Man On The Moon, Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts and UK smash E-Bow The letter, as well as two unreleased songs. The lead single was Bad Day, a song originally recorded for 1986 record Lifes Rich Pageant but subsequently omitted from it. R.E.M. s guitarist Peter Buck wasn t so keen to see it be lost to time as front man Michael Stipe and slyly recycled it with a key change as the basic tune for It s The End Of The World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine). The other single was Animal. Some fans might have wondered if a non-single like All The Right Friends could be on the disc, why not immensely popular non-single tracks like Country Feedback or World Leader Pretend? And where were Lotus, Bittersweet Me and Drive? I suppose you can t have everything. In truth, there s not a bad track on In Time.

Accessible tribute for the passing listener - Over the years (more than I like to remember) I ve seen and heard a number of hits by R.E.M. but I ve never actually bought an album of theirs - an error corrected with this best of. Some people complain that it does not represent their best, but for me it contains those 4 key tracks that sum up their career: Man On The Moon, Bad Day, Everybody Hurts and Losing My Religion. On the one hand the 18 singles clearly highlight the quality of the group, but equally there is certain monotony of voice and style that for me makes it difficult to listen to the album in one go. The tracks are not mixed in chronological order (I prefer) and in any case I prefer to insert the tracks at random in my different play-lists. Someone summed it quite astutely in that this album is an accessible tribute for the passing listener. For a group of this quality, it s more than enough (and you can interpret that how you like!).




In Time: The Best of REM 1988 - 2003