Record Label: Warner Bros
Genre: Pop
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Post-Monster REM was a real drag, and I didn’t bother with it. Hearing their best mopey songs altogether, though, made me think twice. On this best-of, REM drew strongly from their darker repertoire (tracks from Reveal, Up, and New Adventures in HiFi over the tons of better known and upbeat stuff from Green, Out of Time and Monster), but the strength of their choices makes it work. It ends up a beautiful and upliftingly dark collection.

Maybe given the great tracks they omitted, they should’ve made this a double disc, with a light and dark side, but this is still a solid album. Maybe not a “greatest hits”, but a collection of brilliant but overlooked tunes, and a couple of new ones (the more obvious songs are here, like “Stand”, “Losing My Religion”, “Man On The Moon”, and “What’s The Frequency Kenneth?”).

Songs I Now Like: the Husker Du-ish “Bad Day”, “All the Way to Reno”, “Imitation of Life”, “All the Right Friends”

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