![R.E.M. - In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 [Import]](https://img.broadtime.com/418453601239:500.webp "In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 [Import]")
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Formats and Editions
1. Man on the Moon
2. Great Beyond, The
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, The
13. Stand
14. Electrolite
15. All the Right Friends
16. Everybody Hurts
17. At My Most Beautiful
18. Nightswimming
More Info:
How do you condense 15 years of music down to 76 minutes? In the case of this survey of the second phase of R.E.M.'s career, the answer is: Exceptionally well. The dangling carrot for diehards is two new songs; the rapid fire "Bad Day" hurtles along like the kissing cousin of "It's the End of the World as We Know It," while "Animal" is anchored by a majestic drone reminiscent of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." In a surprising, but gratifying move, the rest of the program shortchanges the band's breakthrough, Out of Time (no "Shiny Happy People"), to better accommodate movie soundtrack contributions, and spotlight gems from the less commercial, post-Bill Berry albums Reveal and Up; with its baroque piano and multi-tracked vocal harmonies, the Beach Boys homage "At My Most Beautiful" is particularly gorgeous, while the burbling keyboards and slightly dazed singing of "All the Way to Reno" will appeal to Flaming Lips fans.Reviews:
This "best-of" picks up where Eponymous left off, instead of replacing it, and that's consistent with the group's "value for money" releases. As a result, there isn't a lot of really spunky material on this 18-track collection that recalls their younger I.R.S. days, outside of the sublime bounce of Automatic for the People's "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight," the martial stomp of Green's "Orange Crush," and Monster's catchy opener "What's the Frequency, Kenneth." What you get instead is the mature, romantic and sweet R.E.M.-a band that clearly took a little edge off when they stopped touring all the time.
"Losing My Religion" may be the all-time fruit of this less-hurried existence, but "Nightswimming" and "Electrolite" are the most indicative of this new maturity. And the last two LPs of thoughtful, slower-tempo stuff show no loss of command via Reveal's shimmery-beautiful "Imitation of Life" and Up's lovely waltz "Daysleeper," and the piano-sugar of the Pet Sounds Beach Boys confection, "At My Most Beautiful." Even the two new and two non-LP songs show no slackening, as the "It's the End of the World"-ish "Bad Day" and the British Invasion-esque pop of Vanilla Sky soundtrack cut "All the Right Friends" and Man in the Moon soundtrack hit "The Great Beyond" and "Animal" give confidence to even old fans that the gravy train hasn't hit the end of the tracks.
No, this is not a rock LP, certainly not in the way that Eponymous was. This is pop at its most mollifying. They've long been one of the last proofs that commercial needn't always mean crap, and it's still a mystery why so few have followed their lead in that regard. Here's to best-of number three in 2019.
