Happy Labor Day, I Guess

Hey, no songs today, sorry. I’ve got a lot of cool stuff planned for the rest of this week, though. Exciting new stuff, mostly. In the meantime, please let me indulge in a small rant about R.E.M….

R.E.M. Botch Best-Of Tracklist!

First off, here’s the tracklisting for R.E.M.’s new greatest hits compilation In Time:

Man On The Moon / The Great Beyond / Bad Day (new single, re-written Lifes Rich Pageant outtake) / What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? / All The Way To Reno (You’re Gonna Be A Star)/ Losing My Religion / E-Bow The Letter / Orange Crush / Imitation Of Life / Daysleeper / Animal (new song) / The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite / Stand / Electrolite / All The Right Friends / Everybody Hurts / At My Most Beautiful / Nightswimming

I find this tracklisting fascinating, because it gets some things right (the inclusion of “Nightswimming”) while generally messing up something that really should’ve been a no-brainer.

First, isn’t this supposed to be a hits compilation? What exactly is the point of leaving out several big hits, most obviously “Pop Song 89” and “Shiny Happy People”? It seems that the band has omitted those songs mostly due to some kind of embarassment about them, particularly “Shiny Happy People.” Presumably the target audience for a greatest hits compilation are buying the cd because they want the hits. “Shiny Happy People” may be a silly song that the band is ashamed of (though they shouldn’t be – it’s a nice song), but it belongs on the cd simply because most people would expect it to be there. “Pop Song 89” is a much bigger hit than any of the more recent songs on this record, so why does that song get the ax when “E-Bow The Letter,” the song that pretty much destroyed the band’s commercial career, is represented? “E-Bow” is a fine song, but it’s just not a hit, and neither is “All The Way To Reno” from Reveal or the dreadful “All The Right Friends” from the Vanilla Sky soundtrack.

Why is Monster being underrepresented? Monster was a huge hit when it came out and it went multiplatinum. Even though there are a large number of fans who dislike the record and about a million copies of it in used record stores around the world, it doesn’t change the fact that “Crush With Eyeliner,” “Bang And Blame,” and “Strange Currencies” were legitimate hits on radio and MTV, and are exactly the sort of songs that casual fans might want to have on an R.E.M. hits compilation. All of those songs are better known to the general public than anything off of the last three R.E.M. records, which were all failures in terms of mainstream popularity.

That said, I’m happy with the songs selected from the last three LPs. “E-Bow The Letter” may have been a commercial misstep, but it was a good idea to include “Electrolite,” which is definitely one of the most underrated and beautiful songs in the band’s catalog. If “Electrolite” was released as the lead single from New Adventures In Hi-Fi, there’s a chance that the album may actually have been a modest hit. “Daysleeper” and “At My Most Beautiful” were the obvious songs to go with from Up, and they definitely belong on this record. I’m glad that my two favorite songs from Reveal were the ones to make the cut; I’d be very embarassed for them if they had included something as trite and melodramatic as “I’ll Take The Rain” to represent that album.

I’ve heard live versions of “Bad Day” and “Animal” – they’re both kinda average. I’m not sure why so many bands are so eager to muddy up sure-thing greatest hits packages with lackluster recently-recorded material. I understand that labels want new singles to promote the record, but R.E.M. didn’t need to have two “new” songs in addition to two non-album soundtrack songs, crowding out legimate hit singles. Maybe instead of these two songs, the band could have re-recorded an older gem, such as a studio version of the live arrangement of “Country Feedback,” and made that the special bonus song. That way you get the “new single” and an old classic which should be on the record in one go. Y’know, logic. Of course, re-recording older songs can be a disasterous thing, as it was for U2 when they tried it for their last hits compilation.

I don’t think it’s ridiculous to get annoyed with folks messing up their own greatest hits albums. I sincerely believe that these records are important; especially for young record buyers who want to try out older artists without getting overwhelmed by large back catalogs, and for casual listeners who for perfectly understandable reasons, just want the hits. The entire point of these compilations is to be crass and commercial. They should be about giving the people what they want, it shouldn’t be about the artist trying to revise their own history.