Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0044797005428
Label: A&M
Manufacturer: A&M
Number Of Discs: 1
Packaged Height: 54 hundredths-inches
Packaged Length: 555 hundredths-inches
Packaged Weight: 18 hundredths-pounds
Packaged Width: 497 hundredths-inches
Publisher: A&M
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Studio: A&M
Product Description:
While purists will insist on an undiluted copy of the band's 1982 Chronic Town EP, R.E.M. completists (and those who just like a lot of tracks for their money) will be grateful for the inclusion of 15 additional B-sides and curios on this 1987 compilation. Not surprisingly, the non-Chronic material is a mixed blessing: while R.E.M. were much beloved for being notorious cover-whores during those early Athens live shows, their reverent takes on Velvet Underground classics stand the test of time far better than their odes to Roger Miller and Aerosmith. But all that will be forgotten by the time Chronic Town's "Wolves, Lower" kicks in, signaling the official arrival of a band that forever changed the face of Southern rock. --Bill Forman
Customer Reviews:
 Hitting the Flea Market with R.E.M., 2008-11-18
The main reason to get this CD was to pick up the long out-of-print "Chronic Town" EP. It was the first time R.E.M. found focus and made a studio album (released on the old IRS label in 1982). Their signature sound had already taken root, with Michael Stipe's mumbled vocals and Peter Buck's jangley guitars in full swing for "Gardening at Night" and "Wolves Lower." Within a year, they had caught the ears of college radio types with Murmur.
After that, you get a yard sale's pickings for B-Sides and previously unreleased songs. Some are ideas that eventually become other songs ("Burning Down"), free-wheeling covers (Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic) and a few drunken accidents (a babbling take on Roger Miller's "King of The Road"). Their love of The Velvet Underground is exposed by three covers, and a tribute to their buddies in Pylon leads the CD.
While hardly a requirement for REM fans, it does give folks a decent sense of back-story. Listeners who didn't discover REM until they jumped (two albums later) to Warners for Green may not get the old marble-mouth Stipe, but for those of us into the band early on (I actually had the "Chronic Town" Ep on vinyl), "Dead Letter Office" is alive on delivery.
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