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IN TIME: THE BEST OF R.E.M., 1988-2003
(Warner Bros.)
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This Athens band have come a long way since they left I.R.S. for the big leagues of Warner Bros. back in 1988. But by choosing only the elegant, mandolin-driven tune "Losing My Religion" to represent their 1991 commercial blockbuster Out of Time and the quirky "What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?" as the lone chunk of raucous rock from their 1994 arena-ready Monster, R.E.M. make it clear that they’re very much in touch with their underground roots on this "greatest hits" collection. Some songs are, of course, too crucial to ignore — the Automatic for the People classics "Man on the Moon" and "Everybody Hurts," and Green’s unabashedly goofy keyboard romp "Stand." But R.E.M. don’t shy away from lesser-known deep cuts like the keyboard-lush "The Great Beyond" and Reveal’s "All the Way to Reno," with its loping country twang. It would have been nice if they’d included another jolt of noise from Monster or another swooning orchestral track from Out of Time instead of the nursery-rhyme-like "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite." And the absence of Automatic for the People’s ominous "Drive" and Out of Time’s equally haunting "Country Feedback" is unfortunate. Still, two excellent new tunes — "Bad Day," a motor-mouthed politically charged rocker dating from the mid ’80s but reworked with added vitriol for today’s political climate, and the psychedelically sprawling "Animal" — give urgency and relevance to the set while indicating that R.E.M. have a lot of fight left in them. A limited-edition version of In Time with a bonus disc of B-sides and live tracks is also available, highlighted by the Out of Time–era dirge "Fretless."
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