R.E.M. / And I feel fine... / The Best of the I.R.S. Years / 1982-1987 (2 CD Collector's edition): First, since there are so many `experts' here saying that the sound is bad, IGNORE them, they don't know what they are talking about. The sound here is Great! All the best tracks from their early years are here and the bonus CD is a real treat. This collection earns Five Stars. Hint: look for the other fine anthology that covers their later years.

This CD takes me back to The Glory Days of college. R.E.M. is the ultimate college band. Long live the 80s!

I'm not going to even pretend to be a long time fan of these guys. I just thought it might be nice to have a collection of their earlier works to round out my CD collection. I can't tell you how the remastered songs sound vs. the originals because I don't own any of the original music. That's why I bought this. Quirky and strange you can see them beginning to grow as songwriters as disk one winds out. I've always enjoyed hearing their stuff whenever it came up on the radio and I'm glad I can hear it now when I want. Not for everyone but pretty damn good.

Worf

If "Losing My Religion" made you an R.E.M. fan and you've been one ever since, you owe it to yourself before that radio hit made them a hit with the masses. I really recommend buying all the early albums; each is great it its own way. But if you don't have a pile of cash, this "best of" is actually quite decent. I've got all their CDs, but I also downloaded this when it was a $5 download, and then burned it to CD to play on my 90-mile commute across the desert to work. The early radio hits are mostly here (This One Goes Out to the One I Love, It's the End of the World (And I Feel Fine), etc. I would have liked Orange Crush, but I'd have to dig through CDs to see if it was an IRS release or not. Regardless, this is a good blend of relatively well-known songs as well as songs that never got much, if any, airplay. They probably could have put this out as a two-CD collection, but for one CD, if you don't know early R.E.M., this isn't a bad place to start. The audio quality is excellent, by the way.

So, for several years I've neglected to get this compilation. Several factors have contributed to this: I lost interest in REM around the time of their Out Of Time album; I bought various of their later albums, and they didn't 'click' for me, though they may be fine; various reviewers here have talked about the mastering of this album as if it rendered the cd's unlistenable; I may have just forgotten. Then today I saw it at the friendly neighborhood cd store, I had the cash, and figured I would chance it. I got home, put on disc two, and was totally entranced for the next 3 hours. I've heard a lot of rare recordings by this band, and figured (for some reason) that this would be just more of the same, in terms of versions, sequencing and the like. The songs are great, the mastering is fine, the sequence is killer, and I have been transplanted back to my youth in the best possible way. Now I'm listening to disc one for the second time, after hearing disc 2, like, 3 or 4 times in a row. Rarely has a cd grabbed me like this, but dang, this baby's got me! I wish now I'd heard it when I met P Buck at the Robyn Hitchcock show a couple of months ago. I would have been a lot more enthusiastic towards him. By the way, REM fans, Buck's playing in support of Mr Hitchcock was fabulous. So anyways, back to this here document. The cd is great, don't let the negative talk deter you if you're even a little tempted. If you can get this affordably, DO IT! You will not regret. This is an absolute classic compilation of a great band. Now I hope I can find the DVD companion soon.....

I noticed all the complaints on sound. So my 5-star rating is really for an import, "The Best of R.E.M." With 16 songs the songlist is representative of R.E.M.'s early years, though there are no rarities on it. It starts with "Chronic Town," then proceeds with 3 songs from each album chronologically from "Murmur" through "Document." The sound quality is fine, although a little lower than most newer CDs, so you have to turn it up a little. Here's the excellent song selection:

Carnival of Sorts
Radio Free Europe
Perfect Circle
Talk About the Passion
So. Central Rain
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
Pretty Persuasion
Green Grow the Rushes
Can't Get There From Here
Driver 8
Fall on Me
I Believe
Cuyahoga
The One I Love
Finest Worksong
It's the End of the Worlds As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

This is an amazing collection. The best cuts from the best of thier albums.

The single disc version of this CD is probably a perfect retro pop CD. The two disc version is icing on the cake. Probably the most inspirational core set of material from any modern band coming out of the post punk, new wave / MTV era in the eighties. The newer material is different but just as good. If you have nothing, this is probably the best place to start.

I haven't heard all of R.E.M's material, but I was quite satisfied with this collection, especially when joined with the the '88-'03 years.

In their early days at IRS, before R.E.M. became one of the "untoucheables" like U2 - they were just a group that was largely unknown outside of angst-ridden college radio. It was also in my opinion, one of their more prolific periods - putting out gems such as "Radio Free Europe" and "Gardening at Night" that were hardly typical radio fare at the time. They were a group that put out music that felt right to them, not just hits that'd make Casey Kasem's Top 10 ( ironically - some of their stuff ended up their despite how non-typical their stuff was ).

Once they left IRS - they did end up being more popular, some even accused them of selling out to make a couple of bucks - but these 21 pieces of work on this album - are each a masterpiece in it's own way. If you're a fan, you probably have most of the stuff on this compilation already - but the addition of a special 2nd disk - with live stuff, outtakes & alternate cuts - make this a must-have for anybody.