 | | |
| | Live At The Olympia (2CD/1DVD) | | | Music Artist : | | R.e.m. | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Warner Bros. | | Release Date : | | 2009-10-27 | | Store Price : | | $29.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $22.99 | | Usually ships in 3 to 5 weeks | | |
|
|
|
|
|
CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2. Second Guessing
3. Letter Never Sent
4. Staring Down The Barrel Of The
5. Disturbance At The Heron House
6. Mr. Richards
7. Houston
8. New Test Leper
9. Cuyahoga
10. Electrolite
11. Man-Sized Wreath
12. So. Central Rain
13. On The Fly
14. Maps And Legends
15. Sitting Still
16. Driver 8
17. Horse To Water
18. I'm Gonna DJ
19. Circus Envy
20. These Days
Disc 21. Drive
2. Feeling Gravity's Pull
3. Until The Day Is Done
4. Accelerate
5. Auctioneer
6. Little America
7. 1,000,000
8. Disguised
9. The Worst Joke Ever
10. Welcome To The Occupation
11. Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcar)
12. Harborcoat
13. Wolves, Lower
14. I've Been High
15. Kohoutek
16. West Of The Fields
17. Pretty Persuasion
18. Romance
19. Gardening At Night
Disc 31. This Is Not A Show, A Film By Vincent Moon and Jeremiah (DVD)
| |
Other Artist Albums
|
|
|
|
Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
|
 Classic R.E.M. - great audio...sub-par video
Submitted on: 2009-11-23 |
|
The CD-only version of this release would've been a 5-star but considering I bought the CD-DVD version, I had to bump it down a notch.
LOVE the audio content off this collection. Wonderful performance from a band that after nearly 30 years is as fresh today as they were in 1982. Fans that grew up with the band from the early days will enjoy the collection of songs included on the 2 disc set...old chestnuts from years past and some terrific new material off Accelerate. Save yourself the extra $6 bucks for the "Bonus DVD" edition however as the video is an "artsy" collection of out-of-focus, grainy black & white crap. As was the case when buying 2007's R.E.M. Live release with bonus DVD, I felt ripped off after watching the video content. The two CD's more than make up for the lousy video however...it's as close as you're likely to get to being in a rehersal type environment with the band. |
|
|
|
 This is a GREAT live CD!!
Submitted on: 2009-11-23 |
|
| These live tracks are near perfect renditions of some of REM's best studio work, with enough of Michael Stipe's miscues to remind you that the song they are playing hasn't been played in 10 years. Great playing, sounds like the REM gig that every fan would have wanted to be at. |
|
|
|
Experience and energy
Submitted on: 2009-11-16 |
|
| NPR aptly called this album a thank you to their long time fans. This live set has the raw energy of a young REM coming into its prime decades ago, combined with the maturity of musicians that have played together for almost 30 years. Michael Stipe's vocals sound fantastic, and the selection of tracks is inspired by the years. While this isn't a greatest hits compilation like you tend to see with live albums, it does have some hits. Mostly, this is an album for the fans who have been around for a long time and enjoy the old songs even more than the new. All in all, "Live at the Olympia" is a really great listen. |
|
|
|
Great live album. So-so DVD
Submitted on: 2009-11-05 |
|
In June and July 2007, REM did a brave and unique thing for an established, hall of fame rock band to do. They conducted five open rehearsals in front of live audiences at Dublin's Olympia Theater. Thankfully for REM fans, they recorded it and have produced for us a great live album to help us forget the lackluster REM Live from two years ago.
Not surprisingly, the album contains the majority of Accelerate. Though these are rehearsals, most of the songs seem to have been in playing shape because they sound exactly the same as they would on the album. The lone exception to that is 'Supernatural Superserious', which appears here as 'Disguised' without the chorus and thus a much weaker version than the final product. What makes this album so damn good though is that the rest of the selections are not the usual greatest hits, like 'Losing My Religion' or 'Man on the Moon'. Instead, they opt to dig deep into their early albums and pull out some of the best and often overlooked cuts. We hear most of Chronic Town. We hear a good chunk of Reckoning and Fables. And, since the new album had put them in the rocking spirit, these versions all sound good and chunky. 'Circus Envy' for example, a song from Monster, is given a new treatment and vitality that it lacked on the album version. The casual atmosphere also encouraged the band to be more playful, as they rap back and forth with the crowd between a number of songs. At one point, Bono even heckles them from the crowd! (Before 'Man-Sized Wreath', while the band is bantering about whether or not the song will appear on the album, he yells, "B-side!") Combine this with a few previously unreleased songs (Staring Down the Barrel, On the Fly) and this album is a must purchase for any serious REM fan, especially those fans of the IRS years.
As good as the album is, the DVD disappoints just as much. Rather than giving us a concert film, or even a documentary of the band's unique idea, we get a disjointed mess. Vincent Moon and Jeremiah calls the film 'sketches', but why not a fully developed work of art. And I'm not sure what they were trying to do stylistically. The shots are always jumping around, seemingly looking for the most obscure shots of the band possible. There are some good chunks of film towards the end, but as soon as it starts to resemble a decent whole, it ends. Perhaps they thought a straight film of the rehearsals would be boring. But the crowd there obviously loved it, so why wouldn't we love watching it?
If you're a serious fan, you should probably get the CD/DVD version anyway and see what you think about the movie. Worst case you spent a couple bucks more and never watch the movie again. Either way though, the album is a must.
|
|
|
|
Get it for the music (surely not for the DVD)
Submitted on: 2009-11-04 |
|
Almost to the day 2 years ago, REM released its first official live album in its illustrious career ("REM Live"), but unfortunately that live album pretty much collapsed under the weight of far too many weak recent songs (6 no less from the dud that is "Around The Sun"). Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for this to be corrected.
"Live At the Olympia" (2 CDs; 39 tracks; 149 min.; DVD 65 min.) is as astonishingly strong and fresh as "REM Live" felt forced and unnatural. (Interestingly, both these live albums were recorded in Dublin, albeit at different venues.) From the opening chords of "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" (also the opening track from the equally excellent "Accelerate" studio album released last year), the band plays with vigor and an extra kick not heard since.... well, probably since Barry left the band. Sprinkled throughout this opulence of 39 tracks are 8 of the 11 tracks from "Accelerate", which is actually a good thing (strangely, the single "Supernatural Superserious" is not on here). Thankfully missing on here are tried songs like "Everybody Hurts" and "Losing My Religion", which I simply can't stand hearing any more, ever. Instead we are treated to a boatload of old nuggets: half the track from the "Reckoning" album ("Second Guessing", "So. Central Rain", "Little America", "Harborcoat" and "Pretty Persuasion", all one better than the next), 4 tracks from "Fables of the Reconstruction" ("Maps and Legends", "Drive 8", "Auctioneer" and "Kohoutek"), and even the band's first EP "Chronic Town (1982) is covered by 3 tracks here: "1,000,000", "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)", and the last track on this album (and also closing track on the EP), a beautiful "Gardening At Night".
As to the DVD, unfortunately it is an incomprehensible and unwatchable mess. Victor Moon (who also made the National's deeply personal DVD "A Skin, A Night") directed this, and it's pretty much like the DVD from the "REM Live" 2007 DVD: switching camera angles every second or so, pretty much inducing motion-sickness. Just terrible. What were they thinking?
All that aside, getting back to the music, there is minimal (only 3 songs) overlap between the 2007 live album and the new one, so you can make a clear choice. Whereas the 2007 live album felt tired and tiresome, "Live at the Olympia" features a band that is completely on top of its game, playing tight and rocking hard. I had the good fortune of seeing REM in concert last year on the "Accelerate" tour, and was shocked how good they sounded, and how much fun they seemed to be having. Meanwhile, "Live At the Olympia" is a momentous and fantastic live album. Highly recommended! |
|
|
|
![Live at Reading [CD/DVD] by Nirvana](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ybbeTAmOL._SL160_.jpg)
![Reckoning [2 CD Deluxe Edition] by R.E.M.](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61aX6%2BlijdL._SL160_.jpg)
