The album is a 40-song career-spanning retrospective that collects, for the first time ever, songs from R.E.M.'s entire back catalog, including the pioneering American band's years on both the IRS label (1982 to 1987) and Warner Bros. Records (1988 to 2011). In addition to liner notes written by band members Berry, Buck, Mills, and Stipe, the album also features three new songs that R.E.M. finished after they completed their last album, Collapse Into Now: "A Month of Saturdays," "We All Go Back To Where We Belong," and "Hallelujah," which were recorded over the summer in Athens with Accelerate and Collapse Into Now producer, the estimable Jacknife Lee.
R.E.M. formed in 1980 when singer Michael Stipe met guitarist Peter Buck in an Athens, GA, record store where Buck worked. After recruiting bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. released its first single, "Radio Free Europe," in 1981, followed by 1982's Chronic Town EP, capturing the imagination of a new generation of music lovers and bringing "guitar pop back into the underground lexicon," as All-Music put it. Widely credited with inventing the college-rock genre, R.E.M. became the most influential American alternative rock band in history -- inspiring such artists as Sonic Youth, Pavement, Nirvana, and Radiohead -- for achieving multi-platinum mainstream success while maintaining their distinct identity.

After putting Athens, GA, on the musical map in the early '80s, R.E.M. went on to become one of the world's biggest bands. Fusing folk, garage rock, pop sensibilities, and insightful lyrics delivered with Michael Stipe's inimitable lead vocals, these alt-rock forefathers built a massive indie following, and in 1988 unleashed their major-label debut, Warner Bros.' Green. This roots rock tour de force was followed in '91 by the Grammy-winning #1 blockbuster Out of Time, which led to an ongoing stream of masterpieces. These two classics, along with five more albums from R.E.M.'s extraordinary catalog-plus their retrospective Best Of-now each feature a Bonus DVD with Surround Sound audio and video extras.

R.E.M.'s fourth studio album, Lifes Rich Pageant was recorded by vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry at John Mellencamp's Belmont Mall Studios in Indiana. Produced by Don Gehman, renowned for producing a string of punchy, soulful heartland-rock albums by Mellencamp, Pageant includes the singles Fall On Me and Superman. The album was R.E.M.'s first to achieve Gold certification status, and it reached #21 on Billboard s Top 200 Albums chart, the band s then-highest chart position. The 2CD lift top box contains the original album digitally remastered. Disc 2 contains "The Athens Demos," 19 previously unreleased tracks recorded by the band before the final studio sessions. Also included is a new poster and postcards.

2011 album from the veteran Alt-Rock band. For Collapse Into Now, R.E.M. re-teamed with Grammy Award-winning producer Jacknife Lee, who produced the band's acclaimed previous album Accelerate. R.E.M. and Lee recorded the album in New Orleans at the Music Shed and in Berlin at the famed Hansa Studios, where several legendary albums, including David Bowie's Heroes, U2's Achtung Baby, and Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, were made. Additional recording and mixing was done at the venerable Blackbird Studio in Nashville. The band has also revealed that Collapse Into Now features some very special guests: Patti Smith, guitarist Lenny Kaye, Peaches, Eddie Vedder, and The Hidden Cameras frontman Joel Gibb.

Accelerate the first studio album in four years from R.E.M., finds modern rock’s most acclaimed band returning to the stripped-down, guitar-driven power that first enraptured fans. Helmed by the band and, for the first time, Jacknife Lee (co-producer of U2’s ’05 Grammy® Album Of The Year How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, The Hives and Snow Patrol), Accelerate puts the 2007 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame group once again firmly behind the wheel of alternative rock, a genre R.E.M. helped invent.

Accelerate is available as a CD-only in a Softpak; a CD+DVD that features a 64-page book and the Vincent Moon film 6 Days (which includes behind-the-scenes footage and performance pieces of various songs on the album) plus two bonus tracks "Red Head Walking" and "Airliner."

R.E.M. Photos More from R.E.M.

Accelerate

Up (CD + DVD+A) (Dig)

Up

Reveal (Limited Edition)

Reveal (CD & DVD Audio) [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Reveal

Out of Time (CD + DVD-A) (Dig) [ENHANCED]

New Adventures in Hi Fi (CD + DVD+A) (Dig) [ENHANCED]

New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Monster (CD + DVD+ A) (Dig)

Monster

In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003

In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (Special Edition)

In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003

Green (CD + DVD-A) (Dig)

Green

Automatic for the People (CD & DVD Audio)

Automatic for the People

Around the Sun [SPECIAL EDITION]

Around the Sun [ENHANCED]

Around the Sun

R.E.M. Live 2CD/1DVD [LIVE]

This limited edition version features a custom sleeve that measure 8 inches square, a 40 page full colour booklet which includes photography by Michael Stipe and full album lyrics.

R. E. M. AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE

Live At The Olympia the two-CD/1 DVD/4-LP set includes 4 LPS, 3 gatefold sleeves, 2 CDS, 1 DVD, a 16 page booklet, liner notes by Peter Buck, 6 postcards and a 24x36 poster. Produced by Jacknife Lee, the album features 39 songs that capture the best moments from the band's 'working rehearsals' at Dublin's fabled Olympia club during which singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, and bassist Mike Mills tested out new songs for R.E.M.'s 2008 studio album Accelerate.

Originally released in 1985, R.E.M.'s 3rd album, Fables of The Reconstruction peaked at #28 on the Billboard charts and spawned two hit singles, Can t Get There From here and Driver 8. Breaking with their tradition of recording in Athens GA, the band recorded in England with producer Joe Boyd.

This 25th Anniversary Edition features the classic album digitally remastered. The bonus disc is a complete run thorugh of the album done in studio in Athens, before the band left for London for the actual recording sessions. These demos have never before been released and feature three additional tracks, not on the final album, including "Throw Those Trolls Away, " a song the band has never released.

The albums are packaged in a lift top box and include a poster and 4 postcards, as well as the CD booklet.

R.E.M. Photos

More from R.E.M.

Lifes Rich Pageant	Document	Fables of the Reconstruction
Eponymous	The Best of the I.R.S. Years: Collector’s Edition	The Best of the I.R.S. Years Video Collection