R.E.M. at the BBC | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Live album by | ||||
Released | October 19, 2018 | |||
Recorded | Multiple dates between 1984 and 2008 | |||
Venue | Various BBC studios | |||
Genre | Alternative rock | |||
Length |
| |||
Label | Craft Recordings | |||
R.E.M. chronology | ||||
|
R.E.M. at the BBC is a 2018 live album box set by American alternative rock band R.E.M. released on October 19, 2018. The eight-disc compilation features sessions recorded between 1984 and 2008, including a bonus DVD of videos. [1] Additionally, a two-disc best-of collection was released on the same day.
Sources include one unedited full show—1995's performance at Milton Keynes—while additional, shorter sessions were recorded for BBC programs such as a John Peel session, Drivetime, Mark and Lard, and BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge . [1]
On September 20, a promotional video for "Orange Crush" was released, [2] followed on September 27 by "E-Bow the Letter", featuring Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. [3]
In The Irish Times , Stephen Jones gave the album seven out of 10, writing that it includes some "real treats" but criticizes some "tinny and echoey" recordings. [4] Andrzej Lukowski of Drowned in Sound rated the album an eight out of 10, summing up that it is a useful document of R.E.M.'s career: "Live at the BBC is obviously preposterously big... but actually that’s kind of fine in the digital era—it’s not that old fashioned beast ‘the live album’, but a whole sprawling history to immerse yourself in, eras hurtling by." [5] Under the Radar 's Michael James Hall gave the box set 8.5 out of 10, praising the performances for being able to "remind you just how masterful they were as songwriters". [6] James Parker of The Atlantic gave the album a positive review, calling it a "a vast and slightly dizzying retrospective". [7] David Fricke of Rolling Stone made this release one of his weekly picks. [8] For Pitchfork Media, Chris Randle gave the collection a 7.4 out of 10, praising Stipe's lyrics and singing in particular. [9] For Exclaim! , Ian Gormely awarded At the BBC an eight out of 10, praising the compilation's diversity, with "surprisingly little overlap across the collection" and summing up, "Though the material included here is strong, due to the limitations its compilers were working with... it doesn't necessarily represent the best or most unique sets of their respective eras." [10] Ian Rushbury of PopMatters also gave the set an eight out of 10 in his review, calling the group, "without doubt, an outstanding live band" and writing that the DVD is "invaluable". [11]
All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe, except where noted.
Chart (2018) | Peak position |
---|---|
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [12] | 60 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [13] | 75 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [14] | 78 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [15] | 86 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [16] | 23 |
Italian Albums (FIMI) [17] | 75 |
Portuguese Albums (AFP) [18] | 29 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [19] | 19 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [20] | 94 |
UK Albums (OCC) [21] | 40 |
Chart (2020) | Peak position |
---|---|
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [22] | 62 |
Automatic for the People is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released by Warner Bros. Records on October 5, 1992, in the United Kingdom and Europe, and on the following day in the United States. R.E.M. began production on the album while their previous album, Out of Time (1991), was still ascending top albums charts and achieving global success. Aided by string arrangements from John Paul Jones and conducted by George Hanson, Automatic for the People features ruminations on mortality, loss, mourning, and nostalgia.
Monster is the ninth studio album by American rock band R.E.M., released on September 27, 1994, by Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by the band and Scott Litt and recorded at four studios. The album was an intentional shift from the style of their previous two albums, Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), by introducing loud, distorted guitar tones and simple lyrics.
In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003 is the second official compilation album released by R.E.M. Issued in 2003, it includes tracks from their Warner Bros. Records era, from 1988's Green to 2001's Reveal, as well as two new recordings and two songs from movie soundtracks. The album was the tenth-best-selling album of 2003 in the UK, and the 50th-best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK.
New Adventures in Hi-Fi is the tenth studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was their fifth major-label release for Warner Bros. Records, released on September 9, 1996, in Europe and Australia, and the following day in the United States. New Adventures in Hi-Fi was the band's final album recorded with founding drummer Bill Berry, original manager Jefferson Holt, and long-time producer Scott Litt. The members of R.E.M. consider the recorded album representative of the band at their peak, and fans generally regard it as the band's last great record before a perceived artistic decline during the late 1990s and early 2000s. It has sold around seven million units, growing in cult status years after its release, with several retrospectives ranking it among the top of the band's recorded catalogue.
Up is the eleventh studio album by American rock band R.E.M. It was released on October 26, 1998, through Warner Bros. Records. The album was the band's first without drummer and founding member Bill Berry, who retired from the band in October 1997. In his place, R.E.M. used session drummers such as Joey Waronker and Barrett Martin while also utilizing drum machines. The album was produced by Pat McCarthy, making it R.E.M.'s first album since Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) not to be produced by Scott Litt.
Reveal is the twelfth studio album by American rock band R.E.M. It was released on May 14, 2001, through Warner Bros. Records and was the second of three albums by the band to be produced with Pat McCarthy. It was also R.E.M.'s second album as a three-piece following the departure of drummer Bill Berry, and includes contributions from the band's touring members Joey Waronker, Scott McCaughey and Ken Stringfellow. The band recorded the album in various locations, including in Dublin, Miami, Vancouver, and their hometown of Athens, Georgia. The album saw R.E.M. continue to experiment with electronic music as they had on their previous album Up (1998), utilizing keyboards and drum machines, while also retaining elements of their earlier sound.
"Crush with Eyeliner" is a song by American rock band R.E.M., released by Warner Bros. Records as the third single from their ninth studio album, Monster (1994). Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore provides background vocals. Michael Stipe claims the song was inspired by the band New York Dolls, who, in his opinion, "knew how to exaggerate a song, to make it sound really sleazy and over the top." This was also one of the first songs that surfaced from Stipe after the writer's block that hounded him after the death of his friend, actor River Phoenix.
Perfect Square is a 2004 concert film of the alternative rock band R.E.M., filmed on July 19, 2003, at the Bowling Green in Wiesbaden, Germany. It was released by Warner Reprise Video on March 9, 2004.
Road Movie is a documentary-style film by rock group R.E.M., released on both VHS and DVD, charting the conclusion of the band's 1995 worldwide tour in support of Monster, their album released the previous year. Directed by Peter Care, the ninety-minute-long footage features nineteen songs performed over the final three nights of the tour, at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. The set-list reads very much like a complete R.E.M. show—gigs on the Monster tour were opened by either "I Took Your Name" or "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", while the last song of the night was invariably "It's the End of the World as We Know It ". The film is a companion piece to the Tourfilm documentary, which chronicles the band's 1989 tour on the back of the previous year's album Green.
"At My Most Beautiful" is a song by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. During the song's creation, members of the group noted its similarity to the work of the Beach Boys and purposefully fashioned it to resemble that band's output. Singer Michael Stipe strove to make his lyrics the most romantic he had ever written, and the piano-driven ballad became R.E.M.'s first straightforward love song. Released on the group's 1998 album Up, it was issued as the third single from that record the following year, reaching number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
In View: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003 is a DVD featuring videos by the rock band R.E.M. from 1988 to 2003, released as a companion to the Warner Bros. compilation In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003. All but two of the songs included on the audio CD made the DVD—the exceptions being "All the Right Friends" and "Animal".
Accelerate is the fourteenth studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on March 31, 2008, in Europe, and on April 1 in North America. Produced with Jacknife Lee, Accelerate was intended as a departure from the 2004 album Around the Sun. R.E.M. previewed most of the album's tracks during a five-night residency at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, and recorded the album in a nine-week schedule.
R.E.M. Live is a live album from R.E.M., recorded at the Point Theatre, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, on February 26 and 27, 2005, the closing nights of the winter European leg of the Around the World Tour in support of their thirteenth studio album Around the Sun, released in late 2004. It was released in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2007 and in the United States a day later as a two-CD audio set and a DVD, then released in February 2008 as a triple vinyl set. The performance was filmed by Blue Leach, who also directed Depeche Mode's Touring the Angel: Live in Milan.
Live at The Olympia is a live album by American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was recorded during the band's five-night residency at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, between June 30 and July 5, 2007, and released on October 27, 2009. In this series of "working rehearsals" the songs on Accelerate were debuted, with many still works in progress. Every song from "Accelerate" appear on the album with the exception of "Hollow Man" and "Sing for the Submarine". The album is a two-CD release, and contains a total of 39 songs. In addition, a DVD with a documentary entitled This Is Not a Show directed by Vincent Moon is included. A special edition box set containing the album on four LPs as well as the two CDs and the DVD is also available.
Live from Austin, TX is a 2010 video album by R.E.M. recorded on March 13, 2008 for the television series Austin City Limits. The television broadcast aired on PBS starting March 24, 2008.
Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 is a 2011 greatest hits album from alternative rock band R.E.M. Intended as a coda on their career, this is the first compilation album that features both their early work on independent record label I.R.S. Records in addition to their 10 studio releases through Warner Bros. Records. The double-disc retrospective was released through Warner Bros. on November 11, 2011, and was compiled by the band members; the existence of the compilation was revealed simultaneously with the group's announcement that they were disbanding on September 21, 2011.
Unplugged: The Complete 1991 and 2001 Sessions is a 2014 live album from alternative rock band R.E.M., released initially on vinyl recordings through Rhino Records for Record Store Day, and later made available on compact disc and digitally. The album is composed of two performances that the band made on the U.S. television show MTV Unplugged. Among the album's 33 tracks are 11 performances which were not aired on either broadcast. To promote the album, Mike Mills signed copies at independent record store Bull Moose in Scarborough, Maine. Video of the concerts was released later that year on REMTV.
Complete Rarities: Warner Bros. 1988–2011 is a 2014 compilation album featuring live songs, singles' b-sides and non-album tracks recorded by alternative rock band R.E.M. during their tenure on Warner Bros. Records. All material has been previously released either physically or in digital-only formats.
Green is the sixth studio album by American rock band R.E.M., released on November 7, 1988, by Warner Bros. Records. The second album to be produced by the band and Scott Litt, it continued to explore political issues both in its lyrics and packaging. The band experimented on the album, writing major-key rock songs and incorporating new instruments into their sound including the mandolin, as well as switching their original instruments on other songs.
REMTV is a six-disc DVD box set collecting appearances by American alternative rock band R.E.M. on MTV and related channels, from 1983 to 2008, released November 24, 2014. The collection was compiled by the former band members as they looked through all of the MTV film footage in their vault to prepare the release of Unplugged: The Complete 1991 and 2001 Sessions.