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"…I Can Taste The Ocean On Your Skin..."
A career retrospective for the mighty R.E.M. was always going to be an impressive thing to listen to – and the deeply satisfying 2CD "Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011" is just that.
With brilliant tracks choices, quality muscular Remasters, each of the toothsome four contributing informative and witty liner notes for all thirty-seven career songs (the three new ones too) – it may not look like the most inviting twofer that has ever existed (any R.E.M. album sporting packaging that reflects that majesty and legacy is as ever with them - another story) – but in terms of fantastic content and Audio – this double delivers. To the sidewinders and new test lepers...
UK released 11 November 2011 - "Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011" by R.E.M. on Warner Brothers Records 9362-49536-4 (Barcode 093624953647) is a Remastered 2CD 40-Track Career Retrospective with Three New Songs that plays out as follows:
CD1 (76:25 minutes):
1. Gardening At Night
2. Radio Free Europe
3. Talk About The Passion
4. Sitting Still
5. So. Central Rain
6. (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
7. Driver 8
8. Life And How To Live It
9. Begin The Begin
10. Fall On Me
11. Finest Worksong
12. It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
13. The One I Love
14. Stand
15. Pop Song 89
16. Get Up
17. Orange Crush
18. Losing My Religion
19. Country Feedback
20. Shiny Happy People
21. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight
NOTES on CD1:
Track 1 from the August 1982 US 12" 5-Track Debut EP Single "Chronic Town"
Tracks 2, 3 and 4 are from their April 1983 debut album "Murmur"
Tracks 5 and 6 are from their April 1984 second album "Reckoning"
Tracks 7 and 8 are from their June 1985 third album "Fables Of The Reconstruction"
Tracks 9 and 10 are from their July 1986 fourth album "Lifes Rich Pageant"
Tracks 11, 12 and 13 are from their September 1987 fifth studio album "Document" (and last for I.R.S. Records)
Tracks 14, 15, 16 and 17 are from their November 1988 sixth album "Stand" (and first for Warner Brothers Records)
Tracks 18, 19 and 20 are from their March 1991 seventh studio album "Out Of Time"
Track 21 from their October 1992 eight studio album "Automatic For The People"
CD2 (75:44 minutes):
1. Everybody Hurts
2. Man On The Moon
3. Nightswimming
4. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
5. New Test Leper
6. Electrolite
7. At My Most Beautiful
8. The Great Beyond
9. Imitation Of Life
10. Bad Day
11. Leaving New York
12. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
13. Supernatural Superserious
14. Überlin
15. Oh My Heart
16. Alligator-Aviator-Autopilot-Antimatter
17. A Months Of Saturdays
18. We All Go Back To Where We Belong
19. Hallelujah
NOTES on CD2:
Tracks 1, 2 and 3 are from their October 1992 eighth studio album "Automatic For The People"
Track 4 is from their September 1994 ninth studio album "Monster"
Tracks 5 and 6 are from their September 1996 tenth studio album "New Adventures in Hi-Fi"
Track 7 is from their October 1998 eleventh studio album "Up"
Track 8 is from the November 1999 R.E.M. Soundtrack Album to the Movie about Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey in the title role) called "Man On The Moon"
Track 9 is from their May 2001 twelfth studio album "Reveal"
Track 10 was one of two exclusive tracks specially recorded for the October 2003 compilation "In Time: The Best Of R.E.M 1988-2003"
Track 11 is from their October 2004 thirteenth studio album "Around The Sun"
Tracks 12 and 13 are from their March 2008 fourteenth studio album "Accelerate"
Tracks 14, 15 and 16 are from the March 2011 fifteenth and final album "Collapse Into Now"
Tracks 17, 18 and 19 are NEW ORIGINAL R.E.M. SONGS recorded for this compilation
There are several UK/EURO variants of this release – the jewel case version on Warner Brothers 9362-49534-5 and a Digipak version on Warner Brothers 529088-2 – but I opted for the Card Sleeve variant above. As is typical of their frankly crap artwork – the pictures are useless and oblique both on the outside and in. The 20-page booklet is better in that it breaks down the tracks one-by-one and there are the comments. The audio courtesy of PAUL BLAKEMORE (an award-winning engineer associated most with Craft Recordings and their reissues of Stax and CCR) is gorgeous throughout – remasters from both I.R.S. and Warner Brothers periods that are beautifully realized.
But what I like about this as a listen is that both CDs are seriously impressive. For sure the Indie/Alt Rock I.R.S. Records output (1982 to 1987) just before signing to the major label Warner Brothers was beginning to sound samey and change was needed. But tunes like "So. Central Rain", "Talk About The Passion" and "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" still tingle the old arm-hairs. Then there are those singles too when the public began to take serious notice - "Stand", "Orange Crush" and the Andy Kaufman movie song "Man On The Moon" that not only smacked of maturity but songwriting greatness. But what I love here are the deep dives that have been forgotten – "New Test Leper" and "Electrolite" from the superb "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" album or the gorgeous I know what I am chasing "Überlin" and the return of that mandolin sound on the swirling magical "Oh My Heart". And of course the anthemic "Everybody Hurts" still slays and elicits so many memories.
Speaking of "Shiny Happy People" and those "Losing My Religion" - in truth you could load this 2CD retro with nuggets from the two big breakthrough albums "Out Of Time" and "Automatic For The People" on Warner Brothers. But the band wants you to take in the later releases. And man when our yank pals let it Rock - "Living Well Is The Best Revenge" or the "In Time: Best Of..." gem "Bad Day" or the punky teenage angst of "Alligator-Aviator-Autopilot-Antimatter" with guest singer Peaches and Nuggets hero Lenny Kaye on wild guitar – R.E.M. were/are utterly awesome. And while you can dismiss the decidedly disappointing "A Month Of Saturdays" (one of the three newbees) – the orchestrated Burt Bacharach-sounding "We All Go Back To Where We Belong" is a melodic thrill that reminds you of how much you loved their swaying songs – I can taste the ocean on your skin. "Hallelujah" is a worthy song to end their tenure on – a tune that somehow encapsulates a lot of their favorite soundscapes.
The quirkilly titled "Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011" isn't pretty to look at – hardly even tactile to hold either – but the aural song goodies are in there in spades – and then some.
R.E.M. would call it quits as an American Alternative Rock Band soon after (the artwork for the final album "Collapse Into Now" even had Michael Stipe waving from the front cover as if to say goodbye, but as he says in the liner notes, no one seem to get the in-joke) and in 2023 they seem all but forgotten as one of the greats. You can buy this twofer goody two shoes for under a fiver – invest and discover why all roads once lead to Athens, Georgia...
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