Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage

R.E.M.

Warner Brothers, 2011

http://www.remhq.com

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/11/2012

After R.E.M. called it a career in 2011, it was decided rather quickly that a release combining the band’s entire career would be a great idea, a sort of capstone to encompass the work of one of America’s greatest rock bands. Plus, there was no catch-all compilation of sorts, only the classic Eponymous for the early years and The Best Of R.E.M. for the commercial years up through 2003.

Enter Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage. Unwieldy title aside, this is about the best career summary a beginner or casual fan could ask for, with three new songs tossed onto the end (to entice collectors, of course) that were presumably left over from the band’s final effort, the solid Collapse Into Now.

The double disc set is aligned chronologically, allowing the listener to trace the band’s astonishing lyrical and musical growth. The first disc starts with a track from the 1982 Chronic Town EP and ends with 1991’s Out of Time (plus one song from Automatic for the People). The vast majority of the band’s hits are on this disc (“The One I Love,” “Stand, “It’s The End of the World As We Know It,” the moronic “Shiny Happy People” and, of course, “Losing My Religion.”

Because the band’s first five discs are classics in their own right, yet nothing was really a smash hit, selecting the cream of the crop is subjective at best. What is present is, for the most part, representative of the quality of that era – the time when R.E.M. was a true underground band, bringing the terms “jangle pop” and an un-mainstream sensibility to music…in short, the touchstone of alternative rock when that term meant something. 13 songs represent this era, and most of them are true lo-fi DYI gems: “Begin The Begin,” “Fall On Me,” “So. Central Rain,” “Radio Free Europe,” and “Driver 8” sound just as good today as they did 25+ years ago, when they were wholly original. The beauty of R.E.M.’s music is that it is truly rewarding with multiple listens, and this early period has only become richer over time.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

Only a few tracks on this first disc should have been swapped, namely “Life And How to Live It” with “Can’t Get There From Here” and the minor psychedelic masterpiece “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” should be on here instead of “Sitting Still,” but this is nitpicking. If you like what you hear, you’ll go discover those for yourself.

The second disc encompasses Automatic For The People to Collapse Into Now. Since the band’s sales pretty much dropped like a rock after drummer Bill Berry retired in 1997, the remaining trio’s output from 1996’s New Adventures In Hi-Fi onward was spotty at best. However, the best of those six albums (and two non-album tracks) have been selected and they darn near rank with the band’s best work. Of special note is “At My Most Beautiful” from Up, a Beach Boys Pet Sounds-era homage, the moody “Leaving New York” from the otherwise-disappointing Around The Sun, and the rollicking “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” from Accelerate.

Fans who don’t have them already will appreciate getting “The Great Beyond” and “Bad Day” in studio form (the former was on the “Man On The Moon” soundtrack and the latter was a reworking of a forgotten ‘80s track), along with the three new songs (of these, the stately “Hallelujah” is the best, though “A Month Of Saturdays” is the best song Weezer never wrote).

In giving equal time to the band’s entire career, too much of the early and middle periods are neglected for latter-day tracks; the democratic outlook doesn’t really tell the true story. A few more songs from those eras in place of the subpar “Bad Day,” “Country Feedback” (a questionable inclusion from Out of Time) and “Electrolite” (a song singer Michael Stipe professed not to like the first time, and he was right) would have strengthened this.

The liner notes include comments from at least one band member for every song, shedding light on the meaning, the lyrics, and/or how it was written. If you’ve not heard R.E.M. or only know them from the big radio hits, you are in for a treat, because this collection gets it mostly right in summarizing the rich catalog of one of America’s premier rock bands.

Rating: A-

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© 2012 Benjamin Ray and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Warner Brothers, and is used for informational purposes only.