I have very many REM albums on cassette, taped off my brother's CDs when he was still at school. Last Christmas he gave me The Best of REM - In Time 1988-2003.
So, REM. Yet another band that I have liked a lot for over fifteen years. I really can't find a bad thing to say against them. Yet I have never raved about them. In my liking League they are not 'right up there'. Sometimes I think they ought to be.
But this 'The Best of...' is a very good album. I suppose it is a really good illustration of how cutting-edge alternative bands all eventually 'sell-out' to mainstream. My favourite tracks are Man on The Moon, Losing My Religion, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, and , of course, Everybody Hurts, a perennial favourite on pub jukeboxes. Bizarrely it does not contain It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), which I would have thought to be one of their most popular songs. It also doesn't contain very many of my favourite tracks from their albums. But I shall blog these in due course.
The packaging is standard - a twenty page booklet including a narrative written by Peter Buck on the songs. The actual disc is in three colours - black, white and blue, the blue being a repeat of the moon on the front cover.
Rocket From the Crypt's eponymously titled CD is a hidden gem in my record collection. I bought it about five years ago, with birthday vouchers. I don't think I have played it very many times, which is a shame, because it's really rather good rock. The packaging is nothing to look at- seems almost amateurish - but the music is enjoyable.
I put it on random; the first track that came up was When In Rome. I like this,, I thought, it must be the best one on the Cd. Then Made for You came next. Ooh, this is good. This CD deserves to played more often!
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