Album Review: R.E.M. at the BBC [Box Set] by R.E.M.

Seven years after their amicable split following a 31-year career, Athens GA's finest exports R.E.M. are still in demand. Following last year's exhaustive and rather wonderful treasure trove reissue of Automatic for the People, completists will be thrilled by Craft Recordings dedication to releasing comprehensive sets with this nine-disc behemoth. Stretching from a ragged and atmospheric Nottingham Rock City live recording from '84, via Peel Sessions, the legendary Milton Keynes Monster tour show, and a frantic Glastonbury headline slot to their invite-only set at London St.

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Eight CDs. 104 Songs. Seven hours and 28 minutes. Five versions of Losing My Religion. Five. And you, the R.E.M. fan who has been with them from the half-speed demos of Gardening At Night through to the excavation of Bad Day from its 1985 roots, will probably still want them all because&hellip ….

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Like many bands of their era, R.E.M. were no strangers to the BBC Studios. Perhaps they weren't beloved by the BBC's John Peel -- the station's grand patron of underground rock -- but R.E.M. did appear regularly on the BBC, logging their first broadcast in November 1984, when they were nervily plugging their second album, Reckoning.

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By the early '90s, R.E.M. were one of the biggest bands in the world. Yet, even as 1991's Out of Time and 1992's Automatic For the People racked up multi-platinum sales, the Athens, GA quartet opted to stay home, only supporting the albums with a handful of promotional performances.   One such set — recorded in March 1991, the day after Out of Time was released — opens this sprawling new eight-CD plus DVD set and offers a rare window on the band during this period.   Those six songs, five originals, including outtake "Fretless ….

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