The Best of R.E.M.

The Best of R.E.M.
Greatest hits album by R.E.M.
Released	September 30, 1991 (1991-09-30)
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	59:17
Language	English, French ("Talk About the Passion")
Label	I.R.S.
Producer	Mitch Easter, Don Dixon, Joe Boyd, Don Gehman, Scott Litt, R.E.M.
R.E.M. chronology
This Film Is On (1991) The Best of R.E.M. (1991) Automatic for the People (1992)
R.E.M. compilations chronology
Eponymous (1988) The Best of R.E.M. (1991) The Automatic Box (1993)

The Best of R.E.M. is a greatest hits album by R.E.M. released in 1991, shortly after the success of the band's previous Warner Bros. album, Out of Time. The Best of R.E.M., however, was released by the band's previous record label, I.R.S. Records, as were a few more "special edition" versions of their other albums including bonus tracks.

This record was only issued in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Brazil, complete with liner notes from Remarks: The Story of R.E.M. by Tony Fletcher. It had no alternate mixes (unlike the other compilation album Eponymous), as all the songs were the versions found on the previous albums.

Three songs were taken from each of the five studio albums and one song was taken from Chronic Town, the band's first EP. Thus there are sixteen songs on this album.

Track listing

All tracks written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

1. "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)" – 3:51
2. "Radio Free Europe" – 4:03
3. "Perfect Circle" – 3:23
4. "Talk About the Passion" – 3:22
5. "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" – 3:11
6. "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" – 4:34
7. "Pretty Persuasion" – 3:53
8. "Green Grow the Rushes" – 3:42
9. "Cant Get There from Here" – 4:10
10. "Driver 8" – 3:18
11. "Fall On Me" – 2:49
12. "I Believe" – 3:32
13. "Cuyahoga" – 4:17
14. "The One I Love" – 3:17
15. "Finest Worksong" – 3:48
16. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" – 4:07

Reception

"A considerable improvement on the useful but haphazard Eponymous collection," wrote Dan Maier in a 5/5 review for Select. "It'll be a few years before Warners release their own 'Best Of'. In the meantime, this'll do very nicely indeed."^[1]

Sales certifications

References