Pity nothing from Murmur and Reckoning. How about Perfect Circle and Don't go back to Rockville.

Noel - Malta

Leaving New York (Around the Sun)
Drive (Automatic for the People)
Try Not to Breathe (Automatic for the People)
Walk Unafraid (Up)
Suspicion (Up)
Beat a Drum (Reveal)
Get Up (Green)
So Fast, So Numb (New Adventures in Hi Fi)
Shiny Happy People (Out of Time)
Tongue (Monster)
The Ascent of Man (Around the Sun)
World Leader Pretend (Green)
I'll Take the Rain (Reveal)
Country Feedback (Out of Time)
Why Not Smile (Up)
Let Me In (Monster)
Find The River (Automatic for the People)

This is a fine selection - not so much the best of the rest as the real heart of the band over this period. Nice call.

I am only sorry that the Green selections couldn't stretch to the brilliant 'World Leader Pretend' and the truely seminal and sublime and REM-could-only-have-written-something-this-absurd-and-beautiful' You Are The Everything'.

As it been said: incomplete...

We can't pass under silence some of the greatest songs of all time (I guess...) Southern Central Rain, The Flowers of Guatemala, Gardening at Night, Wolves Lower, Life and How to Live It....

The problem is: too much excellent and genius stuff for one only band...

I agree with all of the above, the selection pretty much covers my highlights from the Warner period.

Be Mine off 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' does sum up a lot of what I think makes Stipe one of the best frontmen and lyricists ever. From the fragility light-hearted 'I want to be a Christmas tree' (never fails to make me smile) to the intriguing religious imagery in the later verses to the shameless and vulnerable professions of love that focus in the choruses.

I guess all of this has as much to do with the sound of Stipe's voice as the words, but on this track I think the two match each other in quality.

Country Feedback (Out of Time)
Tongue (Monster)
Find The River (Automatic For The People)
Walk Unafraid (Up)
The Wrong Child (Green)
She Just Wants To Be (Reveal)
Final Straw (Around The Sun)
Drive (Automatic For The People)
Me In Honey (Out of Time)
Sad Professor (Up)
Shiny Happy People (Out of Time)
Leaving New York (Around The Sun)
World Leader Pretend (Green)
Let Me in (Monster)
I'll Take the Rain (Reveal)
Hope (Up)
Belong (Out of Time)
Leave (New Adventures In Hi-Fi)

1. The Lifting
2. Try Not To Breathe
3. Half A World Away
4. Leaving New York
5. E-Bow the Letter
6. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
7. Tongue
8. How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us
9. The Great Beyond
10.Parakeet
11.The Ascent Of Man
12.I'll Take The Rain
13.You Are The Everything
14.Country Feedback
15.Falls to Climb
16.Electrolite
17.Find the River

A bit unfair to throw stuff from "Around the Sun" into an alternative best of, isn't it? None of it was recorded when the last one came out.

CJ

It's a fine selection "oh yes! But it would have been nice to have a tune or two from Murmur, you have to admit it's a "classic" album. It's a tough job to make a selection, there are so many beauties to choose from. Hats off to you!

Andirem, Carlisle

The greatest thing about R.E.M is that the 17 tracks you pick in todays list will be completely different from the 17 tracks you pick tomorrow. Their back catalogue is that strong all the way back to Murmur. Long may it continue

Todays list:

The Wrong Child (Green)
Country Feedback (Out Of Time)
Sweetness Follows (Automatic...)
I Took Your Name (Monster)
The Wake-Up Bomb (New Adventures...)
The Apologist (Up)
She Just Wants To Be (Reveal)
Boy In The Well (Around The Sun)
You Are The Everything (Green)
Half A World Away (Out Of Time)
Find The River (Automatic...)
Let Me In (Monster)
So Fast, So Numb (New Adventures...)
Walk Unafraid (Up)
Saturn Return (Reveal)
Bang And Blame (Monster)
Lotus (Up)

1. Walk unafraid
2. Hi speed train
3. Drive (live version)
4. Animal (also live)
5. I remember California
6. Maps and legends
7. Country feedback
8. You’re in the air
9. Let me in
10. I believe
11. Parakeet
12. E-bow
13. You
14. Star me kitten
15. Perfect circle
16. Fall on me
17. Why not smile

I think you have done a great job with an impossible task. The brilliance of this band lies in the fact that, from Wolves Lower to Leaving New York, all of the group's material sounds as fresh and original today as it did 20 plus years ago. 16 tracks just won't cut it. My personal feeling...There isn't a music act today that wouldn't kill to write a song like "Stumble".....at least that's how they should feel.

Looking at previous comments about obvious omissions of stuff from Murmur, Reckoning and the other early stuff, just thought I'd point out that this appears to be an alternative best of from the stuff R.E.M. recorded on Warner. The earlier stuff was on IRS.

The quality of your list is secondary to the nobility of the endeavor. Though the list would hold its own against any.

I am especially thrilled to see How the West Was Won And Where It Got Us and Let Me In. One a rambling nocturnal jazz freak out, the other a My Bloody Valentine affected eulogy for Kurt Cobain.

Those two songs show that even out side of their idiom (if they even posses such a thing) REM are still in their element.

I believe (a song) I can compile a list for just about any band except for R.E.M. (and the Beatles). To me certain songs just blend into other great songs on fantastic records. For example, Feeling Gravity's Pull wouldn't be the same without Maps and Legends right behind it and vice-versa. It is impossible for me to pick songs from masterpieces like Reckoning, Fables and Life's Rich Pageant. Nuff Said.

Here is a fine spin:

Animal
Superman
Ehuming McCarthy
Green Grow the Rushes
Belong
The Arms of Love
New Test Leper
The Worst Joke Ever
Make it all OK
Voice of Harold
I'm Not Commodity
Permanent Vacation
Hairshirt
Suspicion
Lotus
The Chorus and the Ring
Around the Sun

Find The River

There is so much you could include from their back catalogue that the best thing to do is go out and get the whole lot, settle back and just listen to their music develop over 25 years.

I know Around the Sun had its critics but when you listen to it among the rest of REM's, it highlights the diversity of their talents. Here's to another 25 years of artistic genius.

Good selection but there are some others that should be included(apologies for obvious bias):

Leave - New Adventures In Hi-Fi
Bang And Blame - Monster
I Took Your Name - Monster
Revolution - Batman & Robin Soundtrack
World Leader Rretend - Green
Circus Envy - Monster

I took your name
The great beyond
You are the everything
She just wants to be
Half a world away
Suspicion
Final Straw
Hope
I wanted to be wrong
Why not smile
Bad day
Diminished
I've been high
The wrong child
Try not to breath
Let me in
The lifting

I agree it is very difficult to choose The Best of R.E.M. the list would go on for ever. Never fail to produce quality music & lyrics even after 25 years.

1.Exhuming McCarthy (Document)
2.These Days (Lifes Rich Pageant)
3.Walk Unafraid (Up)
4.Country Feedback (Out Of Time)
5.World Leader Pretend (Green)
6.So Fast So Numb (New Adventures....)
7.Nightswimming (Automatic...)
8.So Central Rain (Reckoning)
9.Harborcoat (Reckoning)
10.Pilgrimage (Murmur)

I could go on and on but have got a date with Radio 2 at 9.30 a band called R.E.M playing at Hyde Park London. worth a listen I think you never know they may become quite popular.

01. Walk Unafraid
02. First We Take Manhattan*
03. Monty Got A Raw Deal
04. Final Straw
05. Get Up
06. Country Feedback
07. The Lifting
08. Aftermath
09. You Are The Everything
10. World Leader Pretend
11. How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us
12. Shiny Happy People
13. Let Me In (Live)**
14. The Wrong Child
15. Leave
16. Tongue
17. Star Me Kitten (Demo)***
18. Summer Turns To High

* This apparently did very well on Israel, the only country on earth (as far as I'm aware) with a special B-sides chart. It's also a lot better than the original.
** The amazing version recorded 0ctober 21st, 2001 in Mountain View, California... released on a fanclub only single.
*** The Automatic Box version

Well, I think Uncut's compilation probably beats the official Warners effort. But surely you should have included:

Sad Professor [Up] - Thom Yorke loves it.
World Leader Pretend [Green] - Stipe's greatest lyric?
Be Mine [New Adventures] - Mills the unsung hero.
Electrolite [New Adventures] - for Peter's banjo, if nothing else.

And, except for Leaving New York, nothing from Around the Sun, because it's a dud.

Can I just point out it's an alternative Warners Best Of?

Hence no IRS songs.

Also -'Electrolite' was on 'In Time', this is an alternative to that.

My own one would be:

01. Get Up
02. Lotus
03. Try Not To Breathe
04. Half A World Away
05. Strange Currencies
06. New Test Leper
07. Beat A Drum
08. I Wanted To Be Wrong
09. Turn You Inside-Out
10. Belong
11. Find The River
12. Let Me In
13. Undertow
14. World Leader Pretend
15. The Great Beyond
16. Imitation Of Life
17. Near Wild Heaven
18. Be Mine
19. Country Feedback
20. Falls To Climb

I'm not sure if someone has already pointed out that this 'alternative' compilation is solely from the band's Warner Bros. years. the IRS years, of course, offer some of REM's best classics. I think to contemplate any REM "best of..." album means to interject one's own subjectivity in terms of what each song has meant to them over any number of years. i'm from the states and watched REM's "radio free europe" receive signifcant airplay, much to my satisfaction, in 1983. Since then, given my age at the time of their rising, REM has literally been the soundtrack to my life. and to be honest, i'm not sure if my very own REM "best of..." album would have any of these songs on it. but then, that's what i've heard over the years... play on, fellas.

Dear Tony Hughes.
So very well described.
Hence my email address, URTeverything@aol.com !
Laters....

Just for those who are adding their alternative best of of REM's Best Of should realise that this selection is from the WARNER back catalogue, which are:

GREEN
OUT OF TIME
AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE
MONSTER
NEW ADVERNTURES IN HI-FI
UP
REVEAL
AROUND THE SUN

Songs such as So. Central Rain, The Flowers of Guatamlea etc are pre GREEN material so don't add them u hussy's. This is the alternative:

1: Aftermath
2: Find The River
3: Walk Unafraid
4: Crush With Eyeliner
5: Get Up
6: Blinky The Doormat
7: High Speed Train
8: Monty Got A Raw Deal
9: You
10: Leaving New York
11: Half The World Away
12: Untitled (Green)
13: The Apologist
14: I've Been High
15: Hope
16: I'll Take The Rain
17: How The West Was Won and Where It Got Us.

I think all of these are great picks. This band has meant so much to me over the years. I was a little disappointed with Reveal, I think because there's way too much going on in the mix. When the first single came out for that album, there was a stripped down piano version of 'Beat A Drum' and to me if REM had put out an album with songs that sounded like that, they might have trumped Automatic For The People. That's what makes some artists so amazing, the brilliant b-sides and unheard canned albums that keep us fans going.