The Shit's So Thick, You Could Stir it With a Stick

Just a reminder to everyone that REM's latest "Best of..." disc, In Time comes out today. I do like the one new song on it that they've been spinning as a single, "Bad Day", which sounds a bit like old REM before Bill Berry had to invoke the wrath of god on himself, nearly die, and leave the band to become a farmer. Still, this collection will contain most of the good stuff from their four phenomenal albums of the nineties, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster, and New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Honestly, you could probably just repackage "Automatic..." in it's entirety as a best of disc. Personally, it was one of the best albums, if not the best album of the 90's, certainly of REM's career -- and that's saying something.

The tracklisting is as such:

1. Man On The Moon
2. The Great Beyond
3. Bad Day
4. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
5. All The Way To Reno
6. Losing My Religion
7. E-Bow The Letter
8. Orange Crush
9. Imitation Of Life
10. Daysleeper
11. Animal
12. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
13. Stand
14. Electrolite
15. All The Right Friends
16. Everybody Hurts
17. At My Most Beautiful
18. Nightswimming

For those keeping score, it's got a song from Dead Letter Office, two songs from Green, a song from Out of Time, four songs from Automatic for the People, one song from Monster, two songs from New Adventures in Hi-Fi, two songs from Up, two songs from Reveal, the soundtrack offering "The Great Beyond", and the two new songs "Bad Day" and "Animal". I know I'll be among the people disappointed not to see "Drive", "Radio Song", "Shiny Happy People", "Star Me Kitten", "Crush With Eyeliner", "Strange Currencies", "Wake-Up Bomb", "Leave", or "Bittersweet Me" to be included, but I guess that's to be expected in a single disc release from a phenomenal band.

Mind you, there will be a limited edition double-disc set, with more soundtrack offerings, demo versions, live versions, and such. It'd be worth it alone just to hear the version of "Star Me Kitten" with William Burroughs again.