R.E.M. Announce New Adventures In Hi-Fi 25th Anniversary Deluxe EditionR.E.M. Announce New Adventures In Hi-Fi 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
In September of 1996, R.E.M. followed their fuzzy, grungy, glammy album Monster with the relatively expansive and immersive LP New Adventures In Hi-Fi. The band worked on the album’s tracks while on the road, following the example of their young friends in Radiohead, and they came up with a set of songs that worked as a transitional document for the band. New Adventures In Hi-Fi still went platinum and sold millions around the world, but it wasn’t packed with hits, the way R.E.M.’s previous ’90s albums had been. A year after its release, drummer Bill Berry left the band, and they began their final chapter as relatively low-key elder statesmen.
New Adventures In Hi-Fi isn’t necessarily a canonical work, the way some other R.E.M. albums are. But among the band’s fanbase, New Adventures has a rep as the undiscovered gem, the record that never gets its due. And today, R.E.M. have announced a forthcoming expanded 25th-anniversary edition of the album, giving New Adventures the same treatment that they gave Monster a couple of years ago.
The three-disc edition of New Adventures will include a CD of rarities and B-sides and a Blu-ray that’ll feature a previously unreleased 64-minute outdoor projection film. But R.E.M. have shared one of the rarities. It’s relatively mellow alternate version of “Leave,” a song that’s a seven-minute experimental freakout in its album form, that was on the soundtrack to the 1997 movie A Life Less Ordinary. Listen and check out the expanded edition tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
Disc 1 (remastered album):
01 “How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us”
02 “The Wake-Up Bomb”
03 “New Test Leper”
04 “Undertow”
05 “E-Bow The Letter”
06 “Leave”
07 “Departure”
08 “Bittersweet Me”
09 “Be Mine”
10 “Binky The Doormat”
11 “Zither”
12 “So Fast, So Numb”
13 “Low Desert”
14 “Electrolite”
Disc 2 (B-sides & rarities):
01 “Tricycle (Instrumental)”
02 “Departure” (Live Soundcheck, Rome, 2/22/1995)
03 “Wall Of Death “
04 “Undertow” (Live, Atlanta, 11/18/1995)
05 “Wichita Lineman” (Live, Houston, 9/15/1995)
06 “New Test Leper” (Live acoustic, Seattle, 4/19/1996)
07 “The Wake-Up Bomb” (Live, Atlanta, 10/4/1995)
08 “Binky the Doormat” (Live, Atlanta, 11/18/1995)
09 “King of Comedy (808 State Remix)”
10 “Be Mine (Mike On Bus Version)”
11 “Love Is All Around”
12 “Sponge”
13 “Leave (Alternate Version)”
Disc 3 (Blu-Ray)”
01 R.E.M. Outdoor Projections, 9/8/96, 5 cities
03 New Adventures In Hi-Fi EPK, previously unreleased 30 min version
03 New Adventures in Hi-Fi 5.1 Audio
04 New Adventures in Hi-Fi Hi-Resolution Audio
05 “E-Bow the Letter” music video
06 “Bittersweet Me” music video
07 “Electrolite” music video
08 “How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us” music video
09 “New Test Leper” music video
The New Advetures In Hi-Fi expanded edition is out 10/29 on Craft Recordings. It’ll be available in various different formats, and you can check them out here.
