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CDs:
· Sage Francis
(We liked it and you will too!)

· 50 Foot Wave & Monade
· Aviator Lane
· Beck
· Luka Bloom
· Busdriver
· Fagan
· Ben Folds
· Goldie Lookin' Chain
· Jack Johnson
· Judas Priest
· Millencolin
· Queens Of The Stone Age
· REM
· Josh Rouse
· The Trafalgars
· M Ward
· Wednesday 13
· Yo La Tengo

Live:
· Bad Girls Of The Bible
· Neil Diamond
· Gomez
· Missy Higgins
· Trans Am
· Violent Femmes

REM
Green/Out Of Time/Automatic For The People/Monster/New Adventures In Hi-Fi/Reveal/Up/In Time: The Best Of/Around The Sun
Warner

Whew.

OK, let's start with criticisms: would it have killed REM to put their b-sides on here as bonus tracks? You know, if we're going to buy their entire Warners output again then we might as well be completist about it, but no: we just get the complete album as initially released. Also, while the sleevenotes (again, to every album) are generally good, they could do with a bit less what-the-song-is-about (which, after all, we can all decide for ourselves) and a bit more putting-the-album-in-some-sort-of-historical-context. Oh, we should also make some sort of punk-rock sell-out comment here about reissuing easily available material to fleece the fans or something.

Now, if you have the slightest interest in REM you should buy all of these - yes, again - because they are great. Remember 'Green'? Hell of an album. How good's that riff to Pop Song 89? Bloody, that's how good. And if you're going to buy one album, you might as well buy all nine since they're all set in gorgeous digipacks with original sleeve artwork relaid in a booklet with the aforementioned sleevenotes (and the booklets all have subtle differences in layout and design, from the deliberately scrappy edges and off-kilter typeset of the scrappy, off-kilter 'Monster' to the neat, glossy and slightly dull booklet for the neat, glossy and slightly dull 'Automatic For The People'). Each disc is also accompanied by a second DVD-A disc, which has each album remixed in 5.1 sound (for those who feel they're above stereo and all) along with a discography, weblink, photo gallery and - best of all - a contemporaneous documentary for each one. Most often it's the promo film that came out just before the release of each album, which is a blessing for anyone who, like myself, preferred the acoustic renditions of tracks from 'Out Of Time' that were on the 'In Time' doco (included here).

If you're not a fan you probably won't much care. If you are a fan, you've already got these. However, if you were a fan once but drifted away around the time they stopped regularly including songs from 'Lifes Rich Pageant' in their live sets, this might just remind you why Berry, Buck, Mills & Stipe were once so important to you.

Andrew P Street

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