Green

Aptly titled, "Green", REM's sixth record album - and their first for globalmegacompany Warners who kept them until their disbandment in 2011 - saw them stride confidently, and with barely a glance, into the big leagues. At this point, the band moved from the Manchester Apollo to headlining the Birmingham NEC and Wembley Arena, the venues they were still playing in their final years.On the surface though, the record is unbowed by commerciality : the more accessable songs - "Stand", "Orange Crush", and so forth - sound unforced, natural extensions of the quirky pop philosophy demonstrated on their previous albums. Here though, and with the astute muscle of Warner Bros. Behidn them, REM followed a path that frankly seems inconceivable now : that of a slowly growing cult band steadily becoming more popular with each record, before ascending from being the world's biggest cult band to one of the world's biggest bands. Only U2 eclipsed them in the early 90's, which is now, surprisingly two decades ago, and it is now "Green"s twenty fifth anniversary. As a record, well, you either know it or you don't. A spiky, literate and aware record, the title hints at naivety, at political ecology, and in reference to a state of embryonic, unmoulded nature.As with other REM reissues/remasters, the additional material is almost exclusively unheard : here it is a live show from the tail end of the 1988-89 world tour from Greensboro, where the band were a tightly coiled, flawless music machine on borderline insanity after a decade of furious, frenzied touring. Whilst recorded for the 1989 live VHS "Tourfilm", and parts of it may have made b-sides in the great age of the CD single, this is the first time the show has been released in its entirity. (Well, almost : an extra five songs from the show are also on the Record Store Day "Live At Greenboro" EP). The slow dripfeed of live shows may become problematic for "Out of Time", "Automatic For The People", and "New Adventures In Hifi" where the band did not tour - but at least, after many decades of a scarcity of official live material the band are emptying the vaults to provide new, but old, music. Nonetheless, there are also a dearth of official avenues for the multitude of b-sides from the singles spawned by the era - such as the heartbreakingly broken version of Syd Barrett's "Dark Globe", the acoustic version of "Pop Song 89" : no doubt these are being held back for another dose of consumer exploitation at some point in the future. On the other hand, "Green" follows the REM canon of slow and dignified reissues with a elegantly packaged revisiting. Does anybody need it? Probably not. But this is the way that reissues and remasters should be given to us, with care, and with thought.

Others have stated they do not like the packaging of these re-issues I for one love them , ok the cd sleeve is a bit of a pain but the boxes look great lined up together on the shelfThe remastered version ( of prob) my favourite REM album sounds great , a few distinct differences but like all music it depends on what system you play it on ..If you're going to invest in great quality formats then you should invest in a good system if not just download the compressed lossy MP3 version.The other main reason to purchase this is the live cd, excellent quality and great to hear tracks that would later be included on out of time ( the first time hearing some of them live)If you're a fan get it, its very well priced and again looks and sounds great

Ah, Green!First of the Warner albums and the end of what I regard as early REM.There are still some hints of the early garage band tendencies, with hints of the directions they would go in on Out of Time and Automatic...Stipe's lyrics and vocals are less opaque than previously, but he hasn't become as mannered as he was to later.The re-mastering is fine.One of the main reasons I buy these re-issues is for the live discs and this one is a goody! Stipe is a much more confident performer than on some of the earlier concerts, again without becoming as mannered as he did later.A worthwhile purchase, but marks where I stop buying the re-issues, assuming that they continue into the Warner era, as we move further away from the REM I loved.

Case came wrapped it plastic, but is cracked. Not overly pleased with the condition

The first REM effort under the auspices of Warner Brothers, Green is influenced by their earlier IRS albums yet the seeds of the multi-platinum sellers Out of time and Automatic for the people are also here. Highlights are the singles Pop song 89 and Stand and the classic Orange crush. If you only have the former two consider this as it is much closer to Out of time than Monster which later alienated many followers they picked up during the Out of time and Automatic period.

The album is fantastic, and was delivered as described; unfortunately; there were some issues with the vinyl itself, which has some scratching on it; which was nothing to do with the vendor as the album was delivered in sealed, brand-new condition.I asked if the vendor had another copy, but as he had none; the vendor immediately offered a full cash refund including return postage and had absolutely no quibbles on this issue. So I cannot speak highly enough of his excellent service to me as a customer.RegardsPaul

This performance is available on YouTube and this is probably the source of this CD. The sound is very "phasey" but some of the performance comes through clearly enough. Overall sound quality is 6 or 7 out of 10. It's kind of like a very lossy mp3 sound. It's not something I'm going to listen to a lot, if ever again, but there are a few interesting performances on this - an early version of "Fall On Me", "Theme From Two Steps Onward", "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", "Ghost Riders In The Sky" and "Paint It Black" are good to have, even in this quality, although alternate performances of most of those are available elsewhere.

Green what a fabulous item, just before they hit the big time and became household names Green came out full of cl\assic songs like Orange crush and stand. Michael Stipe and crew really started off on a high and in my opinion never slowed down or bent to commercialism. fantastic band, fantastic album. and this deluxe edition is lovely to boot.