This month’s Uncut‘s cover boys are R.E.M. There are three versions of the issue and each comes with a fantastic mix CD curated by each band member. Worth checking out wherever they sell UK periodicals near you.
The mag also feels the group’s In Time: The Best Of REM 1988-2003 could’ve been better. In that spirit, they’ve compiled an alternative selection of their finest moments (1988-2003). None of the tracks appear on the Warner disc.
Uncut‘s “Alternative” Best Of REM 1988-2003
Leaving New York Around The Sun 20040
Country Feedback Out Of Time 1991
Drive Automatic For The People 1992
So Fast, So Numb New Adventures In Hi-Fi 1996
How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us New Adventures in Hi-Fi 1996
Try Not To Breathe Automatic For The People 1992
Turn You Inside-Out Green 1988
Half A World Away Out Of Time 1991
Find The River Automatic For The People 1992
Falls To Climb Up 1998
I’ve Been High Reveal 2001
Get Up Green 1998
Near Wild Heaven Out Of Time 1991
Tongue Monster 1994
Walk Unafraid Up 1998
Let Me In Monster 1994
High Speed Train Around The Sun 2004Stream the whole thing here (Real).
Your mission: post an “alternative” Best Of for your fave band. Then we’ll all argue about it. We won’t play by Uncut‘s silly rule that none of the songs can appear on the official release. Feel free to include b-sides too to show us how smart you are.
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First comment, bitches!
please make this album with smart 4ad graphics:
pixies – doomore
1 tony’s theme
2 into the white
3 velouria
4 wave of mutilation uk surf
5 i’m amazed
6 la la love you
7 make believe debbie g
8 evil hearted you
9 here comes your man
10 bone machine
11 debaser
12 u mass
11 is she weird
12 gouge away
13 diggin for fire
14 ive been waiting for you
i hate to be nitpicky, but since when is 2004 between 1988 and 2003?
Sloan recently came out with a rather weak greatest hits cd.
here’s a better tracklist for a best of:
1. underwhelmed
2. penpals
3. people of the sky
4. coax me
5. deeper than beauty
6. the good in everyone
7. autobiography
8. everything you’ve done wrong
9. c’mon c’mon (we’re going to get it started)
10. chester the molester
11. stand by me, yeah
12. i wanna thank you
13. don’t you believe a word
14. friendship
15. take good care of the poor boy
16. at the movies
17. who you talkin’ to?
18. i love a long goodbye
19. who loves life more?
20. the rest of my life
Actually, I’ll do what the R.E.M. Warner Bros greatest hits album should’ve been:
Pop Song 89
Stand
Orange Crush
Losing My Religion
Shiny Happy People
Drive
Man On The Moon
Everybody Hurts
Nightswimming
What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
Bang and Blame
E-Bow The Letter
Electrolite
Daysleeper
At My Most Beautiful
The Great Beyond
Imitation of Life
Country Feedback (live)
You know, all the hits from that era! I get so annoyed when people make greatest hits records and skip hits or put on stuff that no one cares about.
And this is what the Pavement hits cd should be:
Box Elder
Debris Slide
Summer Babe
Trigger Cut
Here
In The Mouth A Desert
Frontwards
Cut Your Hair
Gold Soundz
Range Life
Unfair
Rattled By The Rush
Father To A Sister Of Thought
Kennel District
Grounded
Give It A Day
Painted Soldiers
Stereo
Shady Lane
Date With IKEA
Carrot Rope
Spit On A Stranger
Major Leagues
The Hexx (original version)
And this should be Sonic Youth’s greatest hits:
Disc One:
The Burning Spear
I Dreamed I Dream
Making The Nature Scene
The World Looks Red
Brother James
Death Valley 69
Shadow of a Doubt
Tom Violence
Expressway To Yr Skull
Schizophrenia
White Cross
Cotton Crown
Candle
Silver Rocket
Eric’s Trip
Teenage Riot
Disc two:
Dirty Boots
Kool Thing
Mote
100%
Drunken Butterfly
Sugar Kane
Bull in the Heather
Superstar
The Diamond Sea (edit)
Sunday
Nevermind (What Was It Anyway?)
The Empty Page
Rain On Tin
Unmade Bed
Pattern Recognition
Nice on Steve. I like “Can’t Face Up” too.
Matt, I was hoping you’d comment! Nice picks. I have all three of the UNCUT mix CDs if you wanna borrow. They’re pretty great. Happy bday dude.
i dont agree with the above pixies hits, heres mine
bone machine
ed is dead
brick is red
holiday song
gigantic
cactus
i’ve been tired
isle de encanta
monkey gone to heaven
wave of mutilation
allison
u-mass
dig for fire
velouria
the sad punk
trompe le monde
subbacultcha
levitate me
hey
where is my mind
debaser
The Go-Betweens Greatest Hits should be thus:
The House That Jack Kerouac Built
Part Company
The Devil’s Eye
Twin Layers Of Lightning
Cattle And Cane
Karen
Core Of A Flame
Spirit Of A Vampyre
Five Words
Eight Pictures
Bow Down
To Reach Me
Unfinished Business
The Clarke Sisters
The Wrong Road
Spirit
Bye Bye Pride
Dive For Your Memory
new order has released about 25 greatest hits but none of them are what I would include – so…here goes:
New Order
Blue Monday (original!)
1) Dreams Never End
2) Ceremony
3) The Chosen Time
4) Everything’s Gone Green
5) Temptation
6) Age Of Consent
7) Your Silent Face
9) Touched By The Hand Of God
10) Love Vigilantes
11) The Perfect Kiss (Lowlife version)
12) Subculture (Lowlife version)
13) State Of the Nation
14) Weirdo
15) 1963
16) Bizarre Love Triangle (Brotherhood version)
17) Shellshock
18) True Faith
19) Fine Time
20) Round and Round
21) Regret
22) World (Price Of Love)
23) Isolation (from Radio BBC Sessions)
24) Atmosphere (from Radio BBC Sessions)
Yes, intentionally left off my least favorite NO songs like Confusion, Thieves Like Us, World In Motion, and pretty much all of “Get Ready” and “Waiting for the Sirens Call” (just ain’t classics yet…)
also, someone oughta to do a career length Replacements, not the MAJOR only that came out a few years back.
Something that starts with “GO!” and “Kids Don’t Follow” and follows them all the way to that disaster of “Merry Go Round.”
OK, I’ll play your game. I can’t believe I’m typing all this out, but…the things I do for Stererogum!
This is an actual CD I burned years ago…one of the first I made upon getting a CD burner. It’s a Two-Disc Best of Elvis Costello I lovingly called, “The Morbid and the Maudlin.” This is what “Girls, Girls, Girls” should’ve been.
Nothing from “Spike” (hate that record), though I guess maybe Veronica belongs on here. Nothing any newer than Brutal Youth. The meat’s from “This Year’s Model” through “Imperial Bedroom.” Nothing from “King of America.” Never was that fond of that one either. I guess if I were to re-do it today, I’d stick “What’s so Funny” on. I was pretty burned out on that song, but it’s made a comeback in my heart….
—–
ELVIS COSTELLO: THE MORBID AND THE MAUDLIN
DISC ONE
1. I Hope You’re Happy Now
2. Party Girl
3. Radio Sweetheart
4. Lipstick Vogue
5. Big Tears
6. White Knuckles
7. Long Honey Moon
8. Man Out of Time
9. Oliver’s Army
10. You Belong to Me
11. New Lace Sleeves
12. Two Little Hitlers
13. Clubland
14. Motel Matches
15. You Tripped at Every Step
16. King Horse
17. Kid About it
18. Lip Service
19. You’ll Never be a Man
20. Hand in Hand
DISC TWO
1. Man Called Uncle
2. Tiny Steps
3. Almost Blue
4. Accidents Will Happen
5. Town Crier
6. Allison
7. Red Shoes
8. No Action
9. The World and His Wife
10. Little Triggers
11. High Fidelity
12. I Just Don’t Know What to do with Myself
13. Every Day I Write the Book
14. The Other Side of Summer
15. Worthless Thing (live)
16. I Hope You’re Happy Now (Mersey Demo)
17. Human Hands
18. All the Rage
19. Next Time Round
20. Black Sails in the Sunset
Here’s my Police best-of that omits all songs included on the REAL Greatest Hits.
Next to You
Hole In My Life
Peanuts
Truth Hits Everybody
It’s Alright For You
Bring on the Night
Does Everyone Stare
Bed’s Too Big Without You
Driven to Tears
When the World Is Running Down
Canary in a Coalmine
Demolition Man
Secret Journey
Darkness
Low Life
Synchronicity II
Tea in the Sahara
Murder by Numbers
Someone to Talk To
Once Upon a Daydream
I Burn for You (this is one of my favorite songs)
my ‘alternative’ immaculate collection and ghv2 (with uncut’s silly rule firmly intact):
1. burning up
2. over and over
3. jimmy jimmy
4. till death do us part
5. more
6. thief of hearts (‘here she comes / little susie ho-maker!’)
8. nothing really matters
9. runaway lover
10. nobody knows me
yeah, i’m a sucker for her shitty dance ditties. ya jealous?
Here’s my best of the Ring Cycle:
1) Götterdämmerung (of fucking course)
2) Die Walküre
3) Siegfried
4) Das Rheingold (if you can even compare such crap like this to the others)
No “Cecilia Ann” on the Pixies best of? I personally think that is one of the best choices to start a best of Pixies mix with, not to mention any mixtape, period.
I made my own two-disc Costello set a couple of years ago–and there’s no way to make a decent collection without tracks from “King of America.”
DISC ONE
1. Beyond Belief
2. Lovers Walk
3. Mystery Dance
4. Pump It Up
5. High Fidelity
6. I Hope You’re Happy Now
7. From a Whisper to a Scream
8. Clubland
9. Accidents Will Happen
10. Oliver’s Army
11. Peace, Love and Understanding
12. New Amsterdam
13. Riot Act
14. Brilliant Mistake
15. This Town
16. It’s Time
17. My Dark Life
18. When I Was Cruel No. 2
19. Shipbuilding
20. God Give Me Strength
DISC TWO
1. Watching the Detectives
2. Less Than Zero
3. This Year’s Girl
4. I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea
5. Night Rally
6. Senior Service
7. Opportunity
8. King Horse
9. Man Called Uncle
10. Man Out of Time
11. Jack of All Parades
12. Sleep of the Just
13. I Want You
14. Blue Chair (album version)
15. Seven Day Weekend
16. Blue Chair (b-side)
17. Life Shrinks
18. Complicated Shadows
19. Toledo
20. Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4
21. Smile (b-side version)
**Matthew** You stole my post – rock on.
Damn, I wanted to do the long overdue Pavement greatest hits but you beat me. Focusing on the singles though is too obvious. You have to think S.M. will mix it up when he gets around to it. Newark Wilder will rightly find its way on there somehow.
“Hold My Life” The Replacements on Sire/Warner. This is an answer to the All for Nothing/Nothing for all comp of several years back. There’s no reason to do the same for their wonderful Twin Tone years because, as I recall, all three of those albums plus the ep almost fit on one 90 minute tape.
1. Hold My Life
2. Little Mascara
3. Swinging Party
4. Waitress in the Sky
5. Valentine
6. Nevermind
7. Nightclub Jitters
8. I.O.U.
9. Back to Back
10. Asking Me Lies
11. Rock & Roll Ghost
12. Darlin? One
13. One Wink at a Time
14. Happy Town
15. When it Began
16. Attitude
“Shiny Happy People” should’ve been on In Time. But apparently all of the band hate that song. I don’t know why, I think it’s neat…
Shiny Happy People is fairly underrated. I dismissed it as pop fluff before I downloaded it again on a whim. Now I can see why it was such a big hit. The only annoying thing is Mike Mills.
And I’m doing another R.E.M. comp, but not restricting myself to the Warner Bros. years (which Uncut didn’t need to do either)
Sitting Still
Harborcoat
Letter Never Sent
Maps And Legends
Wendell Gee
Just A Touch
Pop Song 89
I Remember California (way underrated)
Half A World Away
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Nightswimming
Find The River
What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
Strange Currencies
Tongue
E-Bow The Letter
Electrolite
The Lifting
Imitation Of Life
Aftermath
Some notes:
Document is the worst thing R.E.M. has released.
Up is solid, there are only three or four missteps, but no songs that linger.
Monster features the best individual songs, but is the least consistent album by a wide margin.
“document is the worst thing REM has released”
GASP!
disturbance at the heron house?
welcome to the occupation?
king of birds??
oddfellows local 151??
fireplace??????
exhuming mccarthy?!
and i didn’t even mention…
My thoughts on why a lot of people (me included) don’t like Shiny Happy People is also my guess as to why REM don’t like it: because it’s obvious that the song is nothing but an attempt to score a big chart hit. Nothing wrong with that, but unlike other blantant chart attempts from bands making that jump from cool to commercial around the time (Just Like Heaven, With Or Without You, Stand), this is all attempt and no substance. It’s not a bad song, but it *needs* to be a classic pop song, and it isn’t by a long shot.
would it be so bad to slip “airport man” from rem’s totally ignored ‘up!’ album into the mix? such a gorgeous song that’s just begging for a spot on ‘six feet under.’
Re: R.E.M. Ugh! High Speed Train?!!! That tuneless drone is downright the worst track on Around the Sun (it’s almost as bad as the album’s cover artwork is). Otherwise, a good compilation.
I?ve listened to Uncut?s REM mix a few times and I think it brings out the diversity of the albums better than ?In Time? does. Granted, REM has well honed its identifiable sound, but having ?Tongue? on the same compilation as ?Try Not to Breathe? and ?Get Up? explores their range a bit better than stringing together all of the radio ready hits. Living in this great time of mixing and matching, I kept the song order intact, but I made the following changes:
Bittersweet Me instead of So Fast, So Numb
Why not Smile instead of Falls to Climb
Summer Turns to High instead of I?ve Been High
You?re In the Air instead of Walk Unafraid
Good job on the Sloan BEST OF — always good to see CanCon, as well as “Deeper Than Beauty,” on any mix
902, represent y’all.
Hmm…
How about a Matthew Sweet best of?
1) Day for Night (Girlfriend, 1991)
Future Shock (In Reverse, 1999)
2) Smog Moon (100% Fun, 1995)
3) Not When I Need It (100% Fun, 1995)
4) Dinosaur Act (Altered Beast, 1993)
5) Ultrasuede (The Ugly Truth Singgle, 1993)
6) Behind the Smile (Blue Sky on Mars, 1997)
7) Girlfriend (Girlfriend, 1991)
9) Magnet & Steel (Sabring the Teenage Witch Sountrack (not his, but the best cover of any song I’ve ever heard), 1998)
10) Happiness (Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy Sountrack, 1996)
11)All over my Head (Blue Sky on Mars, 1997)
12) Sick of Myself (100% Fun, 1995)
13) Shes a Breeder (100% Unreleased/Pirate Demos, 1994)
man…this list could go on and on…too many favs/best of’s
Juliana Hatfield (in place of Gold Stars collection) and in my idealized collection, we get some Blake Babies and Some Girls songs as well…
Wipe it Up (w/ Blake Babies)
Cesspool (w/ Blake Babies)
I’m Not Your Mother (w/ Blake Babies)
Out There (w/ Blake Babies)
Temptation Eyes (w/ Blake Babies)
Everybody Loves Me But You
Forever Baby
Nirvana
I See You
My Sister
Spin the Bottle
Universal Heart-Beat
Sellout
Down On Me
Live it Up
Cool Rock Boy
Disappear (w/ Blake Babies)
The Prettiest Girl (w/ Some Girls)
Get In Line
Dirty Dog
What Do I Care
I love your Police “alt-hits” track list. I can’t believe you left off ‘Mother’ though.
my “alt.” Teenage Fanclub best of (ok, it’s got stuff in common with the official best of):
1.Metal Baby
2.I don’t know
3.Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From
4.Hang On
5.Everything Flows (Acoustic Version)
6.120 mins
7.Discolite
8.Star Sign
9.Verisimilitude
10.Going Places (acoustic)
11.The Concept
12.Every Step Is A Way Through
13.The World’ll Be OK (alt. version)
ander, i couldnt agree more.