R.E.M. will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its grunge-era return-to-rock Monster this fall with a 6-disc box set that will include previously unheard demos, an unreleased live concert, the “Road Movie” film and a newly remixed version of the album by original producer Scott Litt.
RELATED: Listen to R.E.M.’s ‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’ — 2019 Scott Litt remix
The 5 CD/1 Blu-ray box set and a 2 LP vinyl edition are both due out Nov. 1 on Craft Recordings. They’ll officially be announced Wednesday, but already are available for pre-order via Amazon.com.
The box set will include:
- CD 1: The original album, remastered
- CD 2: Fifteen previously unreleased demos with titles like “Uptempo Mo Distortion,” “Time Is On Mike’s Side,” “Harlan County with Whistling” and “Uptempo Ricky”
- CD 3: A newly remixed version of the album by Scott Litt. According to the product listing, “The original 199(4) version was dense in guitars and feedback with the vocals mixed within the sonic wall, but on this alternative version the guitars are pulled back and the vocals pushed forward to create a more open sound and showcase often-revealing lyrics”
- CDs 4-5: A previously unreleased recording of the band’s 25-song Monster Tour set at the Rosemont Horizon outside of Chicago, Ill., on June 3, 1995
- Blu-ray: A disc featuring 5.1 Surround and Hi-Resolution Audio mixes of the remastered Monster, plus the 1996 concert film “Road Movie” and the music videos for the singles “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?,” “Crush With Eyeliner,” “Star 69,” “Strange Currencies,” “Tongue” and “Bang and Blame”
The Monster box set also will include new liner notes, featuring fresh interviews with the band’s members, by Matthew Perpetua, creator of Fluxblog and the R.E.M.-focused Pop Songs 07-08 blog. Additionally, the packaging will feature artwork redesigned by the original cover artist, Chris Bilheimer.
On Twitter today, Perpetua said of the forthcoming reissue: “The bonuses are really good, the new revised Litt mix is very different! The new version of ‘You’ is jaw-dropping.”
The 2 LP vinyl edition will include the remastered album on one disc and the 2019 remix on the other.
Released on Sept. 27, 1994, Monster was both a multi-platinum seller and managed to alienate some of the group’s longtime fans with a loud mix that was heavy on Peter Buck’s tremelo-affected guitars. The band launched its first tour in six years in 1995, though it was plagued by repeated health problems. While a huge success, the album — now known to many as “The Scary One” — subsequently has earned the reputation as one of the most ubiquitously traded-in discs of the CD era.
The 6-disc Monster set is the largest yet in R.E.M.’s ongoing 25th anniversary reissue series, which graduated from 2-disc sets to 4-disc packages with Out of Time and Automatic For the People.
Below, check out the tracklist and some product shots.
R.E.M., Monster 25th Anniversary Edition
Disc 1: Original Album
1. “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”
2. “Crush With Eyeliner”
3. “King of Comedy”
4. “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream”
5. “Star 69Strange Currencies”
6. “Strange Currencies”
7. “Tongue”
8. “Bang and Blame”
9. “I Took Your Name”
10. “Let Me In”
11. “Circus Envy”
12. “You”
Disc 2: Unreleased Demos
1. “Pete’s Hit”
2. “Uptempo Mo Distortion”
3. “Uptempo Ricky”
4. “Harlan County with Whistling”
5. “Lost Song”
6. “AM Boo”
7. “Mike’s Gtr”
8. “Sputnik 1 Remix”
9. “Black Sky 4-14”
10. “Revolution 4-21”
11. “Rocker with vocal”
12. “Time Is On Mike’s Side”
13. “1Experiment 4-28 no vocal”
14. “Highland Fling 4-29”
15. “Cranky 4-29”
Disc 3: Scott Litt’s 2019 Remix
1. “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”
2. “Crush With Eyeliner”
3. “King Of Comedy”
4. “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream”
5. “Star 69”
6. “Strange Currencies”
7. “Tongue”
8. “Bang And Blame”
9. “I Took Your Name”
10. “Let Me In”
11. “Circus Envy”
12. “You”
Disc 4: Live in Chicago — June 3, 1995 (Part 1)
1. “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”
2. “Circus Envy”
3. “Crush With Eyeliner”
4. “Near Wild Heaven”
5. “Welcome To The Occupation”
6. “Undertow”
7. “I Took Your Name”
8. “Strange Currencies”
9. “Me In Honey”
10. “Revolution”
11. “Tongue”
12. “Man On The Moon”
13. “Country Feedback”
14. “Monty Got A Raw Deal”
Disc 5: Live in Chicago — June 3, 1995 (Part 2)
1. “Losing My Religion”
2. “You”
3. “Departure”
4. “Orange Crush”
5. “Get Up”
6. “Star 69”
7. “Let Me In”
8. “Everybody Hurts”
9. “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)”
10. “Pop Song 89”
11. “Its The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
Disc 6: Blu-ray
1. ‘Monster’ (5.1 Surround Sound)
2. ‘Monster’ (Hi-Resolution Audio)
3. “Road Movie” (Concert film)
4. “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” (Music video)
5. “Crush With Eyeliner” (Music video)
6. “Star 69” (Music video)
7. “Strange Currencies” (Music video)
8. “Tongue” (Music video)
9. “Bang and Blame” (Music video)
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- R.E.M., Sonic Youth, The Damned, Oingo Boingo, Squeeze may have lost tapes in UMG fire
- Watch: R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe performs 3 new songs while opening for Patti Smith in NYC
- R.E.M.’s heavily bootlegged ‘Bingo Hand Job’ show gets vinyl Record Store Day release
- 9-disc ‘R.E.M. at the BBC’ features ’84 live set, full ‘Monster’ tour show, Glastonbury ’99 and more
- The absolute best of R.E.M.: All 282 songs ranked by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ readers
- R.E.M. to release 14 hours of live material, TV appearances in 6-DVD ‘REMTV’ box
this bodes well for the future — maybe someday we’ll get an “If Reason and Taste Had Prevailed at the Time” mix of Around the Sun –
A preview of the 2019 remix of “What’s the Frequency Kenneth” is now available on Spotify and elsewhere. It’s quite different and promising. I’m not sure it improves “Kenneth” – the original still seems perfect to me in all its glorious noise.
OTOH, I can’t bear to listen to the rest of the original album ‘Monster.’ A similar reworking of the other tracks on the album is most welcome!
so got