After the IRS years, R.E.M. furthered their career by creating strong Pop/Rock hits that began with the Warner debut, Green (1988). That album drove the band into multi-platinum peaks selling more than four million copies worldwide. It was followed by the even more successful Out Of Time, a set that delivered “Shiny Happy People”, and “Losing My Religion”. But it was the release of Automatic For The People that lifted the band to previously unseen heights. That album was responsible for “Everybody Hurts”, “Man On The Moon”, “Drive” and three others for a total of six singles.
With Concord Records revisiting the band’s classic catalog for remastered reissues (Out Of Time issued 2016 as a multi-disc 25th Anniversary set (see here), it’s only a natural expectation to think that the same would be done for Automatic For The People (1992) as its 25th Anniversary arrives in October of 2017.
Good news!
On or near this celebratory date, Concord Records new reissue label, Craft Recordings will release what will no doubt be a beautiful and worthy honoring of R.E.M.’s classic Automatic For The People. At this time, there are no details to whet an appetite with so we’ll have to wait for those official channels to open up to disclose the expected goodness (other than the remastered original album).
However, before Automatic For The People arrives, you can expect the reissue of 2011’s R.E.M. collection, Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011. That set is being prepared for a launch date of June 16 as a 2CD reissue. much as it is. Like AftP, there are no details yet as to what can be actually expected. However, I suspect that this ‘best of’ set will not deviate much (if at all) from its original track-list. It may just be there to brand the title with the Craft Recordings label. Nevertheless, it’s coming.
