R.E.M.'s Live (Warner Bros.) is no ordinary concert release. The band has made a concerted effort to reach out to its fan base, as it re-launched the R.E.M. Dublin website as part two of its promotion of the live compilation, which is based on two shows taped from Dublin in 2005. This version lets you watch song clips, a live trailer of the DVD portion, see band photos, and click on a link to an archived original version of the site, where you can watch R.E.M.'s five-night "working rehearsals" at Olympia Theatre and read reviews or blog about them yourself.
The Athens, Georgia-based group is still in Dublin as we speak, putting the finishing touches on what will be their 14th studio album when it's released next year.
As for the release itself, if you just put your blinders on and listen to the music, it is pretty great, especially for a band that's been around for over twenty-five years and was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But where there are strengths, there are also weakness.
First, the complaints: I can understand R.E.M.'s effort to make the three-disc compilation (which hit stores in mid-October) both affordable and worth every dollar. The band chose to combine highlights from its February 26, 2005 and February 27, 2005 shows from the Point Depot in Dublin into one release. However, having one of those audio discs containing only five songs is dumbfounding.
Why not split the twenty-two tracks into two eleven-track discs? Or better yet, why not make the most of the second CD by including at least one version of every song played at the two Dublin shows? Songs played but missing from this compilation include "Seven Chinese Brothers," "These Days," and "Electrolite." Most fans wouldn't have a problem with those songs being included here, unless the live versions of those and other missing tracks were so bad that the band didn't want anybody to hear them ever again.
That issue aside, the sound and production of both discs is of the highest caliber. If you didn't know or care to know any better, this sequence of twenty-two songs sounds and feels like a full show, and you might as well enjoy it as such, since R.E.M. was in top and spirited form in Ireland.
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