R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi: 25th Anniversary Edition 180g Vinyl 2LP
 
25th Anniversary 180g Vinyl 2LP Reissue Newly Remastered with Lacquers Cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and Pressed at RTI!
 
Craft Recordings celebrate the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.'s tenth studio album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi with a newly remastered 180g vinyl 2LP reissue cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, pressed at RTI, and featuring a replicate of the original gatefold package.
 
First released in September 1996, New Adventures in Hi-Fi endures as one of R.E.M.'s most acclaimed albums and stands as a favorite among band members and fans alike. The album was a global success, achieving platinum certification in the US and peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
 
Elsewhere, the album went to No. 1 in more than a dozen countries and was named as one of the best albums of the year by such outlets as Rolling Stone, Spin, Mojo, Entertainment Weekly, and the NME. Over the decades, the title has achieved cult status, with several press retrospectives ranking it among the top albums in R.E.M.'s rich catalog.
 
Recorded at the height of their fame, New Adventures in Hi-Fi also marks R.E.M.'s final album with drummer and founding member Bill Berry, who left the group amicably the following year. Perhaps most remarkable, however, is that the album found the band taking a unique creative approach: writing and recording much of the LP on the road, during their 1995 Monster tour.
 
While writing new material on the road wasn't an unusual feat for R.E.M., New Adventures was unlike anything they had done before. As they embarked on tour, the band sought to create an abstract travelogue documenting every emotion and experience as it happened.
 
"We wanted to make a record about being on the road without singing about being on the road," bassist Mike Mills explains in the liner notes. "The idea was that the feeling of being on the road would come through in the sound and feel of the record itself." The band traveled with a mobile recording truck, capturing new songs on an 8-track during soundchecks (as well as in various backstage areas and on the tour bus).
 
"The idea was, ‘Let's challenge ourselves,'" guitarist Peter Buck recalls. "My feeling was, it'll show exactly where we're at right now in a way that maybe some of the records don't at all. This record was just an attempt to be who we were at that minute."
 
The year-long outing, which began in January 1995, marked R.E.M.'s first tour in six years. As one of the biggest bands in the world, the quartet played to packed arenas across North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, with support from acts like Sonic Youth and Radiohead. But along the way, the tour was marred by medical emergencies. In March, Berry collapsed on stage from an aneurism and spent the next month recuperating. Mills, meanwhile, underwent intestinal surgery in June.
 
A month later, Stipe had emergency surgery for a hernia (which, he asserts, occurred while performing the song, "Undertow").
 
R.E.M. New Adventures in Hi-Fi Track Listing:
 
LP1
 
1. How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us
2. The Wake-Up Bomb
3. New Test Leper
4. Undertow
5. E-Bow the Letter
6. Leave
 
LP2
 
1. Departure
2. Bittersweet Me
3. Be Mine
4. Binky the Doormat
5. Zither
6. So Fast, So Numb
7. Low Desert
8. Electrolite