You call this an R.E.M. best-of? Even if you agree with their dubious decision to make this a Warner Bros/1990s-only compilation, this isn’t even all the best of that period. In the above link, D. Emerson Eddy runs down some of the songs that are missing. And the notion that anyone should buy an R.E.M. retrospective that includes nothing–nothing–from Document or anything before it is just as goofy as hell. It’s not like the casual fan will care about the need to make this a 1988-2003-only comp: They’ll just wonder where “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” and “Fall On Me” and “The One I Love” and “Radio Free Europe” went, and try to figure out how they got half a greatest-hits set. U2 and David Bowie have both managed to produce greatest-hits sets recently that are both comprehensive and entertaining–to say nothing of Elvis and the Beatles. What’s going on here, anyway?
