1982-2011 @320
Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011-- the band's first career-spanning anthology-- does an exceptional job of presenting this body of work as a chronological survey that neatly summarizes their major themes and artistic tangents while being highly listenable. The song selection is exceptional-- a few relatively minor singles didn't make the cut, but every major hit is here, presented alongside crucial album tracks such as "Country Feedback", "Begin the Begin", and "Life and How to Live It". The quality of the material up through at least the middle of the second disc is unimpeachable; the sheer concentration of classic tunes makes a strong case for the band ranking among the 20th century's greatest songwriting partnerships. The set handles the band's leaner years with grace and minimal revisionism, though the electronic and ambient textures of Up are sidelined in favor of that album's delicate Beach Boys homage "At My Most Beautiful". A few wild card selections from their more recent records, such as Accelerate's "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" and "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter" from Collapse Into Now, shine in this context.
Nearly every hits set must include previously unreleased material, and this one is no different. The three new tracks featured here are the final completed songs of the band's career and serve as a coda of sorts for their recorded output. The single "We All Go Back to Where We Belong" is the keeper; a wistful ballad with a delightfully schmaltzy Burt Bacharach-like arrangement that barely conceals its subtext of basically being about the end of R.E.M. The other two cuts sound like a band crossing a few ideas off their bucket list before calling it a day: "Hallelujah" comes off like them giving one last attempt at nailing the hazy sophisti-pop they explored on Reveal, while the dreadful "A Month of Saturdays" meets the title's "garbage" requirement by sounding as though they realized at the last moment that they never wrote a song about loving the weekend and scrambled to remedy that with only a few minutes of studio time.
Though R.E.M.'s dissolution is not necessarily a cause for celebration, having a clearly defined end point makes it much easier to grasp the scope of their achievements. Part of a collective anxiety about R.E.M.'s ongoing existence up until this year was based in a desire on the part of the audience to impose a manageable narrative on their career. Now that they have disbanded, it's much easier to understand the trajectory of their post-Berry output in particular: Basically, they spent some time in the 2000s trying out new sounds and ways of working, but they eventually reconnected with their rock'n'roll roots before wrapping up their career with Collapse Into Now, a set of songs that revisited their creative strengths. Those records are never going to as beloved as their first 10 brilliant and remarkably consistent albums with Berry, but Part Lies makes a good case that their later period has value too, and that the group had raised the bar so high for themselves that merely being very good could be interpreted as a failure. (Pitchfork)
