R.E.M. Gets Unplugged Again (And Remastered for iTunes, Too!)

For those of you who were out and about buying up as many of Rhino’s Record Story Day exclusives as you could possibly get your hands on, it’s hardly breaking news that we offered up a vinyl release of R.E.M.’s UNPLUGGED 1991 / 2001: THE COMPLETE SESSIONS. But in case you’re wondering, yes, we did hear those of you without a working record player weeping softly to yourselves, and even though it goes against our nature to reward a bunch of freaking crybabies, we’ve done it anyway: you can now purchase the set both digitally and on CD. (Sorry, cassette and 8-track fans: you bet on the wrong hipster horse.)

In case you haven’t seen the track listing, or if perhaps you tried to block it out after thinking you’d never get to own a copy of it for yourself, here’s what you can find on the set:

1991 Unplugged: “Half A World Away,” “Disturbance at the Heron House,” “Radio Song,” Low,” “Perfect Circle,” “Fall on Me,” “Belong,” “Love Is All Around,” “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine,” “Losing My Religion,” “Pop Song 89,” “Endgame,” “Fretless,” “Swan Swan H,” “Rotary 11,” “Get Up,” and “World Leader Pretend.”

2001 Unplugged: “All The Way To Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star),” “Electrolite,” “At My Most Beautiful,” “Daysleeper,” “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry),” “Losing My Religion,” “Country Feedback,” “Cuyahoga,” “Imitation of Life,” “Find the River,” “The One I Love,” “Disappear,” “Beat a Drum,” “I’ve Been High,” “I’ll Take the Rain,” and “Sad Professor.”

And just so’s you know, the last four tracks from 1991 and the last five tracks from 2001 are numbers that you never saw on the original broadcasts of the Unplugged performances, making them just a little bit more special than the songs than precede them.

But that’s not all the news about Athens, Georgia’s favorite sons that we’ve got for you today: in addition, this week also brings remastered versions (R.E.M.astered versions?) of the band’s Warner Brothers catalog to iTunes, so with any luck, they should sound more crisp and clear than ever before…which, of course, begs the reminder that Rhino is not responsible for any nerve damage you may sustain from feeling the jangle of Peter Buck’s guitar all the way down to your toes.

But if it makes you tingle with pleasure? Oh, well, that’s all us. And you’re welcome.