R.E.M. Treat 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' to 25th Anniversary Reissue

Hear an alternate version of single "Leave"

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Aug 24, 2021

R.E.M. will celebrate 25 years of New Adventures in Hi-Fi next month, and an expanded reissue of their tenth studio album has been announced to mark the occasion.

Arriving October 29 through Craft Recordings, the expanded editions of New Adventures in Hi-Fi will arrive in 2-CD/1-Blu-ray, 2-CD, 2-LP and digital formats. 

The 2-CD/1-Blu-ray package collects the newly remastered album, 13 B-sides and rarities, a never-before-released 64-minute outdoor projection film (shown on buildings across five cities in 1996 to promote the album's original release), and a previously unreleased 30-minute EPK.

The Blu-ray also features New Adventures in Hi-Fi in Hi-Res and 5.1 Surround Sound audio, five HD-restored music videos, and a 52-page hardcover book with archival photographs, new liner notes from journalist Mark Blackwell, and reflections from all four original band members, Patti Smith, Thom Yorke, and producer Scott Litt.

Below, you'll find an unboxing video for the various physical editions, along with an alternate version of "Leave" and the 2-CD tracklist.

Released in 1996, New Adventures in Hi-Fi followed 1994's Monster, and marked R.E.M.'s final album with drummer and co-founding member Bill Berry, who would leave the group amicably the following year.

Find out where New Adventures in Hi-Fi sits in Exclaim!'s Essential Guide to R.E.M.



New Adventures In Hi-Fi - 25th Anniversary Edition:

Disc 1 (remastered album):

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
7. Departure
8. Bittersweet Me
9. Be Mine
10. Binky The Doormat
11. Zither
12. So Fast, So Numb
13. Low Desert
14. Electrolite

Disc 2 (B-sides & rarities):

1. Tricycle (Instrumental)
2. Departure (Live Soundcheck, Rome, 2/22/1995)
3. Wall Of Death
4. Undertow (Live, Atlanta, 11/18/1995)
5. Wichita Lineman (Live, Houston, 9/15/1995)
6. New Test Leper (Live acoustic, Seattle, 4/19/1996)
7. The Wake-Up Bomb (Live, Atlanta, 10/4/1995)
8. Binky the Doormat (Live, Atlanta, 11/18/1995)
9. King of Comedy (808 State Remix)
10. Be Mine (Mike On Bus Version)
11. Love Is All Around
12. Sponge
13. Leave (Alternate Version)

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