R.E.M. - Around the Sun 2LP

Craft Recordings celebrates the enduring legacy of R.E.M. with vinyl reissues for two long out-of-print titles from the second half of the band's celebrated career: 2004's Around the Sun and 2011's Collapse Into Now. The chart-topping Around the Sun includes such highlights as "Leaving New York," "Aftermath," "Electron Blue," and "Wanderlust," plus "The Outsiders." Collapse Into Now, which marks the band's fifteenth and final studio album, includes the singles "Überlin," "Oh My Heart" and "It Happened Today." Arriving in July 2023, both albums were cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Memphis Records Pressing.

One of the most revered acts to emerge from the American underground, Athens, GA's R.E.M. was formed in 1980 by Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass), and Bill Berry (drums). An influential force in the post-punk college scene, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and multi-Grammy Award winners rose to become one of the most popular and critically acclaimed bands in the world, thanks to their idiosyncratic blend of brash tunefulness and poetic lyrics on such best-selling albums as Out of Time (1991), Automatic for the People (1992), and Monster (1994). By the turn of the millennium, the band had ventured into new sonic territory, exploring electronic textures and the use of synthesizers with albums like Up (1998) and Reveal (2001).

R.E.M.'s thirteenth LP, Around the Sun, continued that evolution. Written as America grappled with the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War, the album reflected the somber tone of the era and found the band blending political commentary with meditations on love, loss, and a fast-changing world. Marking the band's final collaboration with producer Pat McCarthy (The Waterboys, U2) and their first with drummer Bill Rieflin, Around the Sun features the singles "Leaving New York" (a Top 5 hit in the UK and No. 1 on Billboard's AAA chart), "Wanderlust," the melancholic "Aftermath," and the trippy "Electron Blue." Other highlights include the politically charged "Final Straw" and the poignant "Outsiders," featuring guest vocals by rapper Q-Tip. Praised by Blender for its "arresting musical moods" and "strong choruses," Around the Sun topped the album charts in the UK, Germany, and Sweden, among other territories, and landed at No. 13 on the Billboard 200.