Aug 7, 2012 at 11:24 AM | Music News | By Rock Square

Nearly one year after officially calling it quits, R.E.M. has announced plans to release a deluxe anniversary edition of its 1987 masterpiece, Document, this September. According to the band’s website, which has remained rather active since the band’s dissolution, the 25th Anniversary edition of Document will feature “the digitally remastered original album, plus a previously unreleased 1987 concert from the Work tour. The commemorative release also adds new liner notes by journalist David Daley, with the 2CD package presented in a lift-top box with four postcards.”

Although it was by no means R.E.M.’s first major release, Document was the first album by the Athens luminaries to go platinum. Anchored by the hits “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and “The One I Love”, Document kicked off a string of releases that catapulted R.E.M. into the rock star stratosphere, with Green, Out of Time and Automatic for the People cementing R.E.M.’s status in the following few years.

The bonus disc, which contains a complete concert recorded in Holland on September 14, 1987, boasts twenty live versions of R.E.M.’s best known songs of the time.

This is not the first special edition release of R.E.M’s early work. Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction and Life’s Rich Pageant have all enjoyed remastered makeovers recently, and one can only assume that future anniversaries will find later albums getting the same treatment.

Check out R.E.M. - Life’s Rich Pageant on Numbered Limited Edition 180g LP here.

 

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