Craft Recordings’ vinyl reissues for the long out-of-print R.E.M. titles from the second half of the band’s celebrated career: 2001’s Reveal and 2008’s Accelerate (out August 25)
Both long-out-of-print, the titles showcase the legendary band’s evolution during their final decade together. The albums were cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at MRP. Additionally, fans can find limited-edition pressings exclusively at the R.E.M. HQ store: Reveal will be available in a Sky-Blue variant, while Accelerate will be pressed on Black & White Marble vinyl. Both titles follow vinyl reissues of 2004’s Around the Sun and 2011’s Collapse Into Now earlier this year and continue Craft’s ongoing creative partnership with R.E.M.
Released in May 2001, Reveal marked R.E.M.’s 12th studio album and their second following the departure of drummer Bill Berry. Co-produced with frequent collaborator Patrick McCarthy (Up, Man on the Moon (Music from the Motion Picture), Around the Sun), the album found the band embracing their classic sound after the electronic explorations of 1998’s Up. Among the highlights is the pop-forward single, “Imitation of Life,” which earned the group a GRAMMY® nomination and was a Top 10 hit in the UK, Canada, and multiple European countries. Other favorites include the sublime “All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star),” and the melancholic “I’ll Take the Rain,” while dreamy tracks like “Beachball” and “Summer Turns to High” offer a stylistic nod to the Beach Boys.
Bookending the aughts is the band’s penultimate studio album, Accelerate. Released in 2008, the broadly acclaimed title was created largely in a live setting. After sketching out the tracks and laying down early demos, the band booked a five-night engagement in Dublin, Ireland, for a series of “working rehearsals” (released as Live at the Olympia in 2009). Over the following weeks, R.E.M. recorded Accelerate in Ireland, Vancouver, and Athens, GA with producer Jacknife Lee (U2, Weezer, Taylor Swift). The resulting album reflected that raw sense of immediacy, as the band wrote some of their hardest and most purposeful songs in years. Rolling Stone, declared Accelerate to be “One of the best records R.E.M. have ever made.”
About R.E.M.:
Having established a powerful legacy as one of the most enduring and essential rock bands in popular music history, R.E.M. pioneered the alt-rock movement of the ’90s, influencing the likes of Nirvana, Pavement and Pearl Jam. Formed in 1980, the group enjoyed an extraordinary three-decade-long run of creative vitality and multi-platinum sales before amicably disbanding in 2011. Despite great success, the band members never lost track of their core values—remaining outspoken in their views about political, social and environmental issues, and never wavering when it came to artistic integrity. Throughout the course of their career together—an immense legacy which approaches a 40-year tenure in 2020—R.E.M. released a total of 15 studio albums, won three GRAMMY® Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
About Craft Recordings:
Craft Recordings is home to one of the largest and most essential collections of master recordings and compositions in the world. Its storied repertoire includes landmark releases from icons such as Joan Baez, John Coltrane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Celia Cruz, Miles Davis, Isaac Hayes, John Lee Hooker, Little Richard, R.E.M., Joan Sebastian, and Traveling Wilburys. Plus, the catalog recordings of celebrated contemporary acts including A Day to Remember, Evanescence, Alison Krauss, Nine Inch Nails, Taking Back Sunday and Violent Femmes, to name just a few. Renowned imprints with catalogs issued under the Craft banner include Fania, Fantasy, Fearless, Musart, Nitro, Panart, Prestige, Riverside, Rounder, Specialty, Stax, Vanguard, Varèse Sarabande, Vee-Jay and Victory, among many others. Craft creates thoughtfully curated packages, with a meticulous devotion to quality and a commitment to preservation—ensuring that these recordings endure for new generations to discover. Craft is also home to the Billie Holiday and Tammy Wynette estates which preserve and protect their respective names, likeness and music through day-to-day legacy management of these cultural trailblazers.