I know it's about a year away (October '19 being the month mentioned below) but I thought I'd share this interesting article by Bertis Downs posted on R.E.M. HQ - Early murmurs of Monster, part 1 | R.E.M.HQ
Hmm, wonder what this will entail: "...with the 40th anniversary of the whole shooting match year after next!"
#Monster25 coming soon. October 1994: released. October 2019: planning starting now. It’s a real trove of treasures. R.E.M.
As long as whatever they will do with it is as awesome as what they did with Green I am happy. Better sound, better dynamic range, a good sounding complete show from that era, no non interesting demo stuff or listen to only once outtakes.
Oh yeah! Can't wait to hear whatever outtakes, demos, live stuff, whatever those folks are digging up.
Saw the fb post and here was my reply: My favorite album of all time so this will be a godsend. However, permit me to get on my soapbox for a minute: Please tell somebody to not do another unnecessary remastering job where the dynamic range is compromised because on Monster it really will be damaging. There already are inherent limitations due to the recording style and a modern loud remastering will make it painfully loud and remove important dynamics. So far I’ve bought the reissues for the extras and packaging and the remastered disc is a coaster because it becomes a matter of two steps forward and two backward since each remaster is to various degrees worse sounding than the original release. The worst being the IRS album remasters since the dynamics were crushed. At least on AFTP and OOT we got the benefit of the hires BD audio but those seem to be the new mixes and lacked the dynamics of the older hires dvd-audio discs. Sorry to be a bit long winded but I adore Monster and would hate to see what happens to albums these days soundwise happen to my personal favorite. —————- If Monster gets the loudness treatment it will be horrible. None of these remasters have been improvements and have been steps backward in varying degrees-wih some being downright awful.
Really? I only listened to it once and felt like OOT it was a tad louder and thus changed some emphasis in levels on certain songs. I did direct comparisons to the orignal cd and felt it didn’t match either the orignal or the original DMM LP and then when I got the dvd-a hires stereo it also beat the remaster.
Kind of puzzling why they would pick this album to give the box set treatment to.Sold real well when first released now tops the list as the most traded in cd at bricks and mortar for some time now.
They won't do this but I'd like to hear somebody take a fresh stab at remixing the album. (I never managed to hear the 5.1 mix.)
I still like this album a lot. However, I don't need a deluxe anniversary super duper deluxe edition. It's just good as is.
I see your point but they have made deluxe editions of all of their albums since 2008. They have become a bit bigger in size with the last two and presumably they will now stay that way as long as the extra material exists.
Definitely in for the vinyl although Adventures is the one I look forward to, think after Up I won't be bothering have the last 2 already. . Not fussed about Reveal or Around The Sun.
I'm thinking one of the final three Monster shows from Atlanta. I have the last show and it has a few extra songs.
I know it wasn't the complete show, but I'm hoping it's something else, since all 3 exist as SBD bootlegs and we got most of it in Road Movie and Hi-Fi b-sides. Not that Monster shows were all that different, but at least it'd be something unheard. I know other gigs were recorded (if not all of them), since they used a track from Detroit on the "Tongue" single. If they have to use Atlanta, I hope they at least compile the 3 dates and include all the songs played during the run into a sort of complete super-show.
I have all the original CD issues for listening to and all the 25th anniversary issues for the extras. Definitely getting this but I hope, like Automatic, it has unreleased demos instead/as well as just a live disc. I really liked the demo discs for Out Of Time & Automatic For The People. Whatever they do, I'm in for it.
This was my I introduction to the band. Being 11 when grunge first hit made monster, with all its distortion and grunge-lite feel an instant like. I love star 69 and bang and blame.
In regards to the "whole 40th anniversary shooting match" reference that I quoted. The band formed in '80 - it's coming up.
I agree studio stuff would be much more interesting than a live set, given how much from this tour that has already been released. Not sure what’s in the vault...they didn’t even release any b-sides for Monster.