In Time: The Best Of R.E.M 1988-2003 two-LP released on Warner Bros record label 2003, value £70

COMPILATIONS of greatest hits usually have little or no value as collections: this album is the exception to the rule. This is the only hit collection by R.E.M that has been issued on vinyl. It was a limited edition release, so there was only ever one pressing of this double album which makes it unique. It features 18 tracks, including a couple of new songs, and two more that were featured in film soundtracks. What is so surprising is that their biggest hit Shiny Happy People is notably missing.

Formed in 1980, Peter Buck, Michael Stipe, Bill Berry and Mike Mills were all university students in their home town of Athens, Georgia, USA. It was Stipe who chose the band's name. Browsing through a dictionary, he came across the phrase 'rapid eye movement' an acronym for R.E.M ( the dream stage of sleep) and so began a career that spanned 30 years, 15 million selling albums, eight of them reaching the top of the UK charts, and world record sales that have reached 85 million to date. First signed to I.R.S. records in the eighties, the trademarks of Peter Buck's Rickenbacker guitar playing with Michael Stipe's distinctive singing voice made the band instantly identifiable. Following the success of their first million selling album Murmur, Warner Bros offered them a better recording contract so they switched labels and never looked back. They moved through the eighties from medium sized venues to the stadium circuit in the nineties and in 1996 they resigned with Warner Bros for the largest recording advance in history: $80 million was guaranteed for a five album contract. Never the most conventional of rock bands, R.E.M. moved away from mainstream rock into what became known as an alternative rock genre (I sometimes wonder who coins these phrases?). Even now, I find it difficult to define, so I will let the readers decide for themselves. Whatever it does mean, the band went on to have unparalleled success. Unlike most other rock bands who fell apart citing musical differences R.E.M. remained steadfast, they pooled their opinions and listened to each other. Though Michael Stipe was the main lyricist the others contributed songs.

R.E.M disbanded amicably in 2011.