College-rock kingpins R.E.M. continue their reissue series this July with a 25th anniversary edition of Lifes Rich Pageant that will feature a newly remastered version of the 1986 album and a bonus CD that includes 19 unreleased demos — one of which is a song that’s never before been released.
The expanded reissue is due out July 12 as a 2CD set on Capitol/I.R.S. and on 180-gram audiophile vinyl via Mobile Fidelity, the band announced today. Boasting new liner notes by music journalist and author Parke Puterbaugh, The CD package will be “presented in a lift-top box with a poster and four postcards.”
The bonus disc, dubbed “The Athens Demos,” features 19 tracks recorded in March 1986 at John Keane’s studio in Athens, Ga. Among the tracks are early recordings of all 12 Lifes Rich Pageant tracks, plus several songs later recorded for subsequent releases: “Bad Day,” “Rotary Ten,” “Two Steps Onward,” “Mystery To Me,” “All The Right Friends” and “March Song (King Of Birds),” an early instrumental of “King Of Birds” from Document.
The real treasure, for longtime fans, is the inclusion of the demo for “Wait,” a track never before officially released by R.E.M., although it’s been heavily bootlegged.
See the tracklist for R.E.M.’s ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ reissue after the jump…
Tracklist: R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant (25th Anniversary Edition)
Disc 1: Original Album
1. “Begin The Begin”
2. “These Days”
3. “Fall on Me”
4. “Cuyahoga”
5. “Hyena”
6. “Underneath The Bunker”
7. “The Flowers of Guatemala”
8. “I Believe”
9. “What If We Give It Away?”
10. “Just a Touch”
11. “Swan Swan H”
12. “Superman”
Disc 2: The Athens Demos (All Previously Unreleased)
(Recorded March 1986 at John Keane’s Studio, Athens GA)
1. “Fall On Me”
2. “Hyena”
3. “March Song (King Of Birds)”
4. “These Days”
5. “Bad Day”
6. “Salsa (Underneath The Bunker)”
7. “Swan Swan H”
8. “Flowers Of Guatemala”
9. “Begin The Begin”
10. “Cuyahoga”
11. “I Believe”
12. “Out Of Tune”
13. “Rotary Ten”
14. “Two Steps Onward”
15. “Just A Touch”
16. “Mystery To Me”
17. “Wait”
18. “All The Right Friends”
19. “Get On Their Way (What If We Give It Away)”
