Eponymous (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Eponymous
Type = Compilation album
Artist = R.E.M.

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Released = 17 October 1988 (UK)
18 October 1988 (US)
Recorded = 1981–1987
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 43:06
Label = IRS
Producer = Mitch Easter, Don Dixon, Joe Boyd, Don Gehman and Scott Litt
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:9e8m96oo3ep6 link]
* Robert Christgau (A-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1140&name=R.E.M. link]
Last album = "Document"
(1987)
This album = "Eponymous"
(1988)
Next album = "Green"
(1988)

"Eponymous" is the first compilation album album by the band R.E.M., released in 1988. It was their last authorized release on I.R.S. Records, to whom they had been contracted since 1982, having just signed with Warner Bros. Records.

"Eponymous" is notable for its inclusion of several rare or alternate versions of known tracks. Spanning from the "Chronic Town" EP to the previous year's breakthrough hit album "Document", "Eponymous" provides a fair overview of R.E.M.'s pioneering early work.

The album features the words "File Under Grain", a reference to the cover photograph. A previous album, "Document", featured the words "File Under Fire". Inside the album a photograph of singer Michael Stipe with the words "They Airbrushed My Face" across his eyes.

Released in October 1988, just a month before R.E.M.'s Warner Bros. debut "Green" appeared, "Eponymous" reached #44 in the US and #69 in the UK.

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

ide one

# "Radio Free Europe" (Original Hib-Tone Single) – 3:47
# "Gardening at Night" (Different Vocal Mix) ¹ – 3:30
# "Talk About the Passion" (from "Murmur", 1983) – 3:20
# "So. Central Rain" (from "Reckoning", 1984) – 3:15
# "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" (from "Reckoning", 1984) – 4:32
# "Cant Get There from Here" (from "Fables of the Reconstruction", 1985) – 3:39

ide two

#

"Driver 8" (from "Fables of the Reconstruction", 1985) – 3:23
# "Romance"² – 3:25
# "Fall on Me" (from "Lifes Rich Pageant", 1986) – 2:50
# "The One I Love" (from "Document", 1987) – 3:16
# "Finest Worksong" (Mutual Drum Horn Mix) ³ – 3:50
# "Its the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" (from "Document", 1987) – 4:05

"Track listing note:" On the vinyl release, R.E.M. labeled side one (tracks 1-6) as the "Early side" and side two (tracks 7-12) as the "Late side."

Notes

¹ Alternate mix from version on "Chronic Town".
² Taken from soundtrack to the 1987 film "Made in Heaven".
³ Remix of version found on "Document".

Charts

Album

External links

*MusicBrainz album|id=7225a26b-5c4f-49f7-8fb9-3eb14efaebf3|name =Eponymous