R.E.M. Appends Live LP To ‘Reveal’ 25th Bday Edition

R.E.M. is revisiting one of the more distinctive chapters of its catalog. The band has announced a 25th anniversary edition of Reveal, expanding the 2001 album with The Black Sessions Revealed, a previously unreleased 17-song performance recorded for Radio France in Paris on May 7, 2001.

Reveal (25th Anniversary Edition) arrives Nov. 20 via Craft Recordings as a deluxe two-CD/Blu-ray set and expanded digital edition. The original 12-track album will be paired with the complete Black Sessions performance, which finds Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills moving through Reveal material alongside R.E.M. staples including “The One I Love,” “Losing My Religion” and “Man on the Moon.”A performance of Reveal single “Imitation of Life” is available to stream now.

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The anniversary edition also digs deeper into the visual history of Reveal. Beyond high-resolution audio and 5.1 surround sound mixes, the Blu-ray includes Garth Jennings’ original music videos for “Imitation of Life,” “All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)” and “I’ll Take the Rain,” plus the album’s original EPK. The package features reimagined cover art by longtime R.E.M. designer Chris Billheimer and comes housed in a 32-page hardcover book containing archival photographs and new liner notes from journalist Birgit Fuss, with fresh reflections from Stipe, Buck and Mills.

The Black Sessions Revealed will also receive its first standalone vinyl release as a two-LP set. R.E.M.’s online store will additionally offer exclusive neon orange vinyl of Reveal and neon pink vinyl of The Black Sessions Revealed.

Released in May 2001, R.E.M.’s Pat McCarthy-produced 12th studio album followed the more experimental terrain of 1998’s Up and the departure of founding drummer Bill Berry. “We were not thinking about a buoyant summertime record, but that is certainly what it turned into,” Mills says in the new liner notes. That atmosphere became part of Reveal’s identity from the start. Michael Stipe has recalled leaving a cold stretch in Dublin to “chase the sun,” writing “Disappear” and “I’ve Been High” and finishing “Imitation of Life” on a beach.

Perhaps the most intriguing addition to the anniversary set is The Black Sessions Revealed. Unlike many R.E.M. albums, Reveal was not followed by a conventional tour. Instead, the band, augmented by guitarist Scott McCaughey, keyboardist Ken Stringfellow and drummer Joey Waronker, played a limited number of promotional performances around the album’s release, making the Paris session an unusually rare document of the record’s early live life. “It’s a cool performance of a lot of songs that we didn’t really play live that much,” Buck says. “Something a little different.”

Despite mixed reviews, Reveal reached No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 6 on the Billboard 200, while topping album charts elsewhere in Europe.

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