R.E.M. opened its 2001 Paris radio concert with “Imitation of Life,” the lead single from an album that was still days away from release. The next two songs came from elsewhere in the band’s catalog. When Craft Recordings releases the 17-song concert on November 20, the set will put those new songs back in the company of hits R.E.M. had been playing for years.
The May 7, 2001, performance for Radio France is the main addition to the 25th-anniversary edition of Reveal. Craft is issuing the concert as The Black Sessions Revealed, both on its own and alongside the original album. The distinction matters for vinyl buyers. The double LP contains the concert, while a separate single LP contains the studio record.
A radio show in place of a tour
Bernard Lenoir’s Black Sessions were free public concerts in Studio 105 at the Maison de la Radio in Paris. France Inter carried them on Lenoir’s show. Radio France counts 330 sessions from 1992 to 2011, with guests including the Cranberries, Pulp and Radiohead. The room had a public audience, and the performances were made for listeners beyond it.
R.E.M. played only a handful of promotional dates around Reveal instead of mounting a conventional tour, Craft says. The Paris set catches the band after founding drummer Bill Berry’s departure and the shift in sound on 1998’s Up. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills recorded Reveal with producer Pat McCarthy, layering guitar, keyboards and electronics. In a review published in May 2001, Pitchfork’s Matt LeMay thought the songwriting sounded familiar and argued that synthesizers crowded some of the arrangements. He singled out “Imitation of Life” for its hook. In Paris, the band followed it with “The Great Beyond,” a song from the Man on the Moon soundtrack that LeMay had compared with the new single.
The trio took three more musicians to the radio session. Scott McCaughey played guitar, Ken Stringfellow played keyboards and Joey Waronker played drums.
What R.E.M. put next to the new songs
Six of Reveal’s 12 tracks appear in the concert. “Imitation of Life” sits eighth on the studio album and opens the show. “The Lifting,” the album opener, moves to the eighth slot in Paris, between “Electrolite” and “At My Most Beautiful.” The sequence puts one new song alongside material from both New Adventures in Hi-Fi and Up.
By track 12, the band has played all six Reveal songs. “I’ll Take the Rain” and “She Just Wants to Be” arrive on either side of “The One I Love.” The last stretch reaches back to “Losing My Religion,” “Man on the Moon” and “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry),” then closes with “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” R.E.M. has already posted an official preview of “The Great Beyond”, the second song on the live release.
Which edition has the Paris set?
Craft lists the concert-only double LP at $40. It spreads the 17 songs across four sides. The label’s $50 two-CD and Blu-ray edition puts the original 12-song album on one CD and the full concert on the other. Its Blu-ray carries the studio album in high-resolution and 5.1 surround audio, three music videos and the electronic press kit from the original release. A hardbound book includes new liner notes by journalist Birgit Fuss, with recollections from the band.
The U.S. Apple Music listing shows all 29 audio tracks under the anniversary title, with the original album first and the Paris performance beginning at track 13. Craft expects the two physical sets that include the concert to start shipping the week of November 20.
