New Adventures in Hi-Fi is the tenth studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was their fifth major-label release for Warner Bros. Records, released on September 9, 1996, in Europe and Australia, and the following day in the United States. New Adventures in Hi-Fi was the band's final album recorded with founding drummer Bill Berry (who left the band amicably the following year), original manager Jefferson Holt, and longtime producer Scott Litt.
The members of R.E.M. consider the recorded album representative of the band at their peak, and fans generally regard it as the band's last great record before a perceived artistic decline following Berry's departure. It has sold around seven million units, and has grown in cult status in the years after its release, with several retrospectives ranking it among the band's best work.
Contents
Composition and recording
New Adventures in Hi-Fi was recorded during and after the band's 1995 tour in support of Monster. The material on the album mixed the acoustic country rock feel of Out of Time and Automatic for the People with the rock sound of Monster and Lifes Rich Pageant. The band cited Neil Young's 1973 album Time Fades Away as a source of inspiration. The album has been labeled as "folk rock-jangle" by critic Robert Christgau.
In an interview with Mojo, bassist Mike Mills said:
We got into the studio feeling very happy and relieved that everyone was okay, especially Bill. It brought us all much closer and made us realize how important we are to each other. Once we'd been through a crisis like that [Berry's collapse from a brain aneurysm on tour], making a record was a piece of cake. We discussed making an album of on-the-road stuff a year and a half before we went on the Monster tour. We wanted to get some of the looseness and spontaneity of a soundcheck, live show or dressing room. We used all the good songs. 'Revolution' – a song we did live – didn't make it onto this record, just like it didn't make it onto Monster [the song instead appeared on 1997's Batman & Robin soundtrack]... It usually takes a good few years for me to decide where an album stands in the pantheon of recorded work we've done. This one may be third behind Murmur and Automatic for the People.
The band noted that they borrowed the recording process for the album from Radiohead, who had recorded some of the basic tracks for The Bends while on tour and who supported the band in 1994 and 1995. R.E.M. took eight-track recorders to capture their live performances, and used the recordings as the base elements for the album. As such, the band's touring musicians Nathan December and Scott McCaughey are featured throughout, with Andy Carlson contributing violin to "Electrolite".
After the tour was over, the band went into Seattle's Bad Animals Studio and recorded four additional tracks: "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us", "E-Bow the Letter", "Be Mine", and "New Test Leper". Patti Smith contributed vocals on "E-Bow the Letter". Mixing was finished at John Keane Studio in Athens and Louie's Clubhouse in Los Angeles, with mastering undertaken by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering in Portland, Maine.
Artwork
The photograph used on the album cover was shot by Stipe along U.S. Route 95 in Nevada during a road trip to Georgia from Los Angeles. Other parts of the packaging were done by Chris Bilheimer.
Critical reception
Contemporary critical reaction to the album was mostly positive. Several publications lauded the album for its diversity, including Rolling Stone, which said that "The sequence of songs and the range of emotions on New Adventures convey a narrative that has all the dynamics and contradictions of life itself." Q and Mojo also gave positive reviews. At the same time, Melody Maker criticized the album's sound, which it attributed to the use of recordings from soundchecks and live performances.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that "New Adventures in Hi-Fi feels like it was recorded on the road. Not only are all of Michael Stipe's lyrics on the album about moving or travel, the sound is ragged and varied, pieced together from tapes recorded at shows, soundtracks, and studios, giving it a loose, careening charm." He considered it "one of [the band's] best records of the '90s." In a 2017 retrospective, Consequence of Sound ranked it third out of R.E.M.'s fifteen studio albums.
New Adventures in Hi-Fi is frontman Michael Stipe's favorite R.E.M. album, and he considers it the band at their peak. Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who has cited R.E.M. as a major influence, called it his favorite R.E.M. album and "Electrolite" the band's greatest song. Jeremy Bifras of BrooklynVegan called the album "an experimental masterpiece".
Awards
New Adventures in Hi-Fi has since appeared on several lists compiling the best albums of the 1990s or all time: Magnet listed the album at No. 20 on its list of the "Top 60 Albums 1993–2003", and Mojo also listed the album at No. 20 on a list of "The 100 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime 1993–2006".
It was voted No. 186 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd Edition, 2000). It was also featured on several year-end best-of lists for 1996:
Entertainment Weekly (No. 2)
Eye Weekly (No. 11)
The Face (No. 28)
Magnet (No. 26)
Mojo (No. 4)
NME (No. 16)
Q (unranked)
Rock Sound (French edition) (No. 2)
Rolling Stone (No. 4)
Spin (No. 11)
Village Voice (No. 11)
Track listing
All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.
The Hi Side
"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" – 4:31
"The Wake-Up Bomb" – 5:08
"New Test Leper" – 5:26
"Undertow" – 5:09
"E-Bow the Letter" – 5:23
"Leave" – 7:18
The Fi Side
"Departure" – 3:28
"Bittersweet Me" – 4:06
"Be Mine" – 5:32
"Binky the Doormat" – 5:01
"Zither" – 2:33
"So Fast, So Numb" – 4:12
"Low Desert" – 3:30
"Electrolite" – 4:05
Unlike most R.E.M. albums, this vinyl release did not have custom side names; instead, it was released as a double album. Record one has tracks 1–6 (three songs per side) and record two has tracks 7–14 (four songs per side). The tape release maintained the custom side names: the first side was called the "Hi-side" and the second side was called the "Fi-side".
Personnel
"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us"
Recorded at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, Washington
Bill Berry – drums, percussion, "ennio whistle"
Peter Buck – guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, bass guitar
Mike Mills – piano, backing vocals, synthesizer
Michael Stipe – lead vocals, synthesizer
"The Wake-Up Bomb"
Recorded live at the North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, South Carolina, on November 16, 1995
Bill Berry – drums, percussion
Peter Buck – guitar
Nathan December – guitar
Mike Mills – bass guitar, backing vocals, organ
Michael Stipe – lead vocals
"New Test Leper"
Recorded at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, Washington
Bill Berry – drums, percussion
Peter Buck – guitar
Mike Mills – bass guitar, organ
Michael Stipe – vocals
"Undertow"
Recorded live at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 3, 1995
Chart performance
While New Adventures in Hi-Fi began the band's sales decline in the United States, it topped the charts in over a dozen countries and reached No. 1 on the Top European Albums for five consecutive weeks. The album peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and spent 22 weeks on chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, it has sold 994,000 units in the U.S. as of March 2007. The first single, "E-Bow the Letter", received only modest radio airplay in the U.S. and peaked at No. 49 on its chart. In the UK, however, the single became the band's biggest hit at that point, reaching No. 4.
Release history
Like all R.E.M. albums since 1988's Green, New Adventures in Hi-Fi was released in a limited-edition packaging. This one contained a 64-page hardcover book designed by Chris Bilheimer and featuring photos from the Monster tour. In 2005, Warner Brothers Records issued an expanded two-disc edition of the album which included a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a new audio mix of the album (in 5.1-channel surround sound, high resolution, AC3, Dolby Stereo, and DTS 5.1) done by Elliot Scheiner and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes. In addition, the DVD includes a video documentary, lyrics, and a photo gallery.
As with the prior albums, a 25th-anniversary edition was announced in August 2021 for an October release date. The edition includes a remastered album, B-sides from the album and a Blu-ray with previously unreleased promotional materials. Due to issues related to the 2021 global supply chain crisis, all CD variations of the remastered reissue were delayed to mid-November 2021.