I haven’t done an R.E.M.-themed post for a while. I did receive the Live at the Olympia CD for my birthday and am excited about the upcoming 2011 release, but otherwise haven’t had much to say about the band.

Then I posted a video of one of the band’s most underrated songs, “At My Most Beautiful,” on Facebook the other day. One of my nephews, whom I took with me when I saw the band play on the “Up” tour, agreed that the song didn’t get its due. That got me to thinking about something I have considered for a while.

When Bill Berry left the band in 1997, he threw their entire process upside down. They muddled through “Up,” pushed through “Reveal,” gained back some ground with the greatest hits tour, then fell back again with “Around the Sun.”

But as I listen to individual songs from those three albums, I realize that the bad rap shouldn’t cover the entire period. In fact, R.E.M. released some really, really good songs from 1998 to 2004. Just not enough for three albums. I’d suggest that if the best songs from that period all ended up on one album which they waited to do in order to better determine the band’s future and process all the personal and political changes around them, it would have been a kick-ass album.

I have narrowed this down to a 15-song collection I will call “Revealing Up and Around the Sun.” I am going to make this a playlist and see how it works out.  This “album” comes with a few caveats:

1. Obviously, my personal biases take precedence
2. I have made some additions based on the band’s preferences. For instance, if they released the song as a single, I leaned toward adding it to the track listing.
3. Concert performances will boost a song’s likelihood of making the grade. They might have come close in the studio, but if they hit it out of the park on stage, I want it on this album.

So without further ado, in no specific order, I present “Revealing Up and Around the Sun:”

• At My Most Beautiful
• Walk Unafraid
• Daysleeper
• Why Not Smile
• Lotus
• All the Way to Reno
• She Just Wants to Be
• Imitation of Life
• I’ll Take the Rain
• Leaving New York
• Wanderlust
• Aftermath
• Final Straw
• Electron Blue
• The Outsiders