Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 (2011)
Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 is a 2011 greatest hits album from
alternative rock band
R.E.M. Intended as a coda on their career, this is the first compilation album that features both their early work on independent record label
I.R.S. Records in addition to their 10 studio releases through
Warner Bros. Records. The double-disc retrospective was released through Warner Bros. on November 11, 2011, and was compiled by the band members; the existence of the compilation was revealed simultaneously with the group's announcement that they were disbanding on September 21, 2011.[1]
Creation and compilation
In addition to previously recorded music that spans the band's entire career, three new songs are included. Their final studio album—Collapse into Now—fulfilled the band's contractual obligations to Warner Bros. and they began recording material without a contract a few months later with producer
Jacknife Lee in
Athens, Georgia[2] with the possible intention of self-releasing the work.[3] Rather than completing an album's worth of material, the band elected to take what they had completed from those sessions and release them on this compilation.[4] The new songs "Hallelujah" and "A Month of Saturdays" were
demoed in the Collapse into Now sessions and the lead single "
We All Go Back to Where We Belong" was recorded entirely after that album.[5]
The band compiled the contents themselves, attempting to capture different periods of their songwriting. Vocalist
Michael Stipe has explained that the inspiration for his approach to compiling the songs was the
David Bowie compilation Changesonebowie.[6] The title of the album comes from a quip that guitarist
Peter Buck made about the band during an interview in 1988, "R.E.M is part lies, part heart, part truth and part garbage."[7]
Promotion
"We All Go Back to Where We Belong" was made available over the Internet on October 17, 2011.[8] Early reviews of the song considered it a "low-key, string-drenched ballad" (
Stereogum)[9] and compared it to the
pop styling of
Burt Bacharach and R.E.M.'s 2001 album Reveal.[10]
In the weeks leading up to the release of the compilation,
Mike Mills and
Michael Stipe did a brief span of promotional appearances[11] in British media, ruling out the option of ever reuniting;[12] while Buck went on tour with
John Wesley Harding and
The Minus 5. The band previewed the new songs through
NPR's web site starting November 6, 2011.[13]
According to the review aggregator
Metacritic, Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 received "universal acclaim" based on a
weighted average score of 87 out of 100 from 19 critic scores.[14] Writing for
BBC Music, Paul Whitelaw has called the retrospective "definitive", rendering all the band's other compilations "all but obsolete."[25] He goes on to say that the arc of the band's career shows them becoming increasingly mild and irrelevant, but this album captures that chronology. Andy Gill of The Independent disagreed and gave the album a perfect five-star rating, saying that the arc of the band's songwriting had "inspired creativity" including the "
Bacharach-esque touches of the final unreleased tracks."[19]
Bill Berry –
drums;
percussion;
backing vocals;
bass guitar on "Country Feedback";
writing;
production on "Gardening at Night", "Finest Worksong", "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", "The One I Love", "Stand", "Pop Song 89", "Get Up", "Orange Crush", "Losing My Religion", "Country Feedback", "Shiny Happy People", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", "Nightswimming", "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", "New Test Leper", and "Electrolite";
liner notes
Peter Buck –
electric and
acousticguitars;
mandolin;
banjo on "Electrolite"; writing; production on "Gardening at Night", "Finest Worksong", "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", "The One I Love", "Stand", "Pop Song 89", "Get Up", "Orange Crush", "Losing My Religion", "Country Feedback", "Shiny Happy People", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", "Nightswimming", "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", "New Test Leper", "Electrolite", "At My Most Beautiful", "The Great Beyond", "Imitation of Life", "Bad Day", "Leaving New York", "Living Well Is the Best Revenge", "Supernatural Superserious", "Überlin", "Oh My Heart", "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter", "A Month of Saturdays", "We All Go Back to Where We Belong", and "Hallelujah"; liner notes
Mike Mills – bass guitar; backing vocals;
organ on "Country Feedback" and "New Test Leper"; piano on "Electrolite";
keyboards and
arrangement on "Losing My Religion"; writing; production on "Gardening at Night", "Finest Worksong", "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", "The One I Love", "Stand", "Pop Song 89", "Get Up", "Orange Crush", "Losing My Religion", "Country Feedback", "Shiny Happy People", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", "Nightswimming", "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", "New Test Leper", "Electrolite", "At My Most Beautiful", "The Great Beyond", "Imitation of Life", "Bad Day", "Leaving New York", "Living Well Is the Best Revenge", "Supernatural Superserious", "Überlin", "Oh My Heart", "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter", "A Month of Saturdays", "We All Go Back to Where We Belong", and "Hallelujah"; liner notes
Michael Stipe –
vocals; writing; production on "Gardening at Night", "Finest Worksong", "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", "The One I Love", "Stand", "Pop Song 89", "Get Up", "Orange Crush", "Losing My Religion", "Country Feedback", "Shiny Happy People", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", "Nightswimming", "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", "New Test Leper", "Electrolite", "At My Most Beautiful", "The Great Beyond", "Imitation of Life", "Bad Day", "Leaving New York", "Living Well Is the Best Revenge", "Supernatural Superserious", "Überlin", "Oh My Heart", "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter", "A Month of Saturdays", "We All Go Back to Where We Belong", and "Hallelujah"; liner notes
Joe Boyd – production on "Driver 8" and "Life and How to Live It"
Don Dixon – production on "Radio Free Europe", "Talk About the Passion", "Sitting Still", "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)", and "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville"
Don Gehman – production on "Begin the Begin" and "Fall On Me"
Mitch Easter – production on "Gardening at Night", "Radio Free Europe", "Talk About the Passion", "Sitting Still", "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)", and "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville"
Jacknife Lee – production on "Living Well Is the Best Revenge", "Supernatural Superserious", "Überlin", "Oh My Heart", "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter", "A Month of Saturdays", "We All Go Back to Where We Belong", and "Hallelujah"
Scott Litt – production on "Finest Worksong", "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", "The One I Love", "Stand", "Pop Song 89", "Get Up", "Orange Crush", "Losing My Religion", "Country Feedback", "Shiny Happy People", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", "Nightswimming", "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", "New Test Leper", and "Electrolite"
Pat McCarthy – production on "At My Most Beautiful", "The Great Beyond", "Imitation of Life", "Bad Day", and "Leaving New York"
Jay Weigel – orchestral liaison on "Shiny Happy People"