CD Review: r.e.m.IX

1) The Lifting - Now It's Overhead mix
2) The Lifting - Knobody/Dahoud Darien for 12 Nations
3) I'll Take the Rain
4) She Just Wants to Be
5) I've Been High - Matthew "Intended" Herbert
6) I've Been High - Knobody/Dahoud Darien for 12 Nations
7) I've Been High - Chef
8) I've Been High - Her Space Holiday/Marc Bianchi
9) Beachball
10) Summer Turns To High
I know that R.E.M. didn't want their whole catalog remixed. Just the songs from their then-latest album, Reveal. And it's not that I don't like what I hear.
But, seriously, how many different versions of "I've Been High" do we need? That said, one of those versions is definitely worth the free download. I just love the novelty of hearing Michael Stipe sing over a beat by Knobody and Dahoud Darien that sounds like something Busta would rap over.
Their take on "The Lifting" sounds more like Natasha Bedingfield than R.E.M. The result is much more fun than Andy LeMaster's spacey "Now It's Overhead" version. Doesn't R.E.M. seems like one of those bands that needs to have a little more fun?
Instead we get the gloomy refrain of "The rain came down" over the moody electronics of "I'll Take the Rain". The remixer of that one, Jamie Candiloro, also made a version of "She Just Wants to Be" that sounds more like Linkin Park than R.E.M. Come on.
r.e.m.IX is a great pun of a title, but when you download it for free, you get about as much as you paid for. This is the work of the producers, not of the band. I hope I can verify that old saying, "The original is always best" after I listen to and review the original versions on Reveal.
***1/3 out of five