Eponymous (album)

Eponymous
Greatest hits album by R.E.M.
Released	October 17, 1988 (1988-10-17)
Recorded	1981–1987
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	43:06
Language	English, French ("Talk About the Passion")
Label	I.R.S.
Producer	Joe Boyd, Mitch Easter, Don Dixon, Don Gehman, and Scott Litt
R.E.M. chronology
Succumbs (1987) Eponymous (1988) Green (1988)
R.E.M. compilations chronology
Dead Letter Office (1987) Eponymous (1988) The Best of R.E.M. (1991)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	A−

Eponymous is the first greatest hits and the second compilation album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in 1988. It was their last authorized release on I.R.S. Records, to whom they had been contracted since 1982, having just signed with Warner Bros. Records. The title is a pun on the convention in the recording industry to refer to a band's self-titled album as their "Eponymous Album".

Eponymous is notable for its inclusion of several rare or alternate versions of known tracks. Spanning from the Chronic Town EP to the previous year's breakthrough hit album Document, Eponymous provides a fair overview of R.E.M.'s early work.

The album features the alternate title "File Under Grain", a reference to the cover photograph. A previous album, Document, had "File Under Fire" inscribed on it and Reckoning, featured the words "File Under Water". Inside the album was a photograph of singer Michael Stipe with the words "They Airbrushed My Face" across his eyes.

Released in October 1988, just a month before R.E.M.'s Warner Bros. debut Green appeared, Eponymous reached #44 in the US and #69 in the UK.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe:

Side one – "Early"

1. "Radio Free Europe" (Original Hib-Tone Single) – 3:47
2. "Gardening at Night" (Different Vocal Mix)¹ – 3:30
3. "Talk About the Passion" (from Murmur, 1983) – 3:20
4. "So. Central Rain" (from Reckoning, 1984) – 3:15
5. "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" (from Reckoning, 1984) – 4:32
6. "Cant Get There from Here" (from Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985) – 3:39

Side two – "Late"

7. "Driver 8" (from Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985) – 3:23
8. "Romance"² – 3:25
9. "Fall on Me" (from Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986) – 2:50
10. "The One I Love" (from Document, 1987) – 3:16
11. "Finest Worksong" (Mutual Drum Horn Mix)³ – 3:50
12. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (from Document, 1987) – 4:05

Track listing note: On the vinyl and cassette releases, R.E.M. labeled side one (tracks 1–6) as the "Early side" and side two (tracks 7–12) as the "Late side."

Notes

¹ Different mix from version on Chronic Town.
² Taken from soundtrack to the 1987 film Made in Heaven.
³ Remix of version found on Document.

Chart performance

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1988	U.S. Billboard 200	44[citation needed]
1988	UK Albums Chart	69[citation needed]

External links

• Eponymous at MusicBrainz