The double-vinyl Pop was the last U2 album I bought, and this double-vinyl album is the last R.E.M. album I ever bought. I always got R.E.M. albums on vinyl rather than CD, as they never felt like a CD band.
It was the single E-Bow the Letter that led me to buy this. I remember thinking that was great, and I still like it. The rest of the album is kind of patchy. In 1999 I recorded my favourite tracks onto mini-disc along with other R.E.M. favourites, and I really used to enjoy carrying that around in my head.
In fact, I just dug out that mini-disc, and here's the playlist, which includes half of the fourteen songs on New Adventures in Hi-Fi:
Voice of Harold
You are the Everything
Everybody Hurts
Drive
E-Bow the Letter
How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us
The Wrong Child
The Wake-up Bomb
New Test Leper
Be Mine
World Leader Pretend
Half a World Away
King of Birds
Bittersweet Me
Pop Song '89
Untitled
Electrolite
There was a moment in the early 1990s when I remember thinking that two of the biggest rock bands in the world — U2 and R.E.M. — were making some of the most interesting music. That doesn't happen often, and it couldn't last. By the time this album came out, the guard had changed. The only interesting rock was on the margins, like Pere Ubu, and Oasis defined the mainstream.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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